Dissolution of parliament/assembly (dissolving govt.?): All you need to know

We often get to listen that "government has been dissolved..!!", "state govt. will get dissolved..!!" and  "Lok Sabha will be dissolved" etc. in this piece of content let’s see what actually dissolution of parliament/assembly is? And when it’s done.

Note: This post is for beginners who are learning Indian Polity or want to know when the dissolution is done and how is it done?

First of all, the dissolution of govt./assembly/Lokasabha means terminating membership of all the lower house members of parliament (or assembly in state), according to the need.

Second thing you must know about is that only lower house of any government can be dissolved with after crossing certain limits. Here lower house refers to Lok Sabha in center and that in bicameral state government is Vidana Sabha(or Legislative assembly).

Other fact to know here is that the Rajya Sabha and upper house of bicameral state govt. cannot be dissolved hence it is called permanent house of the parliament and bicameral assembly respectively.

QUICK FACTS..!! Bicameral government: It is basically a government with two separate assemblies or two separate houses, naming lower house and upper house. In Indian parliament we have bicameral system and in our states we generally have unicameral government except in 7 states with bicameral govt. Those are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Telagana.  Names of houses, In center lower house- Lok Sabha upper house- Rajya sabha In state it is lower house- Legislative assembly (Vidana Sabha) upper house- Legislative council (Vidana Parisad) The upper house is generally solid body and is never dissolved. Only 1/3 of house will get retired for every 2 years and refilled.

In below sections let’s see what the situations are and when the lower houses are dissolved.

Lok Sabha dissolution:

First of all, this dissolution can be done only by President with or without cabinet’s suggestions.

The dissolution of Lok Sabha takes place under two main consequences.

Those are,

1)    After completion of tenure of Lok Sabha (ie. 5 years).

point to be known: while the tenure of Lok Sabha can be increased by President during emergency

And

    2) When leader of ruling party loses his majority support

Early dissolution can also be done with the suggestion by cabinets chaired by Prime Minister

President conducts dissolution on the basis of provision given to him in article 85(2) of Indian constitution.

Assembly or lower assembly dissolution:

Similar to Lok Sabha the assembly/Vidhan Sabha can also be dissolved in similar situations,

       1) With end of tenure of the house (i.e. 5 years)

and

       2) Governor has to be satisfied with the instability of the government

President dissolves assembly( on recommendation by governor) on the basis of provision given to him in article 356 and article 365 of Indian constitution.

Article 356 is famously known as presidents rule/state emergency. This in imposed if governance of a state cannot be carried in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.(basically when discrepancy/instability occurs in the state governance)

QUICK FACTS..!! President's rule/state emergency The president’s rule is implacable in any state when there is failure in constitutional machinery in the state (as mentioned in article 356). The failures are generally failure to form majority during government formation or failure to maintain state’s legislature/execution/financial items per the constitutional provisions by the state government. Hence, it is also called as “constitutional emergency” Similar to national emergency after the president’s rule proclamation it has to be approved by both the houses of parliament but unlike national emergency the approval has to be done within two months. To read more about emergency and state emergency CLICK HERE

The assembly can be dissolved on the basis of article 365, if the state government fails to comply the orders or rules or guidelines given by center den president can take hold of the state imposing article 365.

In fact Chief Minister of India also can suggest governor for early dissolution just like Prime minister does to President for dissolution of Lok sabha.

QUICK FACTS..!! S R Bommai Vs Union of India case (1994): S R Bommai was chief minister of Karnataka between August 13, 1988 and April 21, 1989. The government with his leadership was dissolved on grounds of article 356. It was imposed due to lack of majority due to some momentary discrepancy in the coalition. Governor P. Venkatasubbaiah suggested President to call for state emergency and refused to give Bommai an opportunity to test his majority in the Assembly. Following it lower house has been dissolved. Later this imposition was challenged by S R Bommai at Supreme Court. After considering scope of misuse of article 356 after a course of five years historic decision was given on March 11, 1994. Judgment was given by a bench consist of 9 judges. This landmark case made few points clear that the presidents rules proclamation has to be approved by both the houses of parliament and only governor’s opinion about non confidence is not final fact to take decision it has to tested in the assembly,, and of course it has opened a door of challenging the decision if it found to be illogical.

I hope your this post has helped you to clarify facts, If you have any query/suggestion/feedback please comment down below.

NITI AYOG: All you need to know

What is NITI Aayog?

First of all the NITI stands for National Institution for Transforming India. It is a non- constitutional body established on January 1, 2015 replacing age-old, planning commission of India. 

NITI Aayog is a think tank (or an advice and planning committee) of Government of India formed mainly to provide both directional and policy inputs. This has been framed by scraping out the ‘Planning commission’, which used to make 5 years plans and distribution of finance for various state and central plans. Being an advisory committee, while designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States. The first meeting of  NITI Aayog was held on February 8, 2015.

Most of us will have a common question ie. Is NITI Aayog a constitutional body?, as mentioned earlier NITI Aayog is neither a constitutional body nor a statutory body, It is Non- constitutional body/non- statutory with structure as explained below.

Quick facts, before moving further: All government bodies are divided into three types. those are, 1.Constitutional body: Any government body or organization which has been created after its mention in constitution and it is most important body among all. example: election commission of India 2.Statutory body: any body which has been formed after an act/law has been passed by the parliament/assembly. example: SEBI(Securities and Exchange Board of India) 3.Non-constitutional: any and non- statuary body which has been formed by the government with an agenda to fulfill and for ease of governing, generally these bodies will be converted into statutory. example: NITI Aayog

Body and Members of NITI Aayog:

Unlike Planning commission NITI Aayog is a body with bottom up approach in advisory method. Whre the planning ideas and suggestions comes from lower most elements of the body. The Headquarter of Aayog is at Delhi with Prime minister being chairperson of the body. The prime minister himself choses other parts of this organization. Those parts include a vice chairman, a chief executive officer, four ex-official members and two part-time members.

Chief ministers of all states/Delhi/Puduchery and Lt. governors of union territories are  permanent members of the commission and this is also governing and regional council of the body.  Temporary members are generally chosen from various leading universities and research institutes of the country. 

For easy understanding the structure is schematically explained below,

NITI Aayog structure

Current body constitutes of,

POST	PERSON
Chairperson	Shri Narendra Modi, Hon'ble Prime Minister
Vice Chairperson	Dr. Rajiv Kumar
CEO	Shri Amitabh Kant
Full-Time Members	(i) Shri V.K. Saraswat (ii) Prof. Ramesh Chand (iii) Dr. V. K. Paul
Ex-officio Members	(i) Shri Raj Nath Singh, Minister of Defence (ii) Shri Amit Shah, Minister of Home Affairs (iii) Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs (iv) Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare;Minister of Rural Development; Minister of Panchayati Raj.
Special Invitees	(i) Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways; Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ii) ShriThaawar Chand Gehlot, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment. (iii) Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways; and Minister of Commerce and Industry (iv) Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State(Independent Charge) of Ministry of Planning.
Permanent members	Chief ministers of all states/Delhi/Puduchery and Lt. governors of union territories.

Besides all other structures, There are mainly two types of Hubs in NITI Aayog, those are,

1) Team India Hub: which mainly engages states with center.

2) Knowledge and Innovation Hub: this forms the main think tank of the commission.

The detailed functions of NITI Ayog are given below

Functions of NITI Aayog:

The NITI Aayog is mainly an advisory committee which does not hold any financial decision making /distribution power. As mentioned earlier, unlike Planning commission of India, the NITI Aayog follows bottom up approach for its discussions hence it emphasizes state's involvement in it. "Collaboration of center with states in planning" would be right words to use here.  

The following are main functions of it.

1. Prioritizing shared sectors and strategies with active participation of states. 

2. To foster cooperative federalism through structured support initiatives and mechanisms with the States on a continuous basis, recognizing that strong States make a strong nation.

3. Planning to development of village and lower level to empower it for its active participation in future decisions.

4. To ensure, on areas that are specifically referred to it, that the interests of national security are incorporated in economic strategy and policy.

5. To pay special attention to the sections of our society that may be at risk of not benefiting adequately from economic progress.

6. To make long term plans and involving feedback collection of it, mainly to innovate it, if there is scope to do so.

7.  To provide advice and encourage partnerships between key stakeholders and national and international like-minded Think tanks, as well as educational and policy research institutions.

8. To create a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system through a collaborative community of national and international experts, practitioners and other partners.

9. It is also frames a platform to resolve inter-sectoral and inter departmental issues to accelerate development and growth of the nation.

10.  To maintain a 'state-of-the-art' Resource Center, be a repository of research on good governance and best practices in sustainable and equitable development as well as help their dissemination to stake-holders.

11. To actively monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes and initiatives, including the identification of the needed resources so as to strengthen the probability of success and scope of delivery.

12.Mainly it has vision to support and plan the technology upgrading plans of the country.

13. To undertake other activities as may be necessary in order to further the execution of the national development agenda, and the objectives mentioned above.

How NITI Aayog is different from planning commission?

Most of you might have got a question like, if the NITI Aayog replaced the Planning commission what are the major difference between them?

Planning Commission follows top down model while NITI Aayog follows bottom up approach.

Unlike Planning Commission it is only a advisory committee and it does not make any financial division and most importantly five years plan scheme being cut down from PC (last five years plan was from 2012-17)

Quick facts, before moving further: Planning Commission: Planning commision famously known as 'Yojana Aayog' was a commision mainly formed, concentrating on developement of the country in various sectors. It was established on 15th March 1950 by Prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. This commission is being mainly known for one of its functioning  that is 'Five year Plan'. The '12th five years plan(2012 - 2017)' was last of it.  It was scrapped in 2014 by  NDA government to form NITI Aayog. It was considerably quite successful body with emphasis on social reforms.                                                                                                     To read more about it click HERE

If you have any query/ feedback/ suggestions, please feel free to comment down below.