With reference to the ‘Joint Sitting of Parliament’, which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. Article 109 of the Constitution of India provides for the Joint Sitting of Parliament.
2. A J

Question

With reference to the ‘Joint Sitting of Parliament’, which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. Article 109 of the Constitution of India provides for the Joint Sitting of Parliament.
2. A Joint Sitting of Parliament may be called to pass a Constitution Amendment Bill.
Select the correct answer from the code given below :
Code :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, neither 1 nor 2. Both statements fail, and each fails on a point the Constitution settles in one line. Statement 1 misnames the Article. The joint sitting of the two Houses is provided for by Article 108, not Article 109; Article 109 lays down the special procedure in respect of Money Bills, under which the Rajya Sabha may only make recommendations and the Lok Sabha may accept or reject them. Article 108(1) lets the President notify an intention to summon a joint sitting when a Bill passed by one House and transmitted to the other is rejected by that other House, or the two Houses have finally disagreed on the amendments to be made, or more than six months elapse from the date the other House receives the Bill without its being passed — and the proviso to Article 108(1) expressly excludes Money Bills from the whole mechanism. Statement 2 fails because a Constitution Amendment Bill cannot go to a joint sitting either. Article 368 requires such a Bill to be passed in EACH House by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting. The words are 'in each House', so the two Houses cannot be pooled; if the Rajya Sabha refuses, the amendment simply dies. There is no provision anywhere in Part XX for breaking that deadlock. With both statements false, the code gives (c).

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This accepts both errors at once. The Article number is wrong — joint sittings come from Article 108, while Article 109 is the special procedure for Money Bills — and the subject-matter is wrong too, because Article 368 requires a Constitution Amendment Bill to clear each House separately by a special majority, with no joint-sitting fallback.  (b) Statement 2 is the one that is false. A joint sitting is confined to ordinary Bills (and, in practice, financial Bills that are not Money Bills). A Constitution Amendment Bill under Article 368 must be passed in each House by a majority of the total membership of that House plus two-thirds of those present and voting, so a disagreement between the Houses cannot be resolved by putting them in one room.  (d) Statement 1 is false because of the Article number. It is Article 108 that provides for the joint sitting; Article 109 deals with Money Bills, where no joint sitting is possible at all because the Lok Sabha's will prevails by itself. UPPSC used this exact bait once before — in 2023 it printed 'Article 109 provides for the joint sitting' as a statement and marked it wrong.

Concept: A joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament is the Constitution's device for breaking a legislative deadlock, and it lives in Article 108. When a Bill passed by one House is rejected by the other, or the Houses finally disagree over amendments, or the other House sits on the Bill for more than six months, the President may notify an intention to summon both Houses to meet together; at that sitting the Bill is decided by a majority of the total number of members of both Houses present and voting, which in practice means the numerically larger Lok Sabha carries the day. Two categories of Bill are kept out. Money Bills are excluded by the proviso to Article 108(1), because Article 109 already gives the Lok Sabha the last word on them. Constitution Amendment Bills are excluded because Article 368 demands passage in each House separately by a special majority, and offers no deadlock-breaking machinery at all.

State PCS 2025 Q106 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

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