Sessions of the State Legislature

Sessions of State Legislature

• The time period during which the State Legislature meets to conduct its procedures and business is known as a session.
• A session of State Legislature is the period between first sitting of a State Assembly and its prorogation (prorogation puts an end to the session of a house).
• During a session, the State Legislature meets every day to transact business.
• The period spanning between the prorogation of a State Legislature and its reassembly in a new session is called ‘recess’.

Summoning

• It means that the members of the legislature have to be present for conducting the business of the legislature.
• The Governor of State summons the two Houses of the legislature which has to meet at least twice a year.
• A session of the state legislature consists of many sittings.

Adjournment

• By Adjournment, the presiding officer of the House suspends the sitting of the house for a specified time that may be hours, days or weeks.
• If the meeting is postponed for an indefinite time without stating a fixed time for the next meeting, it is called Adjournment sine die.

Prorogation

• It means the session of the House has been terminated by an order made by the Governor after the presiding officer declares the House adjourns sine die.
• The Governor can also prorogue the House which is in session.
• Prorogation terminates both the sitting and session of the House whereas adjournment just postpones a sitting.
• The time between the Prorogation and Reassembly of the Houses is called Recess.

Dissolution

• Legislative Council is a permanent house, therefore is not subject to dissolution.
• Only Legislative assembly gets dissolved at the completion of the term of 5 years from the date appointed for its first meeting and a new House is constituted after the general elections are held.
• The outgoing State Cabinet recommends the Governor to dissolve the Legislative assembly to pave the way for the newly constituted Legislative assembly after the general election
• Another manner in which the Legislative assembly gets dissolved is when the ruling party loses the majority.
• In that case, the Council of Ministers must resign and the prerogative to dissolution of the Legislative assembly is transferred to the Governor.
• He may ask other parties to prove its majority, failing which fresh elections need to be held.
• The position with respect to lapsing of bills on the dissolution of the assembly is mentioned below –
  1. Bill pending in the assembly lapses (whether originating in the assembly or transmitted to it by the council).
  2. A Bill passed by the assembly but pending in the council lapses.
  3. A Bill pending in the council but not passed by the assembly does not lapse.
  4. A Bill passed by the assembly (in a unicameral state) or passed by both the houses (in a bicameral state) but pending assent of the Governor or the President does not lapse.
  5. A Bill passed by the assembly (in a unicameral state) or passed by both the Houses (in a bicameral state) but returned by the President for reconsideration of House (s) does not lapse.

Quorum

• Quorum is the minimum number of members required to be present in the House before it can transact any business.
• The quorum to constitute a meeting of a House of the Legislature of a State shall be ten members or one-tenth of the total number of members of the House, whichever is greater.
• If there is no quorum during a meeting of the House, the Presiding officer adjourns or suspends the meeting until there is a quorum.

Language in State Legislature

• The Constitution has declared the official language(s) of the state, Hindi or English, to be the languages for transacting business in the state legislature.
• However, the presiding officer can permit a member to address the House in his mother-tongue.
• The state legislature is authorised to decide whether to continue or discontinue English as a floor language after the completion of fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution (i.e., from 1965).
• In the case of Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura, this time limit is twenty-five years and that of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Mizoram, it is forty years.

Rights of Ministers and Advocate General

• Every minister and the Advocate General of the State have the right to speak and take part in the proceedings of either House or any of its committees of which he is named a member, without being entitled to vote.
• There are two reasons underlying this constitutional provision –
  1. A minister can participate in the proceedings of a House, of which he is not a member.
  2. A minister, who is not a member of either House, can participate in the proceedings of both the Houses

Voting In House

• All matters at any sitting of either House are decided by a majority of votes of the members present and voting excluding the presiding officer.
• Matters which are specifically mentioned in the Constitution like removal of the Speaker of the assembly, removal of the Chairman of the council and so on require special majority, not ordinary majority.
• The Presiding Officer exercises a casting vote in the case of an equality of votes.

So, this is all about the post on the Sessions of the State Legislature – Summoning, Prorogation, Dissolution, etc. . If you want to read more notes on Indian Polity – Click Here.

In the Next Post (Click Here), we will learn about the Legislative Procedures in the State Legislature.

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