It is also called the lower house of the Parliament. The survival of the government relies on the majority it holds in the Lok Sabha. It is mentioned in the constitution as ‘House of the People’ because members of this house are chosen through direct election on the basis of adult suffrage.

Lok Sabha was constituted for the first time on 17th April 1952 after the first general elections held from 25th October 1951 to 21st February 1952.

Lok Sabha Composition

Maximum Strength

• Article 81 of the Constitution prescribes maximum strength of the Lok Sabha. 
• It is fixed at 550 members.

Present Strength

• Total members – 543
• Representatives from states – 524
• Representatives from UTs – 19

Lok Sabha Qualifications and Disqualifications

These are similar to those related to the Rajya Sabha. One exception is that a person above the age of 25 years can contest an election to the Lok Sabha.

Election of Lok Sabha Members

Representation from States      

• Mode of election: Directly elected by people from the territorial constituencies prescribed for states by the Delimitation act.
• Election system: First past the post system. 
• Universal Adult Franchise – Every eligible citizen of India who is at least 18 years old. 

• Voting Age:  The 61st Amendment to the Constitution lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 years.

Representation from Union Territories

• Constitutional Provision:  Constitution has ‘empowered’ the Parliament to prescribe the manner of choosing the representatives of the union territories in the Lok Sabha.
• Union Territories (Direct Election to the House of the People) Act,1965 – was enacted by Parliament to fulfil the constitutional provision. 
• Mode of election, election system, and voting age is the same as that of states.

Territorial Constituencies in Lok Sabha Elections

• Objective: For the purpose of holding ‘direct elections’ to the Lok Sabha, each state is divided into territorial constituencies. It should be noted that states are not divided into constituencies for elections to the Rajya Sabha.
• Delimitation Act: The Constitution, through article 82, has granted the Parliament the authority to allocate seats among various states in the Lok Sabha and to define the territorial constituencies for Lok Sabha elections following each census. Parliament has passed 4 delimitation acts till date. These were enacted in the years 1952, 1962, 1972, and 2002.

• Allocation of Seats to states in Lok Sabha: The allocation of seats in the Lok Sabha to states is carried out in a way that, as much as possible, maintains a consistent ratio between a state’s population and the number of seats assigned to it.
  • Example – Population of Maharashtra as per 1971 census was almost 50 million and Lok Sabha seats allotted to Maharashtra – 48 ; Population of Tamil Nadu as per 1971 census was almost 41 million and Lok Sabha seats allotted to Tamil Nadu – 39. If we compare the ratio of population and seats of Maharashtra and of Tamil Nadu, we would get almost the same result.
• Allocation of Seats to different territorial constituencies within the state: The distribution of seats among different territorial constituencies within a state is conducted so that the ratio between the population of each constituency and the number of seats assigned to it remains uniform across the state.

Reservation of seats

Constitutional provision: Article 330 provides for reservation of seats for members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe Communities in the Lok Sabha.

• • 104th Constitutional (Amendment) Act 2019: it has extended this reservation for another 10 years i.e. up to 2030.

• Population Ratios: The ratio between the number of seats allotted to SCs or STs and the total number of seats allotted to that State/UT, as nearly as possible, should be the same as the ratio between total population of SCs or STs in that State/UT and total population of that State/UT.
• Representation of the People’s Act 1951 (RPA 1951): The candidate must belong to scheduled caste community in order to contest an election for a seat reserved for scheduled castes. Same is the case with respect to reserved seats for scheduled tribes. However, a member of the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes community is not barred from contesting in an election from an Unreserved seat.

It should be noted that the constitution does not provide such a reservation of seats in the Rajya Sabha.

Term of Lok Sabha

Typically, the Lok Sabha serves a term of five years starting from the date of its initial meeting.

• The Lok Sabha can be dissolved by the President even before the completion of five years. Automatic dissolution – After completion of the term of 5 years.
• Term of the Lok Sabha can be extended during ‘National Emergency’.

Vacation of seats

Under Article 101, constitution mentions about vacation of seats:

• Double membership: 
  • A person cannot be a member of both the houses of the parliament. If a person is elected to both houses, they must inform within ten days which house they wish to serve. Otherwise, their seat in the Rajya Sabha falls vacant.
  • If a sitting member of one house gets elected to other house of parliament, their seat in the first house becomes vacant.
  • If a person is elected to two seats in the house, they should inform about which seat they wish to represent, otherwise, both seats become vacant.
  • If a person gets elected to both the parliament and the state legislature, their seat in the parliament falls vacant if they do not resign from the state legislature within fourteen days.
• Resignation: A member can resign from their seat by writing to the Speaker or the Chairman, as the case may be. The Speaker or the Chairman checks the genuineness of the resignation and only the ‘voluntary resignations’ are accepted. After acceptance of such resignation by the presiding officer, the seat of a member becomes vacant.
• Disqualification: A person can be disqualified on any of the grounds mentioned under Article 102 of the constitution or RPA, 1951 or under anti-defection law.
• Absence from the house: If a member of parliament remains absent, without permission of the house from all meetings for a period of sixty days the house may declare their seat vacant.

A member of parliament’s seat may also become vacant under certain circumstances, such as

• If the election of a member of the parliament is declared void.
• If the member is expelled from the house.
• If the member of the parliament gets elected to the office of President, Vice President or Governor of the State.