Prepare five linked clusters: composition and tenure; presiding officers and membership; sessions and voting; ordinary and Money Bills; budget and executive control. Questions often interchange Parliament and State Legislature, invent a joint sitting for State Houses, give Legislative Council a power to remove government, or confuse fourteen-day and one-month limits.
For every problem, ask: Which House can introduce the matter? Can Council veto or only delay? Is Governor's recommendation required? What majority applies? Does dissolution of Assembly cause the pending Bill to lapse?
2. What constitutes a State Legislature?
Article 168 makes Governor a constituent part of every State Legislature. A unicameral State has Governor and Legislative Assembly. A bicameral State has Governor, Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. Bihar is bicameral. Governor is not a member of either House, but performs constitutional legislative functions such as summoning, addressing, assenting to Bills and promulgating Ordinances under the relevant Articles.
The Assembly is directly elected from territorial constituencies and embodies popular responsibility. The Council is a continuing indirectly elected and partly nominated revising chamber. It can deliberate and delay ordinary legislation but cannot permanently override Assembly or control the ministry's survival.
3. Core article map
Articles
Subject
High-yield cue
168–171
Houses, creation/abolition of Council, composition.
Governor is part; Council is not compulsory in every State.
Presiding officers, salaries and legislative secretariat.
Speaker/Deputy Speaker; Chairman/Deputy Chairman.
188–193
Oath, voting, vacancies, disqualification and penalty.
Quorum: ten or one-tenth, whichever is greater.
194–195
Powers, privileges, salaries and allowances.
Legislative privilege is not a general licence to break criminal law.
196–201
Bills, Money Bills and Governor/President stage.
No State-level joint sitting.
202–207
Annual financial statement, grants, appropriation and financial Bills.
Demands for grants belong to Assembly.
208–212
Rules, financial procedure, language, judges and judicial non-interference in procedure.
Article 212 protects procedural regularity, not substantive unconstitutionality.
4. Creation or abolition of Legislative Council
Stage
Requirement
Exam trap
Assembly resolution
Majority of total membership of Assembly plus at least two-thirds of members present and voting.
It is not a simple majority alone.
Parliamentary law
Parliament may then create or abolish Council by law.
Assembly resolution does not itself create or abolish it.
Constitutional effect
Law may amend constitutional provisions as necessary and include incidental provisions.
Article 169(3) says such law is not deemed an Article 368 constitutional amendment.
Role of Council
Article 169 does not require the existing Council's consent to its abolition.
The special resolution is passed by Assembly.
5. Legislative Assembly: composition and election
Point
Constitutional position
Application
Method
Members are directly elected from territorial constituencies.
Every constituency elects its representative under election law.
General size rule
Not more than 500 and not less than 60, subject to constitutional exceptions and Article 333.
Do not apply this general range blindly to exceptional small States.
Representation
Ratio between population of each constituency and seats should, as far as practicable, be the same throughout State.
This is the equality principle behind delimitation.
Reservations
Article 332 provides Assembly-seat reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
It concerns Assembly, not the Article 171 Council categories.
Bihar
Election Commission records 243 Assembly constituencies.
The ministry-size ceiling and majority calculations use Assembly strength.
6. Legislative Council: size and composition
Category
Constitutional share
Elector/appointing route
Local authorities
As nearly as may be one-third.
Electorates of specified local authorities.
Graduates
As nearly as may be one-twelfth.
Persons who have been graduates for at least three years or possess prescribed equivalent qualifications.
Teachers
As nearly as may be one-twelfth.
Persons teaching for at least three years in specified institutions not lower than secondary-school standard.
Assembly members
As nearly as may be one-third.
MLAs elect persons who are not members of Assembly.
Governor nominees
Remainder.
Persons with special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art, cooperative movement or social service.
7. Bihar Legislative Council: 75-seat composition
Route
Seats in Bihar
Nature
Local authorities
24
Indirect election from local-authority constituencies.
Graduates
6
Election from graduate constituencies.
Teachers
6
Election from teacher constituencies.
By MLAs
27
Assembly members elect Council members.
Governor nominees
12
Nominated from Article 171(5) fields.
Total
75
Within one-third ceiling relative to Bihar's 243-member Assembly.
8. Assembly and Council compared
Point
Legislative Assembly
Legislative Council
Election
Direct from territorial constituencies.
Indirect and partly nominated, with multiple constituencies.
Duration
Normally five years unless sooner dissolved.
Continuing House; not subject to dissolution.
Retirement
All elected together for a general term.
As nearly as possible one-third retire every second year.
Minimum age
25 years.
30 years.
Government confidence
Council of Ministers collectively responsible to it.
Cannot remove ministry by no-confidence vote.
Money Bill
Only Assembly may introduce and finally decide.
Can recommend within 14 days; cannot amend or veto.
Ordinary Bill
Ultimately prevails through Article 197 repassage.
Can delay and suggest amendments, not permanently veto.
Presiding officers
Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
Chairman and Deputy Chairman.
9. Duration and Emergency extension
Under Article 172, Assembly continues for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting unless sooner dissolved. During a Proclamation of Emergency, Parliament may by law extend this period for not more than one year at a time, but not beyond six months after the Proclamation has ceased to operate.
Legislative Council is not dissolved. Parliament provides by law for retirement of as nearly as possible one-third of its members every second year. This creates continuity and institutional memory, but not superior democratic authority over Assembly.
10. Membership qualifications, oath and vacancies
Rule
Position
Trap
Citizenship and oath
Must be citizen of India and make prescribed oath/affirmation before authorised person.
Article 188 oath is required before taking seat.
Age
At least 25 for Assembly; 30 for Council.
Do not reverse the ages.
Additional qualifications
May be prescribed by Parliament by law.
State Legislature cannot rewrite constitutional age.
Dual State-house membership
No person can be member of both Houses of same State Legislature; law provides vacation of one seat.
Bicameral membership is not simultaneous indefinitely.
Absence
House may declare seat vacant for absence without permission for sixty days, excluding specified adjournment/prorogation periods.
Vacancy is not automatic at every sixty-day calendar mark.
Unauthorised sitting/voting
Article 193 prescribes penalty of ₹500 for each day in specified cases.
It is a constitutional monetary penalty, not the member's salary.
11. Disqualifications and decision-making authority
Ground
Meaning
Office of profit
Holding an office of profit under Union or State, unless State law declares it non-disqualifying.
Mental capacity
Being of unsound mind and so declared by competent court.
Insolvency
Being an undischarged insolvent.
Citizenship/allegiance
Not a citizen, voluntarily acquiring foreign citizenship, or acknowledging foreign allegiance.
Parliamentary law
Disqualification by or under a law made by Parliament.
Defection
Disqualification under Tenth Schedule, recognised by Article 191(2).
12. Sessions, prorogation, dissolution and quorum
Term
Meaning
Key rule
Summoning
Calling House/Houses to meet.
Not more than six months between last sitting of one session and first sitting of next.
Adjournment
Suspends a sitting for a time fixed by presiding officer/House.
Does not end the session.
Prorogation
Ends a session through Governor's constitutional action.
Does not dissolve Assembly.
Dissolution
Ends the life of Assembly.
Legislative Council cannot be dissolved.
Special address
Governor addresses at first session after each general Assembly election and first session of each year.
Not required at the opening of every session.
Quorum
Ten members or one-tenth of total membership, whichever is greater.
Applies to a House until State law otherwise provides.
13. Presiding officers
House
Officers
Removal and continuity
Assembly
Speaker and Deputy Speaker chosen by Assembly.
Removal by majority of all then members of Assembly, with at least fourteen days' notice.
Council
Chairman and Deputy Chairman chosen by Council.
Removal by majority of all then members of Council, with at least fourteen days' notice.
Resignation
Speaker resigns to Deputy Speaker and vice versa; Chairman to Deputy Chairman and vice versa.
Resignation is not addressed to Governor.
After dissolution
Speaker does not vacate office until immediately before first meeting of new Assembly.
This special continuity does not create an Assembly after dissolution.
Removal motion
Officer whose removal is under consideration does not preside.
Speaker may speak and vote in first instance but has no casting vote on that motion.
15. Money Bill: Assembly's decisive power
Stage
Rule
Introduction
Money Bill cannot be introduced in Legislative Council; it begins only in Assembly.
Speaker certificate
If question arises whether a Bill is a Money Bill, Assembly Speaker's decision is final under Article 199.
Council role
After Assembly passes, Council may return within fourteen days with recommendations.
Assembly response
Assembly may accept or reject all or any recommendations.
No return in time
If Council does not return within fourteen days, Bill is deemed passed by both Houses in Assembly form.
Final form
Accepted recommendations become part; rejected recommendations do not.
16. Budget and financial control
Device
Purpose
Assembly–Council position
Annual Financial Statement
Estimated receipts and expenditure for financial year, with charged expenditure shown separately.
Laid before House/Houses.
Charged expenditure
Not submitted to vote, though it may be discussed.
Council may discuss; Assembly also does not vote it.
Demands for grants
Votable expenditure sought department-wise.
Submitted only to Assembly; may be assented to, refused or reduced.
Appropriation Bill
Authorises withdrawal from Consolidated Fund for voted grants and charged expenditure.
Financial initiative and final control rest with Assembly.
Supplementary/additional/excess grants
Meet excess or new expenditure beyond original authorisation.
Follow Articles 205 and 203–204 principles.
Vote on account
Advance grant for part of a financial year pending full procedure.
Assembly grants it under Article 206.
Vote of credit
Grant for unexpected demand where details cannot be stated ordinarily.
Distinct from routine vote on account.
Exceptional grant
Grant forming no part of current service of a financial year.
Separate constitutional category.
17. When does a Bill lapse?
Position at Assembly dissolution
Result
Bill pending in Assembly
Lapses.
Bill passed by Assembly and pending in Council
Lapses.
Bill pending in Council but not passed by Assembly
Does not lapse.
Prorogation of House/Houses
Does not cause a pending Bill to lapse.
18. Devices of legislative control over executive
Device
Main function
Confidence effect
Questions
Seek information and expose administrative performance.
Ordinarily not by itself a confidence vote.
Calling attention/discussion
Bring urgent public matters before government.
Political scrutiny, subject to House rules.
Committees
Detailed examination of accounts, assurances, Bills and administration.
Reports strengthen oversight; government does not fall merely on every adverse report.
Cut motions
Challenge or reduce a demand for grant in Assembly.
Connected with financial control and government's majority.
No-confidence motion
Tests whether Council of Ministers retains Assembly confidence.
Operates in Assembly, not Council.
19. Privileges, language and limits on court inquiry
Article 194 protects freedom of speech in Legislature subject to Constitution and House rules, and protects members from court proceedings for anything said or any vote given in Legislature or its committees. This is functional legislative immunity, not a blanket immunity from ordinary criminal law outside legitimate legislative functions.
Article 210 regulates language in State Legislature. Article 211 bars discussion of conduct of Supreme Court or High Court judges in discharge of duties. Article 212 prevents courts from questioning legislative proceedings merely for alleged procedural irregularity and protects officers exercising procedural/order powers. It does not place substantively unconstitutional legislative action beyond judicial review.
20. Bihar bicameral development: short timeline
23. Official PYQ status
No question is reproduced as an official BPSC PYQ because its complete wording and all options were not verified from an official booklet during preparation. The following are original BPSC-style practice questions.