{"id":3957,"date":"2026-04-09T12:58:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/?p=3957"},"modified":"2026-04-11T12:22:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:52:52","slug":"types-of-majorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/types-of-majorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Types of Majorities"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What is the importance of majority in the Indian Legislature?<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Parliament<\/strong>\u00a0of India, comprising the\u00a0<strong>President<\/strong>, the\u00a0<strong>Rajya Sabha<\/strong>\u00a0(Council of States), and the\u00a0<strong>Lok Sabha<\/strong>\u00a0(House of the People), is the supreme legislative body of the country. One of the main functions of the Parliament is to make laws for the country's governance.<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>The\u00a0<strong>law-making process<\/strong>\u00a0in the Parliament begins with the introduction of a bill and ends with the assent of the President.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>The majority in the Indian Parliament plays a crucial role in deciding the fate of bills and policies.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>The Indian Constitution does not explicitly categorize the types of majorities required for passing different bills, but the interpretation of the Constitution provides four types of majorities:\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Simple majority<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Absolute majority<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Effective majority<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Special majority<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h2><strong>What are the different types of majorities?<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<figure>\r\n<table>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td class=\"tb-color\"><strong>Type of Majority<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td class=\"tb-color\"><strong>Constitutional Provisions<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td class=\"tb-color\"><strong>Application<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>\r\n<p><strong>Simple Majority<\/strong>: the majority of more than 50% of the members present and voting.<\/p>\r\n<p>It is also known as functional or working majority.<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li><strong>Article 100<\/strong>: Voting in Houses, power of Houses to act notwithstanding vacancies and quorum<\/li>\r\n\t<li><strong>Article 108<\/strong>: Joint sitting of both Houses in certain cases.<\/li>\r\n\t<li><strong>Article 169<\/strong>: Abolition or creation of Legislative Councils in States.<\/li>\r\n\t<li><strong>Article 356:<\/strong>\u00a0President Rule.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Ordinary bills need to be passed with a simple majority in both Houses of Parliament and the State Legislature.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Passing No-Confidence Motion, Adjournment Motion, Censure Motion, Confidence Motion, etc.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Passing of resolution declaring Financial\u00a0<strong>Emergency<\/strong>, President\u2019s Rule.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Abolition or creation of the State Legislative Council.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Election of\u00a0<strong>Speaker<\/strong>\u00a0and deputy speaker in Lok Sabha etc.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Absolute majority<\/strong>: the majority of more than 50% of the House\u2019s total membership.<\/td>\r\n<td><strong>Note:<\/strong>\u00a0Parliament or the State legislature does not use the absolute majority for normal business.<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Used for the formation of government at the Centre and States after the general elections.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>\r\n<p><strong>Effective Majority:<\/strong>\u00a0the majority of more than 50% of the effective strength of the House.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Example of Effective strength<\/strong>: If 15 seats out of a total 545 seats in Lok Sabha are vacant. Then effective strength is 545-15 = 530. In this case, the effective majority will be 265.<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li><strong>Article 67(b)<\/strong>: Removal of\u00a0<strong>Vice President<\/strong><strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\r\n\t<li><strong>Article 90(c)<\/strong>: Removal of Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha<\/li>\r\n\t<li><strong>Article 94(c)<\/strong>: Removal of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Vice President of India may be removed through a Rajya Sabha resolution passed by an effective majority and later approved by the Lok Sabha (simple majority).<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Removal of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the State Legislatures.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Special Majority Type-1:\u00a0<\/strong>Majority by two-thirds of members present and voting.<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li><strong>Article 249:<\/strong>\u00a0Power of Parliament to legislate with respect to a matter in the State List in the national interest.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Rajya Sabha, by passing a resolution under this majority, empowers the Parliament to make laws on subjects in the State List.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Special Majority Type-2:\u00a0<\/strong>Majority of two-third members present and voting along with 50% of the total strength of the House.<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li><strong>Article 368<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li><strong>Part III:\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Fundamental Rights<\/strong><\/li>\r\n\t<li><strong>Part IV:\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Directive Principles of State Policy<\/strong><\/li>\r\n\t<li>All other constitutional amendment provisions which are not covered by either a simple majority or special majority type-3.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Special Majority Type-3:\u00a0<\/strong>A majority of two-thirds members present and voting supported by more than 50% of the state legislatures by a simple majority.<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Special majority under\u00a0<strong>Article 368\u00a0<\/strong>passed by the Parliament and ratification by 50% of the states by a Simple majority.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<p>Used to pass<\/p>\r\n<p>Constitutional Amendment<\/p>\r\n<p>bills involving federal matters:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Election of the President and its manner.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Extent of the executive power of the Union and the states.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Supreme Court and High Courts.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Distribution of legislative powers between<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>the Union and the States.<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Any of the lists in the Seventh Schedule.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Representation of States in Parliament.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Power of Parliament to amend the Constitution and its procedure (<strong>Article 368<\/strong>).<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Special Majority Type-4:\u00a0<\/strong>Majority of 2\/3rd of the total strength of the House.<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li><strong>Article 61:\u00a0<\/strong>Impeachment of President<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>The President can be removed from his office before the completion of his term of 5 years by the procedure of impeachment for \u2018violation of the Constitution\u2019.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Both Houses of the Parliament need to pass the motion by 2\/3rd of the total strength of the House.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Constitution of India provides four types of majorities: Simple, Absolute, Effective, and Special.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[40,546],"class_list":{"0":"post-3957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-quest-level-3","8":"tag-quest","9":"tag-types-of-majorities"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20272,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3957\/revisions\/20272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}