In July 2021, the Cabinet of Rajasthan headed by CM Gehlot has approved a proposal to constitute Rajasthan legislative council. A proposal to constitute the Vidhan Parishad will be sent to Parliament after getting a nod of the Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha.
What is State Legislative Council or Vidhan Parishad ?
In the political system of India, there are two types of states with regard to state legislature. Most of the state in India have Unicameral system while few others have a bicameral system. Unicameral system has only one House and is known as the Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha), however, in Bicameral system, the State has two houses, the lower House is known as the Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) and the Upper House is known as the Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad).
Presently, only 6 States in India namely: Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have Bicameral system of state legislature.
According to the Constitution, any legislative council of a state cannot have more than one-third of members of the state assembly or less than 40. However, actual strength decided by Parliament. The council cannot be dissolved and its member’s tenure is of six years.
In july 2021, West Bengal passed a resolution supporting an ad hoc committee report that favoured the creation of a legislative council. After 2 days, the Rajasthan State cabinet also cleared a proposal in this regard.
Previous attempts to Constitute Rajasthan Legislative Council:
In 2008, the proposal to constitute Rajasthan Legislative Council was sent for the first time. Later on 18th April 2012, the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly passed the resolution for second time and the proposal was again sent to Parliament. However, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice had sought the opinion of the state government regarding the suggestions of the Standing Committee of Parliament on the proposal to constitute the Legislative Council. As per officials, after nine years, the state government is now submitting its opinion.
