Question

Joint setting of the two houses of parliament are held to -------- ?
(A) Elect the president of india
(B) Elect the vice president of india
(C) Adopt a constitution amending bill
(D) Consider and pass a bill on which two house disagree

Answer 1

Hint - The Parliament of India is bicameral and consists of two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The agreement of both the Houses is required to pass any Bill. However, the framers of the Indian Constitution had conceived the conditions of deadlock between the upper house i.e. Rajya Sabha and the lower house i.e. Lok Sabha. Therefore, Article 108 of the Constitution of India provides for a joint sitting of the two houses to break this deadlock. The joint sitting of the Parliament is called by the President and is chaired by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha in his absence or the Deputy Speaker of the Rajya Sabha in his absence.

Complete Step by step solution: The Parliament of India is bicameral. The consent of both the Houses is required to pass any Bill. However, the framers of the Constitution of India anticipated the conditions of deadlock between the upper house i.e. Rajya Sabha and the lower house i.e. Lok Sabha. Therefore, the Constitution of India arranges for a joint sitting of the two houses to break this impasse. The joint sitting of the Parliament is called by the President (Article 108) and is chaired by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha in his absence or the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha in his absence. The Chairman does not preside over the joint session on any instrument/cost. If any of the above officers is not present, any other Member of Parliament can preside with the consent of both the Houses.
According to Article 108 of the Constitution, a joint session of Parliament can be called in the following situations.
 If a bill is passed by one House and presented in another House-
(A) The Bill is rejected by the other House; Or (b) the Houses ultimately disagreed as to the amendments to be made to the bill; Or (c) if more than six months have passed from the date of the reception of the bill by the other house without the passage of this bill, the President may hold until the bill is ended by dissolution of the Lok Sabha. If they are not seated or if they are not seated by public notification, then inform the Houses by message, it is their intention to call them to a joint meeting for the purpose of deliberating and voting on the bill.
However, in the six-month calculation period, those days are not considered when the house is predetermined or postponed for more than 4 consecutive days.
If the above conditions are satisfied, the President of India can call a joint sitting of both houses of parliament.

So option A is the correct answer.

Note - Not all bills can be referred to a joint sitting of Parliament. There are two exceptions:
 1. Money Bill - Under the Constitution of India, money bills only require the approval of the Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha can make recommendations for the Rajya Sabha, which is not necessary to accept it. Even though the Rajya Sabha does not pass the Money Bill within 14 days, it is presumed to have been passed by both the Houses of Parliament after the expiry of the above period. Therefore, the need to convene a joint session can never arise in the case of a money bill.
 2. Constitution Amendment Bill - Article 368 of the Indian Constitution requires that the Constitution of India can be amended by both the Houses of Parliament by a 2/3 majority (special majority). In case of disagreement between the two houses, there is no provision for convening a joint session of Parliament.