{"id":84456,"date":"2021-02-23T10:41:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T05:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=84456"},"modified":"2021-02-27T17:51:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T12:21:39","slug":"the-trend-of-undermining-the-role-of-upper-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-trend-of-undermining-the-role-of-upper-house\/","title":{"rendered":"The trend of Undermining the Role of Upper House"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The ruling party who dominates the lower house is sometimes seen undermining the role of the Upper House. Such an approach dilutes the principle of bicameralism and undermines the spirit of the constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The recent passage of the <\/span><b>Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Karnataka\u2019s legislative council has attracted criticism.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reason for criticism is the <\/span><b>bill was passed through a voice vote<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in place of a division vote as demanded by the opposition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The opposition parties had a majority and didn\u2019t support the bill. This has created an impression that the bill was passed without majority support.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Instruments to undermine the Upper House<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>First<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the use of<\/span><b> voice vote<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> undermines the majority of opposition members in the upper house. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this process, the presiding officer gives a decision as per his judgment, because the names or numbers of legislators voting on each side are not recorded.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A similar thing was seen in the passing of controversial farm laws by Rajya Sabha in 2020.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Second<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the presiding officer sometimes declares a bill as a \u2018<\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sc-questions-passage-of-aadhaar-act-as-money-bill\/\">money bill<\/a>\u2019 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">even if it is not covered under the definition of a money bill.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the second house can only give recommendations on it and can\u2019t stop its passage.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For Example, Aadhar, electoral bonds, retrospective validation of foreign political contribution, etc. passed as money bills.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Third<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the government <\/span><b>promulgates the ordinance <\/b>and frequently re-promulgates it.<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is an abuse of temporary legislative power given to the executive who tries to give it permanency by re-promulgation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The objective is to forbid the second house from performing its constitutional role as the majority is already enjoyed in the lower house.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Role of Upper House<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>First<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it gives <\/span><b>credible second opinions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on bills introduced by the ruling party in the lower house.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Second<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, to <\/span><b>prevent <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the country from the <\/span><b>brute will of the majority<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of one party in the lower house. This becomes crucial as even the courts are barred from intervening in the legislative process.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Third<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it <\/span><b>duly represents the interests of states<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at the national level. Rajya Sabha is representative of all the Indian states.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Fourth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it <\/span><b>upholds the principle of separation of powers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a robust way. The majority of the executive is often chosen from lok sabha by the ruling party. This allows the executive domination over the legislature and easily passes bills in Lok Sabha.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Way Forward<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The speaker\/chairman of the house must act in the spirit of positive morality. It would allow him to function objectively.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The demands of opposition should be respected. For example, division vote instead of voice vote should be used.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The money bill issue can be rightly tackled if SC hearing the case over its misuse, gives its verdict in due time.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The executive and ruling party must respect the dissent of the Second chamber as done in case of repeal of the 42nd amendment.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janta Government was not able to completely repeal it as Congress enjoyed a significant majority in Rajya Sabha.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greater focus on debates and discussions should be done rather than solely focusing on quick passing of bills.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Parliament was not convened for a long time during the pandemic and later got convened after suspending the question hour so that swift passage can happen. This approach needs to change.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>\u00a0Read Also:-<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"31mZbipwDI\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/centre-seeks-to-replace-eia-rules-activists-rise-in-protest\/\">Centre seeks to replace EIA rules, activists rise in protest<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Centre seeks to replace EIA rules, activists rise in protest&#8221; &#8212; Free UPSC IAS Preparation For Aspirants\" src=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/centre-seeks-to-replace-eia-rules-activists-rise-in-protest\/embed\/#?secret=5pZlMkhre2#?secret=31mZbipwDI\" data-secret=\"31mZbipwDI\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: The ruling party who dominates the lower house is sometimes seen undermining the role of the Upper House. Such an approach dilutes the principle of bicameralism and undermines the spirit of the constitution. Background: The recent passage of the Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill in Karnataka\u2019s legislative council has attracted criticism.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-trend-of-undermining-the-role-of-upper-house\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The trend of Undermining the Role of Upper House<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[1296],"class_list":["post-84456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-po_0","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700881101},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}