{"id":87307,"date":"2026-10-24T18:55:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T13:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=87307"},"modified":"2026-10-24T19:11:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T13:41:49","slug":"legislative-councils-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/24-10-2026\/legislative-councils-india","title":{"rendered":"Legislative Councils in India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Elections to 28 seats<\/strong> across the <strong>Legislative Councils of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka were held.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Legislative Councils<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Indian Union has a <strong>bicameral legislature,<\/strong> comprising the <strong>Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha,<\/strong> some states have<strong> a Legislative Assembly and a Legislative Council.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Currently Six states have a\u00a0 Legislative Assembly and a Legislative Council &#8211; <\/strong>Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh\u00a0 and Karnataka.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>History:<\/strong><strong>Montagu-Chelmsford reforms <\/strong>led to the formation of the Council of State at the national level in <strong>1919.\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Then the <strong>Government of India Act of 1935<\/strong> set up bicameral legislatures in Indian provinces.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It was under this law that <strong>a Legislative Council first started functioning in Bengal in 1937.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Constitutional Basis<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Creation of Legislative Council: Article 169<\/strong> of the Constitution concerns the Legislative Council, Parliament can pass a law to create or abolish a Legislative Council.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Legislative Assembly of the State passes a resolution by a majority of the total membership of the Assembly and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of the Assembly present and voting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Composition: <\/strong>Article 171 lays out its composition, the total number of MLCs cannot be more than one-third of the total number of MLAs in a state, and cannot be less than 40.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Elections: <\/strong>The polls are held through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Electors choose from a list of candidates by listing an order of preference.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Eligibility for MLCs: <\/strong>A person must be an Indian citizen and at least 30 years of age to become a member of a State Legislative Council.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Chairman and Deputy Chairman preside over its proceedings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tenure:<\/strong> Approximately one-third of its members retire every two years. Each member normally serves a six-year term.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Not every state in India has a Legislative Council <\/strong>because the Constitution makes it optional, not compulsory.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Each state can decide whether a second legislative chamber is necessary, considering its needs, costs and administrative priorities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Functions of Legislative Councils<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Legislative function:<\/strong> It examines Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly and may suggest amendments, helping improve the quality of legislation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Deliberative function: <\/strong>It provides a forum for discussing public issues, government policies and matters affecting the state.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Representation of special interests: <\/strong>It provides representation to graduates, teachers, local authorities and people with expertise in fields such as science, art and social service.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Financial function:<\/strong> It can discuss financial matters and make recommendations on Money Bills, but it cannot introduce a Money Bill or prevent its passage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Executive oversight: <\/strong>It can question ministers, debate government policies and scrutinise the functioning of the government. However, it cannot remove the government through a no-confidence motion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Continuity: <\/strong>As a permanent house, it preserves legislative experience because it is not dissolved and approximately one-third of its members retire every two years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Difference between Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background has-fixed-layout\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Basis<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha)<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Nature of representation<\/strong><\/td><td>It directly represents the people.<\/td><td>It represents specific sections of the state&#8217;s population and local institutions.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Election<\/strong><\/td><td>Members are directly elected by voters.<\/td><td>Members are indirectly elected or nominated.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Minimum age<\/strong><\/td><td>25 years<\/td><td>30 years<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Tenure<\/strong><\/td><td>5 years<\/td><td>Permanent body; members serve 6-year terms.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Ordinary Bills<\/strong><\/td><td>It has the final say if disagreement persists.<\/td><td>It can delay a Bill, but cannot permanently block it.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Money Bills<\/strong><\/td><td>Can introduce and pass Money Bills.<\/td><td>It can only recommend changes within 14 days.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: IE<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong><br \/>\nContext<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">\n<p>Elections to 28 seats across the Legislative Councils of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka were held.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nLegislative Councils<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"\t>\nThe Indian Union has a bicameral legislature, comprising the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, some states have a Legislative Assembly and a Legislative Council.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">\nCurrently Six states have a\u00a0 Legislative Assembly and a Legislative Council &#8211; Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh\u00a0 and Karnataka.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/23-10-2026\/legislative-councils-india-hindi \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87309,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87307\/revisions\/87309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}