{"id":39579,"date":"2024-02-13T08:42:03","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T03:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=39579"},"modified":"2025-04-24T17:17:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T11:47:18","slug":"floor-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/floor-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Floor test in the Bihar Legislative Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>What is floor test?<\/li>\n<li>What happens during a floor test?<\/li>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Amid the ongoing political shift in Bihar, a floor test was held in the Bihar Legislative Assembly on February 12. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar won the vote.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Floor test<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>About\n<ul>\n<li>A floor test is a Constitutional mechanism under which a <u>CM appointed by the Governor (Article 164)<\/u> can be asked to prove majority on the floor of the Legislative Assembly of the state.\n<ul>\n<li>A floor test is also called a \u2018trust vote\u2019.<\/li>\n<li>It is held in legislative bodies, to find out whether the government that is suspected to have lost the majority still retains the confidence of the House.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>This is done through a vote among the members.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Authority to call for a floor test\n<ul>\n<li>When the House is in session, it is the Speaker who can call for a floor test.<\/li>\n<li>But when the Assembly is not in session, the <u>Governor\u2019s residuary powers under Article 163 allow him to call for a floor test<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Constitutional provisions regarding floor test<\/li>\n<li>There are two provisions in the Indian Constitution that deal with a Governor\u2019s power to summon, prorogue and dissolve a Legislative Assembly.<\/li>\n<li>Under Article 174, a Governor shall summon the House at a time and place, as s\/he thinks fit.\n<ul>\n<li>Article 174 (2) (a) says a Governor may from time to time prorogue the House and Article 174 (2) (b) allows her or him to dissolve the Legislative Assembly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Article 163 says the Governor shall exercise her or his functions with the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.\n<ul>\n<li>But it also adds that s\/he would not need their advice if the Constitution requires her or him to carry out any function at her\/his discretion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Articles 174 and 163 are usually read together to outline the Governor&#8217;s powers in summoning, proroguing or dissolving the House.<\/li>\n<li>Floor test and SC judgement\n<ul>\n<li>In 2020, the Supreme Court, in Shivraj Singh Chouhan case upheld the powers of the <u>Speaker to call for a floor test if there is a prima facie view that the government has lost its majority<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What happens during a floor test?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Vote of confidence\n<ul>\n<li>If the government&#8217;s majority is doubted, the leader of the party claiming the majority must ask for a vote of confidence.\n<ul>\n<li>They have to show they have more support among those who are present and voting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The CM moves a motion seeking a vote of confidence, on which MLAs who are present in the House, vote.<\/li>\n<li>If the majority of members vote in favour, the government survives; if the CM loses the vote, the government has to resign.<\/li>\n<li>This happens both in Parliament and the state Legislative Assemblies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Voting methods\n<ul>\n<li>Voting can be conducted by either a voice vote, in which MLAs respond to the motion verbally.<\/li>\n<li>Voting electronically involves the casting of votes by pressing a button, after which the numbers for each side are displayed on a board.<\/li>\n<li>In a physical division of votes, lawmakers cast votes in a ballot box, which are then counted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Composite Floor Test\n<ul>\n<li>The Composite Floor Test is conducted <u>only when more than one person stakes a claim to form the government<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>When the majority is not clear, the governor might call for a special session to see who has the majority.\n<ul>\n<li>The majority is counted based on those present and voting.<\/li>\n<li>Some legislators may be absent or choose not to vote.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>This can also be done through a voice vote where the member can respond orally or through division voting.\n<ul>\n<li>In division vote, voting can be done through electronic gadgets, ballots or slips.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The person who has the majority will form the government.<\/li>\n<li>In case of a tie, the speaker can also cast his vote.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What is Article 174 of Indian Constitution?<\/h3>\n<p>Article 174 of the Constitution of India gives the Governor the power to summon, dissolve, and prorogue the state legislative assembly.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) What is Composite Floor Test?<\/h3>\n<p>The Composite Floor Test is conducted only when more than one person stakes a claim to form the government. When the majority is not clear, the governor might call for a special session to see who has the majority.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/everyday-explainers\/floor-test-bihar-assembly-meaning-process-9157395\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>What is a floor test, which Nitish Kumar won in the Bihar Legislative Assembly?<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-governor-powers-floor-test-law-under-spotlight-7985458\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Express<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/theprint.in\/judiciary\/what-the-law-says-about-a-governors-power-to-summon-prorogue-or-dissolve-an-assembly\/467805\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>The Print<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Floor test checks if the government still has House confidence amid doubts about its majority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}