Duration of Houses of Parliament
included in editionWhat does this mean?
Rajya Sabha is a continuing House with periodic retirement; Lok Sabha ordinarily lasts five years unless dissolved earlier. The Article provides a limited emergency-extension mechanism for Lok Sabha.
The Union's President, ministers, Parliament, Supreme Court and Comptroller and Auditor-General.
A Lok Sabha term ending and a Rajya Sabha member retiring are different institutional events.
Why is this provision here?
It distinguishes continuity in the second chamber from a directly elected House that ordinarily returns to the electorate within its term.
This Article number belongs to the original constitutional framework, but its present wording may include later amendments or substitutions. A provision-specific original Assembly debate has not been verified here. The explanation of function above is editorial inference from the text, not an attributed single motive of the framers. The original draft-making archive is a research resource, not proof of a particular historical reason. The later amendment records linked below document changes affecting this Article; their Bill statements explain those proposals, not necessarily every original clause or the complete present legal outcome.
The explanation of purpose is an editorial reading of the provision. A drafting motive is attributed only where a linked historical source supports it.
Limits, exceptions & reading carefully
Educational summary of the linked source text. Exceptions, provisos, implementing laws and applicable judgments must be read before applying it to a real case.
Read the official constitutional text
Source-page notes · may concern neighbouring Articles
2. Subs. by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, s. 17, for "five years" (w.e.f. 3-1-1977) and further subs. by the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978, s. 13, for "six years" (w.e.f. 20-6-1979).
Extracted from the Legislative Department’s May 2026 edition. Page footnotes may refer to neighbouring provisions; check their markers in the PDF. Inclusion in this edition does not by itself establish commencement or judicial effect.