Politics of India works within the framework of the country's Constitution. India is a parliamentary secular democratic republic in which the president of India is the head of state & first citizen of India and the Prime Minister of India is the head of government. It is based on the federal structure of government, although the word is not used in the Constitution itself. India follows the dual polity system, i.e. federal in nature, that consists of the central authority at the centre and states at the periphery. The Constitution defines the organizational powers and limitations of both central and state governments; it is well recognised, fluid and considered supreme, i.e. the laws of the nation must conform to it. India is officially declared a secular and socialist state as per the Constitution.
The president of India is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the supreme commander of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu is the 15th and current president, having taken office from 25 July 2022.
The Rajya Sabha, also known as the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. As of 2023, it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using single transferable votes through open ballots, while the president can appoint 12 members for their contributions to art, literature, science, and social service. The total allowed capacity is 250 according to article 80 of the Indian Constitution. The current potential seating capacity of the Rajya Sabha is 245, after the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Act. The maximum seats of 250 members can be filled up at the discretion and requirements of the house of Rajya Sabha.
The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past-the-post system to represent their respective constituencies, and they hold their seats for five years or until the body is dissolved by the President on the advice of the council of ministers. The house meets in the Lok Sabha Chambers of the Parliament House, New Delhi.
The Parliament of India or Indian Parliament, is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. The President of India, in their role as head of the legislature, has full powers to summon and prorogue either house of Parliament or to dissolve the Lok Sabha, but they can exercise these powers only upon the advice of the Prime Minister and their Union Council of Ministers.
The Government of India is the central executive authority of the Republic of India, a federal republic located in South Asia, consisting of 28 states and eight union territories. The government is led by the prime minister who exercises the most executive power and selects all the other ministers. The country has been governed by a NDA-led government since 2014. The prime minister and their senior ministers belong to the Union Council of Ministers—its executive decision-making committee being the cabinet.
The vice president of India is the deputy to the head of state of the Republic of India, i.e. the president of India. The office of vice president is the second-highest constitutional office after the president and ranks second in the order of precedence and first in the line of succession to the presidency. The vice president is also the ex officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
India has a parliamentary system as defined by its constitution, with power distributed between the union government and the states. India's democracy is the largest democracy in the world.
The speaker of the Lok Sabha is the presiding officer and the highest authority of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. The speaker is elected generally in the first meeting of the Lok Sabha following general elections. The speaker does not enjoy a security of tenure and his term is subjected to the pleasure of the house i.e. can be removed anytime by a resolution of the Lok Sabha by a majority of the all the then members of the house. The longest-serving speaker was Balram Jakhar, whose tenure lasted 9 years and 329 days.
In the Westminster system, a money bill or supply bill is a bill that solely concerns taxation or government spending, as opposed to changes in public law.
This is a brief description of the lawmaking procedure in India.
The Government of Delhi, officially the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi is the governing body of India's National Capital Territory of Delhi, whose urban area is the seat of the Union Government. It also governs the city or local governments in the area as per the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act.
The Women's Reservation Bill or The Constitution Bill, 9 March 2010, is a bill passed in the Parliament of India which says to amend the Constitution of India to reserve 1/3 of all seats in the lower house of Parliament of India, the Lok Sabha, and in all state legislative assemblies for women. The seats were proposed to be reserved in rotation and would have been determined by draw of lots in such a way that a seat would be reserved only once in three consecutive general elections.
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 is an Indian legislation passed by the Lok Sabha on 19 March 2013, and by the Rajya Sabha on 21 March 2013, which provides for amendment of Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, and Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 on laws related to sexual offences. The Bill received Presidential assent on 2 April 2013 and was deemed to be effective from 3 February 2013. It was originally an Ordinance promulgated by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, on 3 February 2013, in light of the protests in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case.
The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014, commonly known as the Telangana Act, is an Act of Indian Parliament that split the state of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana and the residuary Andhra Pradesh state, as an outcome of the Telangana movement. The Act defined the boundaries of the two states, determined how the assets and liabilities were to be divided, and laid out the status of Hyderabad as the permanent capital of new Telangana state and temporary capital of the Andhra Pradesh state.
The Ninety-second Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as The Constitution Act, 2003, amended the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution so as to include Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santali languages, thereby raising the total number of languages listed in the schedule to 22. The Eighth Schedule lists languages that the Government of India has the responsibility to develop.
The Muslim Women Act, 2019 is an Act of the Parliament of India criminalising triple talaq. In August 2017, the Supreme Court of India declared triple talaq, which enables Muslim men to instantly divorce their wives, to be unconstitutional. The minority opinion suggested the Parliament to consider appropriate legislation governing triple talaq in the Muslim community.
The Transgender Persons Act, 2019 is an act of the Parliament of India with the objective to provide for protection of rights of transgender people, their welfare, and other related matters. The act was introduced in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament, on 19 July 2019 by the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Thawar Chand Gehlot, in light of the lapse of the Transgender Persons Bill, 2018. The 2019 act and the immediately preceding 2018 bill, were both preceded by a 2016 version. They were met with protests and criticism by some transgender people, lawyers, and activists in India. The 2016 bill was sent to a standing committee which submitted its report in July 2017. Following this, the Lok Sabha tabled and passed a newer version of the bill in December 2018. However, it did not incorporate many of the committee's recommendations. Although members of the opposition criticised the 2019 act and assured activists that they would not vote in favour of it, it was passed by the Lok Sabha on 5 August 2019 and by the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament, on 26 November 2019. The president assented to it on 5 December 2019, upon which the act was published in the Gazette of India. It has been in effect since 10 January 2020 following a notification of the same in the Gazette on the same day.
The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021 was enacted by the Government of India on 28 March 2021. It amends the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991 to give primacy to the centrally appointed Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and make the elected Government of Delhi subsidiary. The elected government will now have to seek the opinion of the Lieutenant Governor for any executive action.
Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, Ordinance, 2023 aims to create a National Capital Civil Service Authority which will have power related to Transfer and Posting of officers under Delhi Government. India is a federal country where each state is headed by a Chief Minister and his council of Ministers. Delhi being a Union Territory also has a legislature. Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, ordinance is aimed to make transfer and posting more stable and to make both Central and state government of Delhi be involved in transfer-posting of officers.
