Legislative Council will be formed in West Bengal
Recently, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly has passed a resolution to constitute a Legislative Council.
Legislative Council like the Rajya Sabha, is an upper house in the state legislature and it is a permanent house.
The members of the Legislative Council are either nominated or indirectly elected by the Governor of the state.
The term of the members of the Legislative Council is six years and one-third of the members of the House retire after every two years.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Indian citizen who is at least 30 years old. A person cannot be a member of Parliament and State Legislature at the same time.
- According to Article 169 of the Constitution, Parliament can create and abolish the Legislative Council in any State by law, if a resolution to this effect is passed by the Legislative Assembly of that State.
- Also, the total number of members of the Legislative Council under Article 171 shall not exceed one-third of the total number of members of the Legislative Assembly of that State, but shall in no case be less than The resolution is passed by two-thirds of the members of the Legislative Assembly. Thereafter a bill to this effect is passed by the Parliament.
- At present there are Legislative Councils in six states namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.
The members of the Legislative Council come in the following ways –
- 1/3rd members are elected by the Legislative Assembly.
- 1/3rd members are elected by local bodies such as municipalities or other local authorities.
- 1/12 members are elected by 3-year graduates.
- 1/12 members are elected by the people who have been teaching for 3
- 1/6 are nominated by the Governor.
Source – The Hindu
