SUBJECT: POLITICAL SCIENCE
CHAPTER-3
PARLIAMENT AND THE MAKING OF LAWS
I. Choose the correct option-
i) Representatives to the Parliament are chosen by the
a) People b) Rulers c) Military d) None of these
ii) Who isthe Chairman of Rajya Sabha?
a) Prime Minister of India
b) President of India
c) Vice-President of India
d) Governor
iii) Who is the head of the Executive at the central level?
a) President b) Prime Minister c) Chief Minister d) None of these
iv) The members of the Rajya Sabha are elected by whom?
a) Legislative Assemblies
b) Parliament member
c) Advocate
d) None of these
v) Which Act has expanded the meaning of term ‘domestic’ in terms of the law?
a) Domestic Violence Act
b) Rowlatt Act
c) Salt Act
d) None of these
vi) A bill finally becomes an Act after the assent of .
a) President
b) Prime Minister
c) Supreme Court
d)Speaker
vii) Assertion (A): Indian President is the head of the state.
Reason (R): Indian Parliament consists of the President, Lok Sabha and Rajya
Sabha.
a) A is true but R is false.
b) A is false but R is True.
c) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
d) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A
viii) Assertion(A): India has a presidential form of democracy.
Reason(R): Indian Parliament comprises of two houses.
a)A is true but R is false.
b)A is false but R is True.
c) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
d) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A.
II. Fill in the blanks.
a) The total membership of Rajya Sabha is .(245/270)
b) The head of the Indian Government is .(Prime
Minister/President)
c) The Rajya Sabha is also known as (Council of states/ House
of People)
d) is the time when Members of Parliament (MPs) can raise Issues
of Urgent Public Importance. (Zero hour/ Question hour)
e) The term of the Lok Sabha is years. (3/5)
f) The House of the People is also known as the .(Lok Sabha/Rajya
Sabha)
g) Voting in India is done through .(Public ballot/ secret ballot)
h) Hour is the first hour of a sitting session of India's Lok Sabha
devoted to questions that Members of Parliament raise about any aspect of
administrative activity.(Zero hour/ Question hour)
i) The Indian Parliament, in a year, usually holds sessions.(Four/
Three).
Q2. Give one word for the following statements
a) Candidates not backed by any political party in election are called as
Independent Candidate.
b) The person who conducts the proceedings and maintains order in the Lok
Sabha Speaker.
c) If no party wins a majority of the seats, two or more parties form a Coalition
Government.
d) The supreme law-making body is parliament.
e) Laws that are promulgated by the President of India (Indian Parliament) onthe
recommendation of the Union Cabinet, when parliament is not in session
Ordinance.
f) Citizens can express their unwillingness to accept repressive laws framed by the
Parliament.
g) Several women’s organisations, National commission for Women made
their submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
Q3. Write T for true and F for false for the following statements.
a) A government from all the different sections of people would mean greater
participation of the masses. T
b) The ministers are each individually and collectively responsible to both the
houses of Parliament. T
c) If the legislature withdraws support from the government it will be dissolved.T
d) The president nominates 14 members of the Rajya Sabha. F
e) The parliament is empowered to amend the Constitution. T
f) Courts can strikedown a law if it is against the spirit of the constitution. T
Q4. Read the following statements and put a tick mark (√) under the House
for which the statement holds true.
STATEMENT LOK SABHA RAJYA SABHA
It has 545 members ✓
12 members are ✓
nominated by the
President
Can initiate money bill ✓
Vice President is the Ex ✓
officio chairman
Has more powers ✓
Has 233 ✓
+12 members
Is more powerful ✓
Directly Elected House ✓
Speaker is the presiding ✓
officer
Members are elected by ✓
State Legislative Assemblies
Permanent House ✓
Temporary House ✓
Q5. The following table shows the States with their Lok Sabha Constituencies.Study
the table and answer the questions that follow:
STATES LOK STATES LOK STATES LOK
SABH SABH SABH
A A A
SEATS SEATS SEATS
Andhra 25 Jammu and 5 +1 HimachalPradesh 4
Pradesh Kashmir + (resp)
Ladakh
Arunach 2 Jharkhand 14 Mizoram 1
al
Pradesh
Assam 14 Karnataka 28 Nagaland 1
Bihar 40 Kerala 20 Orissa 21
Chhattisg 11 Madhya 29 Punjab 13
ar h Pradesh
Goa 2 Maharashtra 48 Rajasthan 25
Gujarat 26 Manipur 2 Sikkim 1
Uttar 80 West Bengal 42 Maharashtra 48
Pradesh
a) Which state has the maximum number of representatives in Lok Sabha and
why?
Ans. Uttar Pradesh as it is the most populous state (20.42 crores) in India.
b) How will this affect the voting when laws are being passed in
the Parliament?
Ans. The influence of UP is more in the parliament and the political party with
more seats from UP have a greater say in the parliament.
c) Will the number of constituencies remain unchanged when a new state is
carved out from an existing one?
Ans. In such a scenario, the total no of constituencies still remains unchanged.The
bifurcation of constituencies for the new state is done from the earlier number
itself. For eg: Before Telangana’s formation in 2014, Andhra PradeshConstituencies
were 42 After Telangana’s formation, these 42 constituencies were split between
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Telangana had 17 and Andhra Pradesh had 25.
e) Rajasthan is the biggest state and has 25 seats in Lok Sabha. West Bengal isalmost
1/3rd the size of Rajasthan but has 42 seats in Lok Sabha. Is it justified that a
bigger state has lesser number of seats than a smaller state?
Ans. The constituencies in the Lok Sabha is divided on the basis of the
population of the states. Population of West Bengal is 9.0 crore where s
population of Rajasthan is 6.89 cores.
Q6 Read the given extract and answer the following questions:
The Indian Parliament is an expression of faith that the people of India have in
principles of democracy. These are the participation by people in the decision making
process and government by consent. Parliament in our system has immense powers
because it is the representative of the people. It has two houses
- The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The Parliament has an important role in
making laws. There are many ways through which this takes place and it is often
different groups in society that raise the need for a particular law. An important
role of the Parliament is to be sensitive to the problems faced by people. Elections to
the parliament are held in the same manner as they are for the state legislature.
(Do on your own)
1. Which house of the Indian Parliament is known as the “Council of States”?
2. State two differences between the houses of Parliament.
3.Specify the role of the Indian Parliament in democracy.
NOTE BOOK WORK PLAN
Q1. What are the basic ideals of democracy?
Q2. Explain the various functions of Indian Parliament under the following
headers:
a) To Select the National Government
b) To Control, Guide and Inform the Government
c) Law-Making:
ANS c) a. First Stage: A bill gets introduced in parliament by a member of either
house. Money bill is tabled in the Lok Sabha first.
b. Second Stage: At the second stage, the House may decide to discuss the bill in
detail.
c. Third Stage: Lok Sabha votes for the bill. If the House approves it, the bill
then goes to the Upper House ( Rajya Sabha). There also, the bill has to undergo
all the stages as discussed above.
d. If the upper House also approves, it goes to the president for her/his assent.
Q3. How opposition parties play an important role in Parliamentary form of
government?
Q4. Differentiate between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Comparison between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
Difference Lok Sabha Rajya Sabha
What it is House of People (lower house) Council of States (upper house)
called?
What is the House of People, where people Council of States, where the
meaning of who are qualified to vote can representatives are indirectly
the name? elect their representative by elected by the elected
way of direct elections representative of the
Assemblies of States and Union
Territories
What is the It continues for 5 years It is a permanent body. Rajya
tenure of Note: It can be dissolved Sabha is a permanent House and
the house? earlier by passing no- is not subject to dissolution.
confidence motion However, one-third Members of
Rajya Sabha retire after every
second year. A member who is
elected for a full term serves for
a period of six years.
Who heads Speaker Vice President of India as the
the house? Chairman of the house
What is the 25 years 30 years
minimum
age to
become a
member?
What is the 553 members 250 members
strength of
the house?
What are Lok Sabha is more powerful in Rajya Sabha acts as a
the powers terms of financial matters. It representative of different
of the plays a major role in states and union territories in
house? legislation. the parliament.
Q5. Which house of the parliament is more powerful and why?
Ans: The Lok Sabha is the more powerful of the two houses of Parliament due to
the following reasons:-
1. Money Bill can be tabled only in the Lok Sabha first. Thus, it controls the
finances of the government.
2. A government can continue in power only as long as it enjoys the
confidence of the Lok Sabha.
3. If there is a difference of opinion between both the houses in passing the
bills, the decision is taken in a joint session of both the houses. Since the
strength of the Lok Sabha is more than double the strength
of Rajya Sabha the opinion of Lok Sabha generally prevails in such a
meeting.
Q6. Explain the term Domestic Violence.
Q7. How was the law “The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act”
came into effect in 2006?
Q8. Describe Controversial and Unpopular Law with the help of an example.
Glossary
1. Presidential form of government:
In a presidential system, the head of the government leads an executive, which is
distinct from the legislature. Here, the head of the government and the head of the
state are one and the same. Also, a key feature is that the executive is not
responsible to the legislature.
2. Coalition government:
If a single political party does not have more than half the seats won, to form the
government, then two or more like minded parties can join to form the
government. A government formed this way is called coalition government, in
which the coalition parties may participate in ruling as ministers or remain to be
silent partners and provide outside support.
