Secretariat of Parliament

Parliament secretariat refers to the administrative and secretarial staff that assists each House of Parliament in conducting its business, established under Article 98 of the Constitution so that the legislature is not dependent on the executive for its own establishment. Each House is given a distinct secretarial staff, though the framers left room for administrative convenience by allowing posts common to both Houses. Parliament itself has ultimate authority over how this staff is recruited and governed.

Constitutional Basis: Article 98

Article 98 sits in Part V, Chapter II of the Constitution and comes right after Article 97, which fixes the salaries of the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Speaker, and Deputy Speaker. It has three clauses.

Clause (1) provides that each House of Parliament — the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha — shall have a separate secretarial staff. A proviso to this clause clarifies that the requirement of separate staff does not prevent the creation of posts common to both Houses, allowing some administrative overlap where convenient.

Clause (2) gives Parliament the power to regulate, by law, the recruitment and the conditions of service of persons appointed to the secretarial staff of either House.

Clause (3) is a transitional provision: until Parliament makes a law under clause (2), the President may make rules governing recruitment and conditions of service for the secretarial staff of the House of the People or the Council of States. Before doing so, the President must consult the Speaker of the Lok Sabha (for the Lok Sabha secretariat) or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (for the Rajya Sabha secretariat). Any rules made under this interim power remain subject to whatever law Parliament eventually enacts under clause (2).

Why a Separate Secretariat Matters

By vesting control of its own secretarial establishment with the House itself — through its presiding officer and, ultimately, Parliament's own law-making power — rather than leaving it entirely to the executive, Article 98 supports the functional independence of the legislature. The Lok Sabha Secretariat and the Rajya Sabha Secretariat operate under their respective presiding officers rather than under any ministry, which keeps the day-to-day running of parliamentary business insulated from the executive branch that Parliament is meant to hold accountable.

The President's Role Is Transitional, Not Permanent

The President's rule-making power under clause (3) is explicitly a stop-gap arrangement — it operates only "until provision is made by Parliament" under clause (2). It is also conditional: it must follow consultation with the relevant presiding officer, and any resulting rules yield to a subsequent parliamentary law. This design keeps the executive's involvement in staffing the legislature's secretariat limited and preserves Parliament's own primacy on the matter.

A Parallel Provision for the States

The constitutional scheme for the Union Legislature's secretariat under Article 98 is mirrored at the state level by Article 187, which similarly deals with the Secretariat of a State Legislature. Just as Article 98 immediately follows the article fixing the salaries of the Union's presiding officers, Article 187 occupies the same position relative to the salary provisions for a State's presiding officers — reflecting a consistent constitutional design across the Union and the States.

UPSC Relevance

Prelims: Article 98 (Union) has its exact parallel in Article 187 (States); do not confuse Article 98 (secretariat/staff) with Article 97 (salaries of the Speaker/Deputy Speaker and Chairman/Deputy Chairman), which precedes it.

Mains: Useful while discussing the institutional independence of the legislature from the executive, and the constitutional design that keeps Parliament's own administrative machinery outside ministerial control.

FAQ

Does each House of Parliament have its own separate secretariat? Yes. Article 98(1) requires each House to have a separate secretarial staff, though a proviso allows posts common to both Houses for administrative convenience.

Who decides how the secretarial staff is recruited? Under Article 98(2), Parliament may regulate recruitment and conditions of service by law. Until such a law is made, Article 98(3) lets the President make rules after consulting the Speaker or the Chairman, as applicable.

Can the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha share staff? Yes — the proviso to Article 98(1) expressly allows the creation of posts common to both Houses, even though each House must otherwise have its own secretarial staff.

Is there a similar provision for State Legislatures? Yes. Article 187 provides an identical arrangement for the Secretariat of a State Legislature.

Do the President's rules under Article 98(3) override a later law? No. Such rules operate only until Parliament legislates under Article 98(2), and any law Parliament makes takes precedence.

Quick Revision

• Article 98 — each House of Parliament has a separate secretarial staff (common posts permitted).
• Article 98(2) — Parliament regulates recruitment/service conditions of secretarial staff by law.
• Article 98(3) — until such a law exists, the President may make rules after consulting the Speaker/Chairman.
• Article 187 — the exact State Legislature parallel of Article 98.
• Article 97 — a separate, preceding provision on presiding officers' salaries (do not confuse with Article 98).

Sources

• Constitution of India, Articles 97, 98, 187 — legislative.gov.in

Further Reference

For deeper reading on this topic and the wider polity syllabus, these standard works are recommended:

• M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity (McGraw Hill) — the standard UPSC handbook.
• D.D. Basu, Introduction to the Constitution of India (LexisNexis) — authoritative constitutional-law treatment.
• The Constitution of India — Bare Act — the official text.

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