Law-making in Parliament: Bills, Joint Sitting and the Budget

Types of bills

Parliament passes four kinds of bills, each with its own procedure:

1. Ordinary bills – any matter other than finance; can be introduced in either House.
2. Money bills (Article 110) – concerned only with matters such as imposition, abolition or alteration of taxes, regulation of government borrowing, custody of the Consolidated or Contingency Fund, appropriation of money from the Consolidated Fund, declaring expenditure "charged" on it, and receipt of money into these funds.
3. Financial bills – Article 117(1) bills contain money-bill matters along with other matters; Article 117(3) bills involve expenditure from the Consolidated Fund but no money-bill matters.
4. Constitution amendment bills (Article 368).

Bills may also be government bills (introduced by ministers, more likely to pass) or private members' bills (introduced by any other member; only 14 have become law, the last in 1970).

Stages of an ordinary bill

1. First reading – the member seeks leave to introduce the bill; title and objectives are read; the bill is published in the Gazette. (A bill can be published before introduction, then leave is not needed.)
2. Second reading – the most important stage:

• *Stage of general discussion:* the House may take the bill into consideration immediately, refer it to a select committee of the House, refer it to a joint committee of both Houses, or circulate it to elicit public opinion.
• *Committee stage:* the committee examines the bill clause by clause and may amend it.
• *Consideration stage:* the House considers the bill clause by clause; amendments may be moved and voted on.

1. Third reading – the House accepts or rejects the bill as a whole; no amendments are allowed. If passed by a majority of members present and voting, it goes to the other House.
2. Second House – it may pass the bill as sent, pass it with amendments and return it, reject it, or keep it pending. If the other House does not act for six months, or rejects the bill, or the Houses disagree on amendments, a deadlock arises.
3. Assent of the President (see the veto lesson).

In practice, Departmentally Related Standing Committees (DRSCs) examine many government bills. The share of bills referred to committees has fallen sharply in recent Lok Sabhas – a point often made in Mains answers on the quality of law-making.

Joint sitting (Article 108)

The President may summon a joint sitting of both Houses to resolve a deadlock on an ordinary or financial bill – not on money bills or constitutional amendment bills. The Speaker presides (in their absence, the Deputy Speaker, then the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha). The quorum is one-tenth of the total membership of both Houses. The bill is passed by a majority of members present and voting of both Houses combined – which normally favours the Lok Sabha because of its larger numbers. If the Lok Sabha is dissolved after the President notifies the joint sitting, the sitting can still be held. No new amendments may be proposed except those arising from the disagreement.

Joint sittings have been held only three times: the Dowry Prohibition Bill, 1960 (held in 1961), the Banking Service Commission (Repeal) Bill, 1977 (held in 1978) and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, 2002 (held in 2002).

Money bills (Article 110)

• Can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha, only by a minister, and only on the recommendation of the President.
• The Speaker certifies a bill as a money bill; the certificate is endorsed when it is sent to the Rajya Sabha and to the President. Originally the Speaker's decision was considered final and not open to question, but in K.S. Puttaswamy (Aadhaar, 2018) the Court held that the certification is subject to judicial review, and the questions on Aadhaar and the Finance Act 2017 have been referred to a larger bench (Rojer Mathew, 2019).
• The Rajya Sabha cannot reject or amend a money bill. It must return it within 14 days, with or without recommendations, which the Lok Sabha may accept or reject. If not returned within 14 days, it is deemed passed by both Houses.
• The President may assent or withhold assent but cannot return it for reconsideration.

The Union Budget

The Constitution calls it the Annual Financial Statement (Article 112) – a statement of estimated receipts and expenditure for the financial year (1 April – 31 March). Key concepts:

• Charged expenditure – not voted on, only discussed: emoluments of the President; salaries and allowances of the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Speaker and Deputy Speaker; salaries of Supreme Court judges and pensions of Supreme Court and High Court judges; salary of the CAG; salaries of the chairman and members of the UPSC; debt charges; sums required to satisfy court decrees; and other sums declared by Parliament to be charged.
• Voted expenditure – the Lok Sabha votes on demands for grants.

Stages of the budget:

1. Presentation – on 1 February since 2017 (previously the last working day of February); the Railway Budget was merged with the General Budget from 2017–18.
2. General discussion in both Houses – no voting.
3. Scrutiny by DRSCs – the House adjourns for about three to four weeks while committees examine the demands for grants of their ministries.
4. Voting on demands for grants – exclusive right of the Lok Sabha. Members can move cut motions:

• Policy cut – reduce the demand to ₹1, disapproving the policy;
• Economy cut – reduce it by a specified amount;
• Token cut – reduce it by ₹100, to ventilate a specific grievance.

On the last day, the Speaker puts all remaining demands to vote together – the "guillotine".

1. Passing the Appropriation Bill – authorises withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund (Article 114). No money can be withdrawn without it.
2. Passing the Finance Bill – gives effect to the tax proposals. Under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act, 1931, the Finance Bill must be enacted within 75 days.

Other grants (Articles 115–116): a vote on account (advance grant for part of the year, normally two months, until the budget is passed – common in election years, along with an "interim budget"); supplementary, additional and excess grants; vote of credit (for unexpected demands, like a blank cheque); and exceptional grants.

Funds: the Consolidated Fund of India (Art 266) – all receipts and loans; withdrawal needs parliamentary law. The Public Account of India (Art 266) – money held by the government as banker (provident funds, small savings deposits); payments need only executive action. The Contingency Fund of India (Art 267) – at the President's disposal for unforeseen expenditure, recouped later by Parliament; its corpus was raised to ₹30,000 crore in 2021.

Practice: Mains question

*"Use of the money bill route to bypass the Rajya Sabha undermines bicameralism." Discuss. (150 words)* Outline: Article 110's narrow list; examples that were controversial (Aadhaar Act 2016; amendments through Finance Acts); the Puttaswamy majority and Justice Chandrachud's dissent; the pending larger-bench reference; and the value of the Rajya Sabha as a revising chamber. Suggest clear criteria for certification and greater committee scrutiny.

Common traps

• No joint sitting for money bills or constitutional amendment bills.
• Rajya Sabha must return a money bill within 14 days; the six-month deadlock rule applies to ordinary bills.
• Token cut is ₹100; policy cut reduces to ₹1.
• Vote on account – Art 116; Appropriation Bill – Art 114; Annual Financial Statement – Art 112.