First reading is on (i) a request for leave to introduce in the House a bill for the passage of which the bill is introduced; or (ii) in the case of a bill introduced and passed by the other House, the bill before the House as passed by the other House. Once a bill has been passed by both houses of parliament, it is submitted to the President for approval. The Speaker may either approve the bill, withhold consent, or send the bill back if it is not a monetary bill, with a message asking him to reconsider the bill or certain of its provisions, or to consider whether to introduce amendments that he can recommend in his message. The president may give or withhold consent to a monetary law. A monetary bill cannot be sent back to the House of Representatives by the President for reconsideration. In addition, the President is required to give his consent to a constitutional amending law passed by Parliament by the required special majority and, if necessary, ratified by the required number of state parliaments. Indian law is therefore based on a number of sources. The Hindu legal system began 3,000 years ago with the Vedas and contemporary (i.e. non-Indo-European) indigenous customs. Slowly, it developed through mixing, comparison and analysis. After the Arab invasions in the 8th century AD, Islamic law was introduced in some areas, especially in the north. English common law is the residual law in the high courts of Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Calcutta) and Madras (now Chennai); and sometimes with the help of the relevant British laws, it is the residual law also in all other jurisdictions represented by the courts of the former East India Company, where since 1781 “justice, equality and good conscience” have provided the rule of law, while no Indian law or rule of personal law (e.g.
Hindu law) covered this point. The Portuguese and French enforced their own laws in their colonies. Some British laws applied in British India, and some remained in force. All the powers adapted their laws to local conditions, and the famous Anglo-Indian codes adopted in India at regular intervals from 1860 to 1882 reflected the influence of the French and American models as well as the English and Anglo-Indian models. During this period, Roman or civil law and continental legal theory were frequently cited, particularly before the Madras Supreme Court, to give India the advantage of the best available law; But thanks to codification and other influences, this source was quickly exhausted. The interpretation of the Constitution has led to the introduction of certain American principles, and welfare and industry laws are interpreted in the light of jurisprudence decided elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Western influence is also present in the treatment of personal law. If a bill has been passed by both Houses in accordance with the procedure described, it will be sent to the President for approval under Rule 111.
The President may approve or refuse to approve a bill, or he may refer a bill, except for a bill recommended by the President himself to the Houses. However, Section 255 states that a prior recommendation from the president or governor of a state, wherever specified, is not required for any act of the legislature or legislature of a state, but final approval by the president or governor is mandatory. If the Speaker is of the opinion that a particular bill passed under the legislative powers of Parliament violates the Constitution, he may refer the bill back with his recommendations to adopt the bill under the constitutive powers of Parliament in accordance with the procedure set out in section 368. The President may not refuse a law of constitutional amendment duly adopted by Parliament under Article 368. If the President gives his consent, the Bill shall be published in the Gazette of India[15] and shall become an act from the date of its approval. If he withdraws his consent, the law is abandoned, which is known as an absolute veto. The President may, in accordance with Articles 111 and 74, exercise an absolute veto over the assistance and advice of the Council of Ministers. [16] The President may also validly withhold consent at his discretion, which is known as a pocket veto. The pocket veto was exercised only once by President Zail Singh in 1986, over the Postal Act, which allowed the government to open postal letters without a warrant by amending the Indian Post Offices Act of 1898.
If the President refers it back for reconsideration, Parliament must discuss it again, but if it is adopted again and referred back to the President, it must give its consent. If Parliament is not satisfied with the President because it has not approved a law it has passed within its legislative powers, the law may be amended as a constitutional amending law and passed under its constitutive powers to compel the President to consent. If a constitutional amendment law violates the fundamental structure of the Constitution, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court would repeal the law. If Parliament considers that the President`s actions violate the Constitution, impeachment proceedings could be initiated against the President to impeach him under Article 61, with at least two-thirds of the total members of each House of Parliament voting in favour of impeachment if the charges against the President are found to be valid in an investigation.
