Expect direct Article matching as well as statements that exchange Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha rules. The most productive pairs are: direct versus indirect election, 25 versus 30 years, dissolution versus permanent House, Speaker versus Chairman, first vote versus casting vote, constitutional maximum versus present strength, and ordinary disqualification versus Tenth Schedule disqualification.
Solve every statement through three questions: Who chooses the person? Which majority or numerical rule applies? Is this a House rule, constitutional text or current seat figure? This avoids mixing stable provisions with figures that can change after delimitation or vacancy.
2. Article map
Articles
Subject
Memory cue
79–82
Parliament, composition of both Houses and census-based readjustment.
Who sits and how many
83–88
Duration, qualifications, sessions, presidential address/messages, rights of Ministers and Attorney-General.
Life and meetings
89–98
Chairman/Deputy Chairman, Speaker/Deputy Speaker, acting arrangements, salaries and separate secretariats.
Presiding officers
99–100
Member's oath, voting, vacancies and quorum.
How a sitting works
101–104
Vacation of seat, disqualification, decision authority and penalty for unauthorised sitting/voting.
How a seat is lost
105
Powers, privileges and immunities of Houses, members and committees.
Functional protection
3. Constitution of Parliament: Article 79
For the Union there is a Parliament consisting of the President and two Houses: the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and House of the People (Lok Sabha). The President does not sit and vote as a member of either House, but performs indispensable legislative functions—summoning, prorogation, Lok Sabha dissolution, address, assent and ordinance power. Therefore, “President is a part of Parliament” is correct; “President is a member of Parliament” is incorrect.
Bicameralism supplies two channels of representation. Lok Sabha represents people through territorial constituencies and adult suffrage. Rajya Sabha represents States and eligible Union territories, while its nominated members add specialised knowledge. The two Houses are not equal in every field: the ministry is responsible to Lok Sabha and financial procedure gives Lok Sabha a special position, while Rajya Sabha has special federal powers under Articles 249 and 312.
4. Rajya Sabha: composition and election
Feature
Rule
Prelims caution
Constitutional maximum
250: up to 238 representatives of States/Union territories plus 12 nominated by President.
Do not write 245 as the constitutional maximum.
Present sanctioned strength
245: 233 elected and 12 nominated, according to official Rajya Sabha/ECI material checked in September 2026.
Vacancies can make actual sitting membership temporarily lower.
State representatives
Elected by elected members of the State Legislative Assembly through proportional representation by the single transferable vote.
Not directly elected by citizens; Legislative Council members do not vote.
Union territories
Chosen in the manner Parliament prescribes by law.
Not every Union territory necessarily has a seat.
Nominated expertise
Special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art and social service.
“Co-operative movement” belongs to the State Legislative Council nomination list, not Article 80(3).
Seat distribution
Fourth Schedule; States are not equally represented.
Rajya Sabha is federal but not based on equal State votes.
5. Lok Sabha: composition and representation
Point
Position
Direct-seat ceilings
Not more than 530 members chosen from State territorial constituencies and not more than 20 to represent Union territories: 550 direct seats under Article 81.
Current elected constituencies
India is presently divided into 543 parliamentary constituencies, according to Digital Sansad and Election Commission material.
Method
Direct election on adult suffrage; one member is returned from each parliamentary constituency under the current electoral arrangement.
Population principle
So far as practicable, State-seat/population ratios are equal among States and constituency-population/seat ratios are equal within a State, subject to constitutional exceptions and the readjustment freeze.
Anglo-Indian nomination
Article 334(b), as changed by the 104th Amendment, allowed the special nominated representation to cease after 70 years from commencement. It no longer adds nominated seats to the current Lok Sabha.
6. Delimitation and representation: Articles 81–82
After each census, seat allocation and territorial constituencies are readjusted by an authority and manner determined by Parliament. Constitutional amendments froze inter-State seat allocation using the 1971 Census until relevant figures of the first census taken after 2026 are published, while constituency readjustment was carried out on the 2001 Census basis. This separates two ideas: how many Lok Sabha seats a State has and how constituency boundaries within the State are drawn.
The 106th Amendment inserted women's reservation provisions, but Article 334A states that Lok Sabha reservation takes effect only after a delimitation exercise conducted for this purpose after publication of relevant figures from the first census following commencement of that Amendment. It should not be described as already changing the composition of the current Lok Sabha without that constitutional trigger.
7. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha compared
Feature
Lok Sabha
Rajya Sabha
Representation
People in territorial constituencies.
States/eligible Union territories plus 12 nominated experts.
Election
Direct.
State representatives: elected MLAs, proportional representation–single transferable vote.
Minimum age
25 years.
30 years.
Duration
Five years unless sooner dissolved; emergency extension has strict limits.
Permanent House; about one-third retire every second year.
Presiding officer
Speaker chosen from Lok Sabha members.
Vice-President is ex officio Chairman; Deputy Chairman is chosen from Rajya Sabha members.
Ministerial responsibility
Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to this House.
May question/debate government but cannot remove the ministry through Lok Sabha confidence mechanism.
Money Bill
Introduced only here; Speaker certifies.
Can recommend within 14 days, not amend or reject finally.
Dissolution effect
Can dissolve; pending business may lapse under applicable rules.
Never dissolves.
8. Duration, session, adjournment, prorogation and dissolution
9. Presidential address and participation rights
Under Article 86, the President may address either House or both assembled together and may send messages. Article 87 requires a special address at the beginning of the first session after each general election to Lok Sabha and at the beginning of the first session of each year. It is not constitutionally required at the start of every session.
Article 88 permits every Minister and the Attorney-General to speak and participate in either House, a joint sitting and a committee of which that person is named a member, but gives no vote merely by that Article. A Minister who belongs to one House cannot vote in the other simply because the Minister may speak there.
10. Presiding officers and their removal
Office
Selection/position
Resignation and removal
Continuity
Rajya Sabha Chairman
Vice-President is ex officio Chairman; not chosen from Rajya Sabha membership.
Vice-Presidential removal under Article 67: Rajya Sabha initiates; Lok Sabha agrees; 14-day notice.
Deputy Chairman acts when office is vacant or Vice-President acts as President.
Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman
Chosen by Rajya Sabha from among its members.
Resigns to Chairman; removed by majority of all then members of Rajya Sabha after at least 14 days' notice.
Vacates office on ceasing to be a Rajya Sabha member.
Lok Sabha Speaker
Chosen by Lok Sabha from among its members.
Resigns to Deputy Speaker; removed by majority of all then members of Lok Sabha after at least 14 days' notice.
After dissolution, continues until immediately before the new Lok Sabha's first meeting.
Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker
Chosen by Lok Sabha from among its members.
Resigns to Speaker; same removal majority and notice.
Does not receive the Speaker's special post-dissolution continuation.
11. Acting arrangements and the removal-motion voting trap
Situation
Rule
Speaker absent from sitting
Deputy Speaker, then a person determined by House rules, or if none is present, a person determined by the House.
Both Speaker and Deputy Speaker offices vacant
A Lok Sabha member appointed by the President performs Speaker's duties; this temporary officer is commonly called Speaker pro tem.
Speaker's removal under consideration
Speaker does not preside, may speak/participate, and may vote in the first instance but has no casting vote on equality.
Vice-President's removal under consideration in Rajya Sabha
Chairman does not preside and may speak/participate, but cannot vote at all during those proceedings.
Ordinary sitting
Presiding officer does not vote in the first instance but has a casting vote when votes are equal.
12. Membership: qualification, oath, voting and quorum
Point
Rule
Citizenship/oath for candidature
Indian citizen and prescribed oath/affirmation before a person authorised by Election Commission, plus legal qualifications.
Minimum age
25 for Lok Sabha; 30 for Rajya Sabha.
Oath before taking seat
Before President or a person appointed by President, in Third Schedule form.
Ordinary voting rule
Majority of members present and voting, unless Constitution provides otherwise.
Quorum
One-tenth of total House membership until Parliament otherwise provides by law.
No quorum
Presiding officer must adjourn the House or suspend the meeting until quorum exists.
Vacancy in House
A House can act despite vacancies; a vacancy by itself does not invalidate proceedings.
13. Vacation and disqualification of a seat
Ground/process
Constitutional rule
Both parliamentary Houses
A person cannot remain member of both; Parliament provides for vacating one seat.
Parliament and State Legislature
Cannot remain in both; if State seat is not resigned within prescribed period, parliamentary seat becomes vacant.
Resignation
Written to Chairman or Speaker; not accepted if the presiding officer, after inquiry, finds it not voluntary or genuine.
Unauthorised absence
After absence from all meetings for 60 days without House permission, House may declare seat vacant; prorogation and adjournment over four consecutive days are excluded from calculation.
Article 102(1)
Disqualifying office of profit; unsound mind declared by competent court; undischarged insolvent; citizenship/foreign allegiance ground; or disqualification under parliamentary law.
Article 102(2)
Disqualification under the Tenth Schedule.
Article 103 decision
For Article 102(1) questions concerning a sitting member, President obtains Election Commission's opinion and acts according to it.
Wrongful sitting/voting
Article 104 imposes ₹500 for each day when a person knowingly sits/votes before oath, while unqualified/disqualified, or contrary to legal prohibition.
14. Parliamentary privileges: Article 105
Privilege exists to protect the independent and effective functioning of each House, its committees and members—not to create a personal status above ordinary law. Article 105(1) grants freedom of speech in Parliament subject to the Constitution and House rules. Article 105(2) protects a member from court proceedings for anything said or any vote given in Parliament or a committee, and protects authorised House publications.
Other privileges may be defined by Parliament by law; until then, Article 105(3) preserves the reference point immediately before the relevant provision of the 44th Amendment came into force. The Lok Sabha's official FAQ records that these privileges have not been exhaustively codified.
Privilege has constitutional limits. In Sita Soren v. Union of India (2024), a seven-judge Supreme Court bench held that Articles 105(2) and 194(2) do not immunise a legislator from prosecution for bribery connected with a speech or vote. A privilege claim must remain tied to the collective functioning of the House and necessity for legislative duties.
15. Bihar relevance
17. Prelims traps
18. Official PYQ note
No question is reproduced as an official BPSC PYQ because its complete wording and options were not verified from an official booklet for this topic during preparation. The questions below are original BPSC-style practice questions.