The Indian Parliment (Samvidhan Sadan to Sansad Bhawan)

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Description
I express my profound gratitude to LexisNexis for launching my book, The Indian Parliament: Samvidhan Sadan to Sansad Bhawan. There have been a host of significant developments in the realm of parliamentary practices since 2017 with the merger of Rail Budget and presentation of the consolidated Budget to the Parliament in terms of Article 112 of the Constitution. With the construction of new Parliament building, the iconic old Parliament building has been rechristened as Samvidhan Sadan and the new building as Sansad Bhawan. The nation has also undergone two General Elections held in 2019 and 2024. The electoral politics of a nation shapes the composition and contours of Parliament and brings inevitable hydraulic pressure on constitutional bodies and institutions in varying degrees.
government,
Electoral politics, culminating in formation of coalition transforms even the most unpersuasive leaders and compels them to be malleable and accommodative. At the very beginning of the 18th Lok Sabha, the coalition government conceded the demand of the opposition and its allies to constitute the Joint Select Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024. The government also yielded to some extent the demand of allocation of the chairs of certain parliamentary panels to the members of the opposition and shelved the decision to make higher level lateral entries in the public services in view of stout parliamentary opposition including opposition within the allies of the ruling alliance. In contrast, the 16th Lok Sabha passed three ordinary legislations as Money Bills. The 17th Lok Sabha will continue to have an unrivalled record for passing the 3 Farm Laws by voice vote and later repealing them under mounting public pressure; suspension of 146 MPs on a single day before passing the three penal laws; and turning down the notices for discussion on matters of national importance including the demand for discussion on Manipur. Besides, the 17th Lok Sabha will be remembered by the posterity for being without a Deputy Speaker. It was an egregious violation of the Constitutional command enshrined in Article 93. Significantly, the 18th Lok Sabha is still to elect its Deputy Speaker. Expulsion of a member on the recommendation of a fiercely divided Ethics Committee during the 17th Lok Sabha will continue to be yet another matter of procedural as well as constitutional debate.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Evolution of Democracy
Chapter 2: The Framing of the Constitution
Chapter 3: Parliament: Composition and Functions
Chapter 4: Disqualifications and Duties of Members
Chapter 5: Of Law and Law Making...
Chapter 6: The Budget and the Budgetary Process
Chapter 7: Questions
Chapter 8: Devices for Raising Discussions in Parliament
Chapter 9: Parliamentary Committees
Chapter 10: Powers and Privileges of Parliament
Chapter 11: The Speaker, Powers and Functions
Chapter 12: The Functionaries of Parliament
Chapter 13: Political Parties and Democratic Politics 
Chapter 14: Elections and Electoral Systems
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Author Details
Devender Singh is a member of the Supreme Court Bar Association. As a dedicated lawyer, he specializes in constitutional law, dispute resolution, and arbitration, and is committed to offering free legal aid to underprivileged communities. He is actively involved with the Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies and serves as a faculty member at the Parliamentary Research & Training Institute, Lok Sabha, PRS Legislative Research, and the Centre for Good Governance. His extensive travels have seen him participate in numerous national and international parliamentary conferences, workshops, and seminars.
The author has delivered numerous talks on constitutional and parliamentary themes, as well as contemporary public policy issues, to a diverse audience including officers of union and state governments, students, teachers, journalists, and parliamentary officials and legislators from various countries. He has written several books and contributed articles on pressing national issues to esteemed national dailies and journals. Born in 1957, he served the Parliament for over three dynamic decades and demitted office in 2017 from the post of Additional Secretary.