Composition

1. Constitutional framework and the meaning of composition

Article 79 establishes a bicameral Parliament consisting of the President and two Houses. Lok Sabha represents the people through territorial constituencies, while Rajya Sabha provides representation to States and certain Union territories. The President belongs to Parliament in the constitutional sense but does not sit or vote as a member of either House. Presidential functions such as summoning Parliament and assenting to Bills connect the executive with the legislative process.

The two Houses reflect different representative principles. Lok Sabha is based on direct popular election. Rajya Sabha combines indirectly elected territorial representatives with persons nominated for specialised knowledge or practical experience. Unlike the United States Senate, it does not give every State an equal number of seats. Its allocation broadly reflects population, although the constitutional distribution is not a uniform proportional formula.

Composition must be distinguished from tenure and powers. Article 83 makes Rajya Sabha a continuing chamber, with approximately one-third of its members retiring every second year. Lok Sabha ordinarily continues for five years from its first meeting unless dissolved earlier. These arrangements give Parliament both institutional continuity and periodic renewal through general elections.

• Core constitutional map: Articles 79–81 concern structure and composition; Article 83 concerns duration; Article 84 concerns membership qualifications.
• A constitutional maximum, allocated seats, filled seats and members present at a sitting are different quantities.

2. Lok Sabha: direct representation and numerical strength

Article 81 permits not more than 530 members representing States and not more than 20 representing Union territories. Thus, the present constitutional ceiling is 550. The actual elected strength is 543. These numbers are not interchangeable: the Constitution sets the upper limit, while legislation and constituency arrangements determine the seats in operation.

Representatives of States are directly elected from territorial constituencies. Article 81 authorises Parliament to prescribe the manner of choosing Union territory representatives; under the present arrangements, they too are directly elected. Elections use the first-past-the-post system: the candidate receiving the highest number of valid votes wins, without necessarily securing an absolute majority.

Article 326 provides for adult suffrage in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assembly elections. The Constitution (Sixty-first Amendment) Act, 1988 reduced the voting age from 21 to 18. Article 84 requires a Lok Sabha candidate to be an Indian citizen and at least 25 years old, alongside the prescribed oath or affirmation and statutory qualifications.

Historically, the President could nominate up to two Anglo-Indian members under Article 331 if the community was inadequately represented. Following the Constitution (One Hundred and Fourth Amendment) Act, 2019, the Article 334 time limit for this special representation expired in January 2020. Therefore, 552 is a historical maximum, not the current operative ceiling.

3. Rajya Sabha: allocation, election and nomination

Article 80 fixes Rajya Sabha’s maximum strength at 250: up to 238 representatives of States and Union territories, plus 12 nominated members. Its allocated strength is 245, comprising 233 elected seats and 12 nominated seats. References to actual membership on a particular date must account for vacancies.

State representatives are elected by the elected members of the State Legislative Assembly through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Legislative Council members and nominated Assembly members do not participate. Union territory representatives are chosen in the manner prescribed by parliamentary law. Not every Union territory has Rajya Sabha representation; Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir have allocated seats.

The President nominates 12 persons possessing special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art or social service. These nominees are full members of the House, subject to constitutional distinctions in electoral colleges. They cannot vote in the presidential election, whose parliamentary component contains only elected members, but can vote in the vice-presidential election, which includes all members of both Houses.

The minimum age for Rajya Sabha membership is 30. The Representation of the People Act, 1951 no longer requires a candidate to be an elector in the State being represented. Rajya Sabha elections use a regulated open-ballot system, rather than the secret ballot used in ordinary popular elections.

4. Delimitation and the population basis of representation

Article 81 seeks, as far as practicable, comparable population-to-seat ratios between States and between constituencies within a State. The inter-State requirement does not apply to States with populations not exceeding six million. Article 82 provides for readjustment after a census through a framework established by Parliament.

The Forty-second Amendment froze population-linked readjustment using the 1971 Census basis. The Eighty-fourth Amendment extended the freeze until publication of the relevant figures of the first census taken after 2026. The Eighty-seventh Amendment enabled constituency readjustment using the 2001 Census without changing the frozen inter-State allocation of Lok Sabha seats.

Consequently, the current framework separates allocation of seats among States from the drawing of constituency boundaries within them. Delimitation Commissions established by law carry out boundary readjustment, and their published orders have the force of law. Article 329(a) protects laws relating to delimitation and seat allocation from ordinary judicial challenge.

The year 2026 is not an automatic date for increasing Lok Sabha seats. The constitutional trigger involves publication of figures from the first census taken after 2026. The debate concerns reconciling equal representation with the interests of States that achieved population stabilisation.

5. Reserved representation and membership safeguards

Article 330 provides reservation of Lok Sabha seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, broadly linked to their population in the relevant State or Union territory, subject to specific constitutional provisions. These are territorial constituencies with a common electorate: all eligible electors vote, while candidature is restricted to the relevant category. This is not a system of separate communal electorates.

The 104th Amendment extended SC/ST seat reservations in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies to 2030. It did not similarly extend Anglo-Indian nomination. Rajya Sabha has no constitutionally mandated SC/ST seat reservation, although political parties may nominate candidates from these communities.

The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 inserted Article 330A for reservation of approximately one-third of Lok Sabha seats for women, including one-third of SC/ST reserved seats. Article 334A links implementation to delimitation after publication of figures from the first census taken following the amendment. It is therefore not an immediately operational quota and does not extend to Rajya Sabha.

Articles 101 and 102 regulate vacation of seats and disqualification. Relevant grounds include specified offices of profit, judicially declared unsoundness of mind, undischarged insolvency, citizenship-related grounds and disqualifications under parliamentary law. The Tenth Schedule separately addresses defection. These rules determine who may continue to occupy the seats constituting Parliament.

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