Write approximately 150 words on Relevance of the Legislative Council. (2024, 10 Marks)
The Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) is an optional upper house which Parliament may create or abolish under Article 169 on a special-majority resolution of the Assembly. It is partly indirectly elected and partly nominated (Art. 171). Its relevance has been contested since the Constituent Assembly, and today only six states — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh — retain one.
An ambivalent inheritance
The framers never settled the question. B. R. Ambedkar admitted the Drafting Committee could reach no definite conclusion on the Council’s composition and took “the line of least resistance”, leaving it to Parliament. H. V. Kamath echoed Abbé Sieyès‘s dictum — a second chamber that agrees is superfluous, one that disagrees pernicious — and R. K. Sidhwa warned of the added burden on strained state finances. Making the Council abolishable by ordinary law signalled an experiment, not a pillar.
The case for relevance
- Revision — assemblies sit only a few weeks a year and pass many bills with little debate; a second look is the Council’s core justification.
- Expertise and distinct constituencies — graduates’, teachers’ and local-body seats, and nominations for literature, science, art, cooperation and social service, bring in those unsuited to mass elections.
- Continuity — a permanent chamber, one-third retiring every two years.
- Check in divided politics — an opposition-controlled Council can force a government to rethink.
The case against
- A back door — defeated or unelected leaders use it to hold office; several Chief Ministers have sat as MLCs rather than contest assembly seats.
- Cost without power — a few months’ delay at most, and no say on money or confidence.
- Dated electorates — graduates are no longer a scarce elite, and teachers’ seats privilege one profession.
- Instrument of convenience — Andhra Pradesh abolished its Council in 1985, revived it in 2007, resolved to abolish it again in 2020 and withdrew that resolution in 2021; Tamil Nadu abolished its Council in 1986.
- Contingent survival — creation proposals from Rajasthan (2012), Assam (2010), Odisha (2018) and West Bengal (2021) await Parliament; partisan calculation decides.
Assessment
Parliament’s standing committee on law and justice, examining the Rajasthan bill in 2013, urged a national policy on creating and abolishing Councils — the right starting point. The Council is relevant only if reformed: nominations confined to the Article 171(5) categories, a revising role over delegated legislation, and electorates redesigned for today’s society.
Conclusion
The Council’s relevance lies in revision, not rivalry with the Assembly. As a patronage chamber it is an avoidable cost; as a disciplined house of review it could supply the scrutiny state legislatures conspicuously lack.