Abolition or creation of Legislative Councils in States

Article 169, Constitution of India 1950

(1) Notwithstanding anything in article 168, Parliament may by law provide for the abolition of the Legislative Council of a State having such a Council or for the creation of such a Council in a State having no such Council, if the Legislative Assembly of the State passes a resolution to that effect by a majority of the total membership of the Assembly and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of the Assembly present and voting.

⁠(2) Any law referred to in clause (1) shall contain such provisions for the amendment of this Constitution as may be necessary to give effect to the provisions of the law and may also contain such supplemental, incidental and consequential provisions as Parliament may deem necessary.

⁠(3) No such law as aforesaid shall be deemed to be an amendment of this Constitution for the purposes of article 368.

Draft Article 148A (Article 169) was not included in the Draft Constitution of India 1948.

The Chairman of the Drafting Committee proposed the insertion of the following provision:

148A.(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in article 148 of this Constitution, Parliament may by law provide for the abolition of the Legislative Council of a State having such a Council or for the creation of such a Council in a State having no such Council, if the Legislative Assembly of the State passes a resolution to that effect by a majority of the total membership of the Assembly and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of the Assembly present and voting.

(2) Any law referred to in clause (1) of this article shall contain such provisions for the amendment of this Constitution as may be necessary to give effect to the provisions of the law and may also contain such incidental and consequential provisions as Parliament may deem necessary.

(3) No such law as aforesaid shall be deemed to be an amendment of this Constitution for the purpose of article 304 thereof.

The provision allowed State Legislatures to create or abolish a Second Chamber. The Chairman contended that this Draft Article was necessary to allow States to make changes relating to the Second Chamber without having to meet the arduous criteria for a constitutional amendment.

One member moved an amendment which would require a 14-day notice period for discussion of a Bill pertaining to the creation or abolition of the Second Chamber. This was supported by a member who argued that there was precedent for such a requirement being attached to the discussion of very important matters, citing Draft Article (Article 61) which set out the procedure to impeach the President.

Another member wanted to amend the Draft Article so that a Second Chamber could not be created in a State which had decided against the same during the constitution-making process. He pointed out that the States had already conferred on the matter. This received the support of at least one other member of the Assembly, who believed that only those with vested interests would pursue the creation of a Second Chamber in a State which had already rejected it.

All the proposed amendments were rejected. Draft Article 148A was adopted on 30 July 1949.