A Member of Parliament in the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

(

abbreviated An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing per ...

: MP) is the representative of the Indian states to the upper house of the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok ...

which is known as "Rajya Sabha" (constitutionally "Council of States"). Rajya Sabha MPs are elected by the

electoral college An electoral college is a body whose task is to elect a candidate to a particular office. It is mostly used in the political context for a constitutional body that appoints the head of state or government, and sometimes the upper parliament ...

of the elected members of the State Assembly with a system of

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

by a

single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

. The Parliament of India is

bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate Deliberative assembly, assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate ...

with two houses;

(

Upper house An upper house is one of two Legislative chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted p ...

i.e. Council of States) and the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

(

Lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

i.e. House of the People). Compared to the

, the Rajya Sabha has fewer members and its members have more restricted power. Unlike the

, the Rajya Sabha is a permanent body and cannot be dissolved at any time. However, every second year, one third of the members are retired and the vacancies are filled by fresh elections and Presidential nomination at the beginning of every third year.

Responsibilities of the members of parliament

Broad responsibilities of the members of parliament of Rajya Sabha are: *

Legislative A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...

responsibility: To pass Laws of India in the Rajya Sabha. * Oversight responsibility: To ensure that the executive (i.e. government) performs its duties satisfactorily. * Representative responsibility: To represent the views and aspirations of the people of their constituency in the Parliament of India (Rajya Sabha). *

Power of the purse The power of the purse is the ability of one group to control the actions of another group by withholding funding, or putting stipulations on the use of funds. The power of the purse can be used positively (e.g. awarding extra funding to programs ...

responsibility: To approve and oversee the revenues and expenditures proposed by the government. * The

Union Council of Ministers The Union Council of Ministers is the Cabinet (government), principal executive organ of the Government of India, which serves to aid and advise the President of India in execution of their functions.Article 74 of the ''Constitution of India' ...

, who are also members of parliament have an additional responsibility of the executive as compared to those who are not in the Council of Ministers.

Special powers

Members of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha enjoy special powers and responsibilities with regard to: * Making laws on any subject in the

State List The State List or List-II is a list of 61 items. Initially there were 66 items in the list in Schedule Seven to the Constitution of India. The legislative section is divided into three lists: the Union List, the State List and the Concurrent Lis ...

; * Making laws to create services at national level. * Supreme court judges tenure variable

Term

Unlike Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha can not be dissolved and is a permanent body, therefore members usually get chances to serve their full tenure unless they resign or vacate the seat due to death. One third of its members retire every two years. So each member has a term of six years

Qualifications for being a member of parliament

A person must satisfy all following conditions to be qualified to become a member of parliament of the Rajya Sabha: * Must be a

citizen of India India has two primary pieces of legislation governing nationality requirements, the Constitution of India and the Citizenship Act, 1955. All persons born in India between 26 January 1950 and 1 July 1987 automatically received citizenship by ...

* 30 years of age

Disqualifications for being a member of parliament

A person would be ineligible for being a Member of the Rajya Sabha if the person: * Holds any office of profit under the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

(other than an office permitted by Parliament of India by law). * Is of unsound mind. * Is an undischarged

insolvent In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet in ...

. * Has ceased to be a citizen of India. * Is so disqualified by any law made by the Indian Parliament. * Is so disqualified on the ground of

defection In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

. * Has been

convicted In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a trial by jud ...

, among other things, for promoting enmity between different groups. * Has been convicted for offence of

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

. * Has been punished for preaching and practicing social crimes such as

untouchability Untouchability is a form of social institution that legitimises and enforces practices that are discriminatory, humiliating, exclusionary and exploitative against people belonging to certain social groups. Although comparable forms of discrimin ...

dowry A dowry is a payment such as land, property, money, livestock, or a commercial asset that is paid by the bride's (woman's) family to the groom (man) or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price ...

, sati. * Has been convicted for an offence and sentenced to imprisonment. * Has been dismissed for corruption or for disloyalty to the State (in case of a government servant).

Composition/strength

Membership in the Rajya Sabha is limited to 250 members, and up to 238 members are elected by the members of all the

Vidhan Sabha The State Legislative Assembly, also known as the Vidhan Sabha or the Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in each of the states and certain union territories of India. Members of the legislative assembly are often directly elected to serve fiv ...

s (individual state legislatures) and up to 12 are nominated by the President for their contributions to art, literature, science, and social services. The strength can be lower than 250: the current one is at 245. (See next section on members.)

Responsibilities of the members of parliament

Special powers

Term

Qualifications for being a member of parliament

Disqualifications for being a member of parliament

Composition/strength

Members of the Rajya Sabha

See also

References

Further reading