Constitutional Amendment Bills and State Legislatures
Statement 1: State legislatures can initiate amendment bills.
This statement is incorrect.
Only the Parliament of India has the power to initiate a bill for the amendment of the Constitution of India.
State legislatures cannot introduce any bill to amend the Constitution. They can, however, pass resolutions for the creation or abolition of Legislative Councils in their states, which then requires a parliamentary act.
Joint Sittings and Amendment Bills
Statement 2: No joint sitting is provided for disagreements between Houses.
This statement is correct.
The Constitution of India does not provide for a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) to resolve a deadlock on a Constitutional Amendment Bill.
This is a significant difference from the procedure for ordinary bills, where a joint sitting can be summoned under Article 108 in case of disagreement.
For a Constitutional Amendment Bill, both Houses must pass the bill independently and separately.
Passage of Amendment Bills
Statement 3: The bill must be passed separately in each House.
This statement is correct.
As per Article 368 of the Constitution, a Constitutional Amendment Bill must be passed by each House of Parliament separately.
This means that if one House rejects the bill, it lapses, even if the other House has passed it.
Furthermore, the bill requires a special majority for passage, which means a majority of the total membership of each House and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting.
