CivicsClass 67 min read

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha: two rooms, one law

India’s Parliament is not one big hall. It is two rooms — the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha — and every new law has to walk through both of them. Here is why we bothered to build two.

Question one

Who sends people to each room?

Both rooms start with the same people: the voters of India. But the path to the Rajya Sabha has one extra step, and that one extra step is the whole difference between the two houses.

The extra hop is the point. A Lok Sabha MP is one step away from you. A Rajya Sabha member is two steps away — chosen by the MLAs you elected, not by you. That is why one house speaks for people and the other speaks for states.

Side by side

What's different once they're inside?

Lok Sabha

लोक सभा

The House of the People

Who picks them: You do — directly. One MP for each of 543 areas on the map.
How many: 543 members today
How long it lasts: 5 years — and it can be closed early, sending everyone back for a fresh election.
Who runs the room: The Speaker
You can join at age: 25
Its special power: Only this house can vote a government out of office.

Spot it by the green benches and carpet.

Rajya Sabha

राज्य सभा

The Council of States

Who picks them: MLAs do — indirectly. Plus 12 the President nominates.
How many: 245 members today
How long it lasts: For ever. Each member gets 6 years, and one-third retire every 2 years — so the room is never empty.
Who runs the room: The Vice-President of India
You can join at age: 30
Its special power: It can stop a rushed law and make the other house think again.

Spot it by the red benches and carpet.

Question two

So what do the two rooms actually do?

They pass laws — but a law only counts if both rooms agree and the President signs. Follow one idea all the way through.

An ordinary bill may start in either house — it is drawn starting in the Lok Sabha because most do. The two lines leaving that box are the two places where the houses are not equal: on money, and on who wins a tie.

The real reason

Why not just one room?

Because India is enormous and lopsided. Uttar Pradesh has more people than most countries on Earth; Sikkim has fewer people than a big city’s neighbourhood. If seats were handed out by population alone, a handful of large states could decide everything for everybody.

So we built two rooms with two different rules — and you can see the whole idea in these bars.

Lok Sabha — seats follow the people

Uttar Pradesh

Sikkim

Rajya Sabha — seats protect the states

Uttar Pradesh

Sikkim

In the Lok Sabha, UP outnumbers Sikkim 80 to 1. In the Rajya Sabha, only 31 to 1. Small states still lose the argument — but they get a much louder voice in the second room. That is the entire job of having two houses.

If you remember nothing else

The names already tell you

लोक = peopleLok Sabha = the people’s meeting. The people choose it, so the people can end it.

राज्य = stateRajya Sabha = the states’ meeting. The states choose it, and it never shuts down.

Check yourself

Three questions

Your neighbour queues up on election day and presses a button on the machine. Which house is she choosing a member for?

The Lok Sabha. It is the only house ordinary voters choose directly. Nobody outside the state assemblies ever votes for a Rajya Sabha member.

The government wants to change how much tax people pay. Which room must see that bill first?

The Lok Sabha, always. Money bills start there, and the Rajya Sabha may only suggest changes within 14 days — it cannot block them.

Sikkim has far fewer people than Uttar Pradesh. In which house does that difference hurt Sikkim least?

The Rajya Sabha. There the gap is 31 seats to 1 instead of 80 to 1, because that house was designed to speak for states rather than for headcounts.

Both houses meet at Sansad Bhavan in New Delhi. Together with the President they make up India’s Parliament — so a law needs all three before it is real. Seat numbers are the ones in force today: 543 in the Lok Sabha, 245 in the Rajya Sabha.