Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad<\/i>) elections in several States, including Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra<\/a>, made news recently. The results were read mainly for what they said about voter sentiment and which side, the ruling BJP or the opposition, has the advantage in the coming election season.<\/p>\n A Legislative Council is the second chamber, or Upper House, of a State legislature; the directly elected Legislative Assembly is the Lower House. The coverage also brought up terms such as teachers\u2019 constituency and graduates\u2019 constituency, which refer to electorates made up only of teachers or graduates, and turned attention to how a council\u2019s members are elected.<\/p>\n Legislative councils have had a vexed existence from the start, and questions raised about them during the Constituent Assembly<\/a> debates continued to be asked in the decades that followed.<\/p>\n In July and August 1949, the Constituent Assembly held an intense debate on draft Article 150, which dealt with how the members of a legislative council would be elected or nominated. Members debated at length whether a council was needed at all, how it should be constituted, whether graduates and teachers should have separate electorates, and whether it would be reduced to yet another arena of partisan politicking.<\/p>\n Some members, such as Brajeshwar Prasad, spoke avidly in support of a legislative council; others, such as N.G. Ranga, voiced serious doubts about the usefulness of a second chamber. Prasad described adult franchise as a \u201cgrand leap in the dark\u201d that would release forces of violence and disorder, and said the council would be an institution that might act as \u201ca brake on the vagaries of adult franchise\u201d. Ranga, on the other hand, said he was not in favour of a second chamber at all. But since the Constituent Assembly had already decided to set up the legislative council, he said, it was necessary to ensure that no one class of people was given too much weightage in it.<\/p>\n One member, K.T. Shah, who represented Bihar, was a strong critic of the idea of having a legislative council in the States. He argued that it would \u201cinvolve considerable outlay from the public exchequer on account of the salaries and allowances of Members and incidental charges. They only aid party bosses to distribute more patronage, and only help in obstructing or delaying the necessary legislation which the people have given their votes for.\u201d<\/p>\n Shah questioned the usefulness of the council. He recalled that B.R. Ambedkar had himself reminded the Assembly earlier of the classic remark of Abb\u00e9 Siey\u00e8s, a French Catholic priest and political thinker who influenced the French Revolution: if the second chamber agreed with the Lower House, it was superfluous, and if it disagreed, it was dangerous.<\/p>\n Shah said that combining the elective and nominating principles, with the Governor nominating some members and the State legislature electing a certain percentage, would make the council a \u201chotchpotch\u201d. And since the political dynamics would lead the Lower House to influence its composition, the council would end up duplicating the Lower House. He noted that a council whose strength would not exceed one-fourth of the Lower House\u2019s would be in no position to supervise or influence law-making as intended.<\/p>\n \n In July and August 1949, the Constituent Assembly held an intense debate on draft Article 150, which dealt with how the members of a legislative council would be elected or nominated. A representational picture of a Constituent Assembly meeting in New Delhi, 1949. Shah went on to criticise the creation of separate electorates, such as those for graduates or teachers. \u201c…I fail to understand what principle there could be in just selecting graduates and teachers against any other section or professions in the State,\u201d he said. He concluded that the compromise draft \u201cwill not really serve any purpose\u201d, and would not make the second chamber a part of the machinery that would add weight to the Constitution, to the dignity of deliberations in the legislative bodies, or to the sound working of a democratic system.<\/p>\n The Constituent Assembly went on to adopt draft Article 150, which became Article 171 of the Constitution, even though most of the amendments moved by members were not accepted.<\/p>\n Article 171 deals with the composition of legislative councils. According to it, a council can have at most one-third of the strength of the Legislative Assembly, and at least 40 members. As nearly as possible, one-third are elected by electorates comprising members of municipalities, district boards, and such other local authorities in the State as Parliament may by law specify. One-twelfth are elected by residents of the State who have been graduates of any university in India for at least three years, or have held for at least three years qualifications that a law made by Parliament recognises as equivalent. One-twelfth are elected by people who have taught for at least three years in institutions in the State not lower in standard than a secondary school. One-third are elected by members of the Assembly from among people who are not its members.<\/p>\n The Governor nominates the remainder, chosen from the fields of literature, science, art, the co-operative movement, and social service.<\/p>\n \n A view of the renovated legislative council building at the Legislature Premises in Public Gardens, in Hyderabad, on March 8, 2026. Six States have a legislative council at present: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh. Under Article 169 of the Constitution, Parliament can, through a simple Act, abolish or create a legislative council, but only after the Legislative Assembly of the State concerned passes a resolution to that effect, by a majority of its total membership and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting.<\/p>\n In recent decades, the relevance of the legislative council has increasingly come under question. It has been debated whether the second chamber, instead of providing oversight of the Lower House\u2019s legislative functions, has ended up being politically partisan and a means of rehabilitating leaders who cannot win elections or doling out patronage.<\/p>\n Even the decision by States to have a legislative council or not appears to be dictated by political expediency and depends on which party is in power. For example, the abolition of the legislative council in West Bengal in 1969 coincided with the Congress\u2019 defeat in the Assembly elections and the coming to power of a coalition opposed to the Congress, which included the Left parties. The Congress-dominated council was seen as inimical to the government.<\/p>\n In July 2021, the West Bengal Assembly passed a resolution, piloted by the Trinamool Congress government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, to set up a legislative council in the State, in keeping with the party\u2019s election manifesto. Parliament did not take it up.<\/p>\n Tamil Nadu has seen a political see-saw on the question of having a legislative council. In 1986, the government led by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) decided to abolish the second chamber. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, when in power, has taken the initiative to re-establish it, while the AIADMK has opposed it.<\/p>\n In Andhra Pradesh, the legislative council was abolished in 1985 on the initiative of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government led by N.T. Rama Rao. A Congress government revived it in 2007. In 2020, a political tussle between the then ruling YSR Congress Party and the TDP led the government of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to get a resolution passed in the Assembly for abolition of the council, but a Bill to that effect was not introduced in Parliament. The State Assembly withdrew the resolution in 2021.<\/p>\n The Assam Assembly passed a resolution in 2005 and again in 2010 for the creation of a legislative council. The government of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, which took the initiative on both occasions, said the aim was to give equal representation to all the indigenous communities in the State. A Bill to this effect moved in the Rajya Sabha in 2013 could not be enacted.<\/p>\n In 2021, the Rajasthan government of then Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot recommended that a legislative council be set up in the State. It was widely believed that the move was politically motivated, meant to appease Congress candidates who had lost to Independents and rebels supporting the Gehlot government. The State Assembly had also passed a resolution in 2012, again under Gehlot, for setting up a legislative council. Gehlot\u2019s BJP rival Vasundhara Raje had made a similar move as Chief Minister in 2008.<\/p>\n The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, in its report on the 2013 Bill for a legislative council in Assam, noted that some quarters opposed the move, feeling that it would add to the financial burden on the State exchequer and be a place for accommodating defeated candidates of the ruling party. The committee also mentioned the criticism that since the Upper House of the State legislature is a \u201cweak chamber\u201d, there was no need to revive a redundant colonial relic.<\/p>\n While endorsing the Bill in the larger public interest, the committee reiterated the recommendation it made when examining the Rajasthan initiative: that the Centre evolve a national policy on second chambers in the States so that a council, once created, is not abolished by a future government. The panel also suggested a full review of the teachers\u2019 and graduates\u2019 constituencies in view of present circumstances.<\/p>\n The Second Administrative Reforms Commission, in its 2007 report on local governance, recommended creating legislative councils in the States that do not have a second chamber, but said they should be refashioned to represent the voice of local bodies, with members elected solely from the representatives of local bodies.<\/p>\n The commission noted that there is no raison d\u2019\u00eatre now for a separate graduates\u2019 constituency. It also said that with the modernisation of the economy, a large number of professions have emerged, and in such a situation it may not be proper to give representation to only one profession\u2014teaching.<\/p>\n Also Read | Rethinking representation<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Also Read | The vanishing Muslim MLA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/fl-i.thgim.com\/public\/incoming\/ukrvnj\/article71701829.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/Constituent%20Assembly%201949.jpg\" "\\"In")
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\n G. RAMAKRISHNA\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nAbolition and revival<\/h3>\n
Calls for reform<\/h3>\n