Legislative Council: The Redundant Institution

My article on the Vidhan Parishad published by the renowned portal MyIndMakers.

https://myind.net/Home/viewArticle/legislative-council-the-redundant-institution

The Indian Constitution has a provision, as per the Article 168, for every State to have a mandatory directly elected House named State Assembly or Vidhan Sabha on the lines of Lok Sabha and an optional indirectly elected House named State Legislative Council or Vidhan Parishad following the spirits of the Council of States or Rajya Sabha of the Parliament of India. At present, only six states namely Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have Legislative Councils. 

Very recently the West Bengal Assembly has adopted a resolution to create a Vidhan Parishad as per the provisions of the Article 169 of the Constitution. West Bengal had an upper House from 1952 to 1967. The Mamata Banerjee government of West Bengal has again passed the resolution to re-create the State Legislative Council. But the resolution was not adopted unanimously; the opposition BJP legislature party was against the resolution.

Now the fundamental questions arise: Is Vidhan Parishad a replica of Rajya Sabha? Does it follow the spirit of representativeness at the state level? Is Vidhan Parishad a necessity? Let us discuss the issues.

In our times, it is practically impossible to follow the principles of direct democracy as practiced in earlier times in different parts of the world, and that is why the modern democracy is based on the principles of direct representativeness through direct voting system. The Indian Republic has also adopted this mechanism of representative democracy. By structural setup, India has been a ‘Federal Union’ with bicameral Parliament or Sansad, one is Lok Sabha with directly elected people’s representatives and the other is Rajya Sabha with indirectly elected representatives from the states. Although India is a ‘Union of States’, the states of the Indian Union are not like that of States of USA. Unlike the states of USA, the states of India have not been ‘Constituting States’ to create Indian Republic through the ratification of the Constitution by the states. And, the Indian Parliament has the sovereign power to create, alter, and/or merge one or more states as per the constitutional provisions. Moreover, Indian citizenship is markedly unitary, not dual as in a true federal state.

Of course, the makers of the Indian Constitution have provided a mechanism of representation from the states by creating Rajya Sabha following the federal characteristics. But Vidhan Parishad can’t claim to be a replica of Rajya Sabha. While Rajya Sabha is represented by the states in a proportional way, Vidhan Parishad is not constituted on the principles of composition of Rajya Sabha. In Rajya Sabha, the states have been the basic units of representation. But there are no such basic units of representation in case of Vidhan Parishad. Not only that the Rajya Sabha has been a permanent constitutional institution. But a Vidhan Parishad can be created or abolished by the Parliament. The Article 169 provides the mechanism in that the Parliament may by law create or abolish a Council of the State upon the resolution adopted by the concerned State Assembly or Vidhan Sabha in a manner laid down by the Article. Here arise a moot point. Is the Parliament mandated compulsorily to pass a Bill to adopt the resolution adopted by a State regarding creation/abolition of the Vidhan Parishad?

Not only that the composition of Vidhan Parishad may be altered by a Parliamentary law as per the Article 171(2), which is not possible in the case of Rajya Sabha without amending the Constitution of India. Again, the power of the Vidhan Parishad can’t be equated with that of the Rajya Sabha. Although both the Rajya Sabha and the Vidhan Parishad have no power over the Money Bills, the Vidhan Parishad has no power like that of the Rajya Sabha over financial Bills. Moreover, unlike the Rajya Sabha, the Vidhan Parishad has no power to amend or alter an ordinary Bill if it has been so passed for the second time by the Vidhan Sabha of a State. While the Rajya Sabha has been more or less of ‘equal’ status with that of the Lok Sabha, the Vidhan Parishad is no match for the Vidhan Sabha. Last but not the least that a Vidhan Parishad has no power over the amendments of the constitutional provisions. So, the Vidhan Parishad is certainly not a replica of the Rajya Sabha. 

Now the question: How far a Vidhan Parishad follow the representative characteristics at the state level? It is no denying the fact that the question of federalism in India ends with the boundaries of states. Unlike the Rajya Sabha, the Vidhan Parishad does not represent the lower units of districts or other local territories. The Vidhan Parishad comprises the members elected by different electorates like the MLAs, local self-government representatives, graduates, teachers and the Governor's nominees in different proportions without any rationalistic representations of the people of the state. The nature of composition of the Legislative Council shows an utterly undemocratic nature of representation of the people of a state.

Is Vidhan Parishad a necessity in representative democracy in India? Is it a necessity to create or continue such an undemocratic institution at the cost of people’s money? The dysfunctionality of Vidhan Parishad is so stark that it becomes a symbol of wastage of time, money and labour. Although the makers of the Indian Constitution have made a provision for a Legislative Council, it has now become redundant in serving people’s interest. 

It is a political ploy in the hands of the ruling party to subvert the spirit of the representativeness of the democratic process as shown by the recent adoption of the resolution by the ruling party to create a Vidhan Parishad in West Bengal. Political expediency gets an upper hand over the political propriety. 

Now is the time to take a bold decision regarding the Vidhan Parishad. There must be a broad consensus either to abolish the constitutional provisions relating to the Legislative Council or to make it truly representative by considering the districts as the basic units of representation of the people by amending the Constitution of India. The Parliament may enact a new law regarding the composition of the Vidhan Parishad as per the Article 171(2). But it is better to abolish this indirect manipulative representative system in a vibrant democracy like that of India where the directly elected local self-governments have already taken formal shape through the constitutional provisions. 

@ Sujit Roy