Parliament consists of the President and the two Houses-the Council of States and the House of the People. While the two Houses continue to be recognised by these names in the Constitution, they are in actual practice known respectively as the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

On 14 May 1954, the Speaker, Lok Sabha, announced that the House of the People would thereafter be known as Lok Sabha. On 23 August 1954, the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, made the following announcement:

With the concurrence of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Council, I have decided that the Council of States will be called Rajya Sabha and its Secretariat the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, the historian member, however, suggested that the Council of States should be aptly called Rashtra Sabha. The maximum strength of the Rajya Sabha is 250 out of which 12 members are nominated by the President and 238 are representatives of the States and of the Union territories. The members nominated by the President are persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service. The allocation of seats to be filled by representatives of States and the Union territories is laid down in the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution. The representatives of States are elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the respective States in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The representatives of the Union territories are chosen in such manner as Parliament may, by law, prescribe.

Part IVA of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, provides for the manner of filling seats in the Rajya Sabha allocated to Union territories. Section 27A of that Act provides that for the purpose of filling any seat or seats in the Council of States allotted to any Union territory in the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution, there shall be an electoral college for each such territory. Prior to the enactment of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991 (1 of 1992), the electoral college for the Union territory of Delhi consisted of the elected members of the Metropolitan Council of Delhi constituted under the Delhi Administration Act, 1966 (19 of 1966). The electoral college for the Union territory of Delhi now consists of the elected members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly constituted under the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991. The electoral college for the Union territory of Pondicherry consists of the elected members of the Pondicherry Legislative Assembly constituted under the Government of Union Territory, Act, 1963 (20 of 1963).The Union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Chandigarh do not have any representatives in the Rajya Sabha.

Fourth Schedule as on 26 November 1949

When the Constitution was adopted in 1949, the Rajya Sabha was to consist of 217 members of which 12 members were to be nominated by the President and the remaining 205 elected to represent the States. According to the original Fourth Schedule to the Constitution, the allocation of seats was as follows:

Fourth Schedule as on 26 January 1950

Article 391 read with article 392(3)14 of the Constitution, provided that if at any time between the passing of the Constitution and its commencement any action was taken under the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935, which required any amendment in the Fourth Schedule, the Governor-General of the Dominion of India was empowered to make by order such amendments in the said Schedule and further, when the Fourth Schedule

(a) in Part A of the Schedule, the name "United Provinces" was changed to "Uttar Pradesh";
(b) in Part B, entry relating to "Vindhya Pradesh" was omitted (bringing down the total under that Part from 53 to 49);
total under that Part from 53 to 49); (c) in Part C - (i) the entry relating to Cooch-Behar was omitted; (ii) the entry relating to Vindhya Pradesh was inserted (increasing the total under that Part from 7 to 10) ; and (d) the total figure at the end of the Schedule was reduced from 205 to 204.15 Thus when the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950, the Rajya Sabha was to consist of 216 members of which 12 members were to be nominated by the President and the remaining 204 elected to represent the States.

Rajya Sabha-initial constitution

The Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) was enacted by the Provisional Parliament, in exercise of the powers under article 379 of the Constitution, for securing, inter alia, the due constitution of the two Houses of Parliament and the State Legislatures as also elections to them. Article 80(4), as it then stood, provided that the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of Part A or Part B States would elect their representatives in the Council of States; while article 80(5) empowered Parliament to prescribe by law the manner in which Part C States were to choose their representatives in the Council of States. The Representation of the People Act, 1950 (sections 27A to 27K) created an electoral college for each Part State for the purpose. That Act also stipulated that where there was a Legislative Assembly, the members of such Assembly constituted the electoral college. The Government of Part C States Act, 1951 (49 of 1951) provided for the constitution of Legislative Assemblies in the Part C States of Ajmer, Bhopal, Coorg, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Vindhya Pradesh. Members of these Legislative Assemblies therefore formed the electoral colleges for electing their representatives in the Council of States. As regards the remaining three Part C States, namely, Kutch, Manipur and Tripura, there were no Legislative Assemblies. Hence the Act of 1950 provided constitution of electoral colleges of 30 members each elected by adult franchise from the territorial constituencies, by an Order made under section 27C of that Act, for the purpose of filling seats allocated to them in the Council of States.

Elections were held for the House of the People and various State Legislative Assemblies, etc. during December 1951 and January 1952. On 4 March 1952, the elected members of all the Legislative Assemblies and of the 21 electoral colleges of Kutch and Tripura were called upon to elect representatives to the Council of States. As indicated earlier, two seats were allotted to groups of States-one to the group formed by Ajmer and Coorg and the other to the second group formed by Manipur and Tripura. At the initial constitution, the seat allotted to the Ajmer-Coorg group was filled by Ajmer and to the Manipur-Tripura group by Tripura. The dates for various stages of the election to the Council of States were:

(a) 13 March 1952- as the last date for making nominations;
(b) 14 March 1952- as the last date for scrutiny of nominations;
(c) 17 March 1952- as the last date for withdrawal of candidatures;
(d) 27 March 1952- as the date for taking poll; and
(e) 1 April 1952-date before which elections were to be completed.

As per the time schedule mentioned above, elections were held and completed by the end of March 1952, in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

The four representatives of Jammu and Kashmir were chosen by the President on the recommendation of the State Government as required by the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1950 (C.O. 10). In actual practice, the State Government acted upon a unanimous resolution of the Constituent Assembly of that State in recommending the names of the persons to be chosen by the President.

According to the terms of the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954, dated 14 May 1954, all future vacancies in the Council of States arising in the State of Jammu and Kashmir were to be filled by the elected members of that Assembly The first such election took place in November 1954

The declarations containing names of candidates elected to fill the seats at the elections were published under section 67 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, on 31 March 1952. The names of members elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of Part A and Part B States, by members of the electoral colleges for Part C States, nominated members of Jammu and Kashmir and 12 members nominated by the President under article 80 of the Constitution, were published under section 71 of that Act on 3 April 1952.Thus the Rajya Sabha was initially constituted under the Constitution on that day.

Fourth Schedule as amended in 1956

The Fourth Schedule was amended by the Andhra State Act, 1953, States Reorganisation Act, 1956, and the Bihar and West Bengal (Transfer of Territories) Act, 1956. The Schedule, as amended, was replaced by the following Schedule in its entirety, by the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956.The new allocation of seats amongst various States and Union territories was as follows:

1. Andhra Pradesh 18
2. Assam 7
3. Bihar 22
4. Bombay 27
5. Kerala 9
6. Madhya Pradesh 16
7. Madras 17
8. Mysore 12
9. Orissa 10
10. Punjab 11
11. Rajasthan 10
12. Uttar Pradesh 34
13. West Bengal 16
14. Jammu & Kashmir 4
15. Delhi 3
16. Himachal Pradesh 2
17. Manipur 1
18. Tripura 1
TOTAL 220

Changes in the composition

Consequent on the reorganisation of States and formation of new States the number of elective seats in the Rajya Sabha allotted to States and Union territories has increased from time to time since 1952 as indicated below:

TABLE-I

Present allocation of seats

The maximum membership of the Rajya Sabha as laid down in the Constitution is 250. The present strength, however, is 245 members of whom 233 are representatives of the States and Union territories and 12 are nominated by the President. The allocation of seats to be filled by representatives of the States and Union territories as presently laid down in the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution is as follows:

TABLE-II States No. of Members

1. Andhra Pradesh 18
2. Arunachal Pradesh 1
3. Assam 7
4. Bihar 22
5. Goa 1
6. Gujarat 11
7. Haryana 5
8. Himachal Pradesh 3
9. Jammu & Kashmir 4
10. Karnataka 12
24
States No. of Members
11. Kerala 9
12. Madhya Pradesh 16
13. Maharashtra 19
14. Manipur 1
15. Meghalaya 1
16. Mizoram 1
17. Nagaland 1
18. Orissa 10
19. Punjab 7
20 Rajasthan 10
21 Sikkim 1
22. Tamil Nadu 18
23. Tripura 1
24. Uttar Pradesh 34
25. West Bengal 16
Union territories
26. Delhi 3
27. Pondicherry 1
TOTAL 233