The joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha is summoned by

2018

The joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha is summoned by

  1. A.

    the President

  2. B.

    the Speaker of the Lok Sabha

  3. C.

    the Parliament

  4. D.

    the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha

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Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A

Article 108 of the Constitution of India provides a mechanism to resolve a deadlock between the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha over an ordinary (non-money) bill: a joint sitting of both Houses. The power to summon this joint sitting is vested exclusively in the President of India, exercised through a notification issued for that purpose.

Applying this here: when the two Houses disagree on a bill, or one House rejects it, or more than six months pass without action by the other House, Article 108(1) lets the President notify the intention to summon a joint sitting, and it is the President — and only the President — who then actually summons both Houses to meet together under Article 108(3). This provision has been invoked only three times in India's parliamentary history: the Dowry Prohibition Bill (1961), the Banking Service Commission (Repeal) Bill (1977), and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, 2002 (POTA).

  • the Speaker of the Lok Sabha presides over a joint sitting once it has been summoned, but presiding is not the same power as summoning it — that authority belongs to the President alone.

  • the Parliament (the two Houses together) is the body that meets in the joint sitting; it cannot summon its own extraordinary sitting — a specific constitutional office does that.

  • the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha presides only over the Rajya Sabha's own sittings and has no role in convening or presiding over a joint sitting of both Houses.

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