Distinction Between A Public Company And a Private Company

Distinction Between A Public Company And a Private Company Following are the main points of difference between a Public Company and a Private Company :-

1. Minimum Paid-up Capital : A company to be Incorporated as a Private Company must have a minimum paid-up capital of Rs. 1,00,000, whereas a Public Company must have a minimum paid-up capital of Rs. 5,00,000.
2. Minimum number of members : Minimum number of members required to form a private company is 2, whereas a Public Company requires atleast 7 members.
3. Maximum number of members : Maximum number of members in a Private Company is restricted to 50, there is no restriction of maximum number of members in a Public Company.
4. Transerferability of shares : There is complete restriction on the transferability of the shares of a Private Company through its Articles of Association , whereas there is no restriction on the transferability of the shares of a Public company
5 .Issue of Prospectus : A Private Company is prohibited from inviting the public for subscription of its shares, i.e. a Private Company cannot issue Prospectus, whereas a Public Company is free to invite public for subscription i.e., a Public Company can issue a Prospectus.
6. Number of Directors : A Private Company may have 2 directors to manage the affairs of the company, whereas a Public Company must have atleast 3 directors.
7. Consent of the directors : There is no need to give the consent by the directors of a Private Company, whereas the Directors of a Public Company must have file with the Registrar a consent to act as Director of the company.
8. Qualification shares : The Directors of a Private Company need not sign an undertaking to acquire the qualification shares, whereas the Directors of a Public Company are required to sign an undertaking to acquire the qualification shares of the public Company .
9. Commencement of Business : A Private Company can commence its business immediately after its incorporation, whereas a Private Company cannot start its business until a Certificate to commencement of business is issued to it.
10. Shares Warrants : A Private Company cannot issue Share Warrants against its fully paid shares, Whereas a Private Company can issue Share Warrants against its fully paid up shares.
11. Further issue of shares : A Private Company need not offer the further issue of shares to its existing share holders, whereas a Public Company has to offer the further issue of shares to its existing share holders as right shares. Further issue of shares can only be offer to the general public with the approval of the existing share holders in the general meeting of the share holders only.
12. Statutory meeting : A Private Company has no obligation to call the Statutory Meeting of the member, whereas of Public Company must call its statutory Meeting and file Statutory Report with the Register of Companies.
13. Quorum : The quorum in the case of a Private Company is TWO members present personally, whereas in the case of a Public Company FIVE members must be present personally to constitute quorum. However, the Articles of Association may provide and number of members more than the required under the Act.
14. Managerial remuneration : Total managerial remuneration in the case of a Public Company cannot exceed 11% of the net profits, and in case of inadequate profits a maximum of Rs. 87,500 can be paid. Whereas these restrictions do not apply on a Private Company.
15. Special privileges : A Private Company enjoys some special privileges, which are not available to a Public Company

Inflation..

Understand how and why:

I know I haven’t written anything since ages, but its better late than never. This one’s about something that affects one and all, some a little more and some a little yes. Yes, you guessed it right; I’m talking about the ugly monster, Inflation, which burns a hole in our pockets!

This financial year has been full of action with prices of everything skyrocketing and RBI constantly making a failed attempt to contain it. Inflation is hovering around 9-10% and the markets have reacted negatively (Sensex down 10-11%), perishing wealth of many. The common man has taken a beating from every corner. Let me explain the impact of high inflation on our daily lives.

Firstly, as we all know, prices of everything have gone up. From basics like onions, which were selling at Rs. 120/kg for some time, to drinking water to petrol to movie tickets, everything is costlier in comparison to the past few years.

Secondly, to contain inflation the Central bank raised interest rates, almost 8 times during this FY. Thus, money itself is expensive!

Some of you might wonder how does increasing interest rate help containing inflation and how effective is it? The answer to the first question is that higher interest rates make borrowing money costlier, because now a borrower needs to pay a higher amount as interest in comparison to earlier. This discourages many borrowers, who now find it expensive to borrow money at such high rates and thus reduces the spending. In short, it reduces demand.

How effective is the policy depends on whether inflation is caused due to supply constraints or excess demand. Supply constraints imply that the companies are not able to produce products at the same rate as the demand of those products. They are not able to produce sufficient quantity in time! Thus, in such a scenario, increasing interest rates is not of much help because it’s not solving the problem, which is of a supply constraint and not of excess demand.

If the inflation is on the rise mostly due to an excessive demand (positive outlook for a particular sector like realty or stock market or the entire economy in general), increasing rates helps to a great extent. However, at no point, any one policy alone is sufficient to control inflation.

Currently in India inflation is caused partially due to supply side constraints and partially due to excess demand. However, supply side bottlenecks are affecting inflation much more than demand factors. For example, a bad crop negatively affected the supply of onions and thus led to a tremendous increase in the prices!

Thirdly, due to high inflation and increased interest rates, stock markets have reacted negatively. Foreign institutional investors have withdrawn money from Indian stock markets due to high interest rates and inflation.

Now you may wonder why? There are several reasons for the same. Let’s take them one by one. One, inflation affects the raw material cost of companies. Cost of producing a good goes up due to an increase in inputs like labour, land, raw material, petrol, transportation, etc. Thus the profit margins of most companies reduce. To cover up for the reduced margin, companies hike prices of the goods they sell. Companies are not always able to pass on the increased cost of production onto the customer and have to thus bear a loss in profit share. This reduces the growth prospects of a company and thus its stock price reacts negatively.

Another reason for the negative reaction in the stock markets is that FII’s have withdrawn money from Indian markets. Their perception of the Asian economy has gone negative due to high inflation in almost every country. Most of the economies are interlinked with heavy dependence on imports and exports. A lot of economies have crumbled and have thus shaken the confidence in the entire region. Everyone is very cautious.

The two reasons combined have led to a negative reaction in the stock markets, due to which a lot of people have lost wealth, further aggravating the situation.

Red wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes.^[1] The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients ^[2 Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes the sugars in the grapes and converts them into alcohol
The color of the wine mainly depends on the color of the drupe of the grape variety. Since pigments are localized in the exocarp (skin) of the grape drupe, not in the juice, the color of the wine depends on the method of vinification and the time the must is in contact with those skins, process called maceration. Teinturier grape is an exception in that it has also a pigmented pulp. The blending of two or more varieties of grapes can explain for the color of certain wines, like the use of Australian Rubired.

Daily consumption of red wine has been ingrained in many cultures, particularly European cultures. France, an area known for high saturated fat intake and smoking, has garnered attention for its noticeably lower rates of heart disease compared to the U.S. and neighboring Great Britain [Source: Cordova]. This has become known as the French paradox; a paradox that triggered further examination of the benefits of alcohol, wine in particular. 
Red wine is believed to have many different nutrients helpful in preventing heart disease, including resveratrol, quercetin and polyphenols [Source: Seeram, Goldfinger]. These might target multiple mechanisms capable of warding off heart disease [Source: Cordova, Peregrin]. Resveratrol, found only in red wine, in particular is thought to help fight cancer and diabetes, and be an immensely effective antiaging nutrient [Source: Halls, Guarente]. Others have speculated that red wine might benefit the body by affecting neurotransmitters, or messengers, in the brain [Source: de la Torre].
Several factors lead to blockages in the blood vessels that feed the heart. Having various nutrients and antioxidants, red wine in particular may help modify many of the chemical triggers for heart disease. There are actually several studies that support the idea that nutrients in red wine actually prevent heart disease [Source: Cordova, Peregrin, Klatsky, Groenbaek, Di Castelnuovo]. While it is still debatable which of these nutrients plays the most important role in prevention, it's most likely that each of these antioxidants is important. It's believed that red wine might offer protection against prostate and lung cancer as well [Source: Rotondo, Lacoviello].
Most wines are sold in glass bottles and are sealed using corks (50% of which come from Portugal).^[86

WIKILEAKS..

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press^[4] organisation,^[5] claimed a database of more than 1.2 million documents within a year of its launch.^[6] WikiLeaks describes its founders as a mix of Chinese dissidents, journalists, mathematicians, and start-up company technologists from the United States, Taiwan, Europe, Australia, and South Africa.^[7] Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its director.^[8] The site was originally launched as a user-editable wiki (hence its name), but has progressively moved towards a more traditional publication model and no longer accepts either user comments or edits.

Founding

The wikileaks.org domain name was registered on 4 October 2006.^[2] The website was unveiled, and published its first document, in December 2006.^[17][18] The site claims to have been "founded by Chinese dissidents, journalists, mathematicians and start-up company technologists, from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa".^[7]

Purpose

WikiLeaks states that its "primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their governments and corporations."^[7][20]
In January 2007, the website stated that it had over 1.2 million leaked documents that it was preparing to publish.^[24] An article in The New Yorker said:
One of the WikiLeaks activists owned a server that was being used as a node for the Tor network. Millions of secret transmissions passed through it. The activist noticed that hackers from China were using the network to gather foreign governments’ information, and began to record this traffic. Only a small fraction has ever been posted on WikiLeaks, but the initial tranche served as the site's foundation, and Assange was able to say, "[w]e have received over one million documents from thirteen countries."^[18][25]
Assange responded to the suggestion that eavesdropping on Chinese hackers played a crucial part in the early days of WikiLeaks by saying "the imputation is incorrect. The facts concern a 2006 investigation into Chinese espionage one of our contacts was involved in. Somewhere between none and handful of those documents were ever released on WikiLeaks
The organisation's stated goal is to ensure that whistleblowers and journalists are not jailed for emailing sensitive or classified documents, as happened to Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who was sentenced to 10 years in 2005 after publicising an email from Chinese officials about the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.^[19]

Site management issues

Within WikiLeaks, there has been public disagreement between founder and spokesperson Julian Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the site's former German representative who was suspended by Assange. Domscheit-Berg announced on 28 September 2010 that he was leaving the organisation due to internal conflicts over management of the site.^[60][62][63]

Hosting

WikiLeaks describes itself as "an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking".^[64] The site is available on multiple servers and different domain names following a number of denial-of-service attacks and its severance from different Domain Name System (DNS) providers.^[65][66]

Until August 2010, WikiLeaks was hosted by PRQ, a Sweden-based company providing "highly secure, no-questions-asked hosting services". PRQ is said to have "almost no information about its clientele and maintains few if any of its own logs".^[67] Currently, WikiLeaks is mainly hosted by Bahnhof in a facility that used to be a nuclear bunker.^[68][69] Other servers are spread around the world with the central server located in Sweden.^[70] Julian Assange has said that the servers are located in Sweden (and the other countries) "specifically because those nations offer legal protection to the disclosures made on the site". He talks about the Swedish constitution, which gives the information providers total legal protection.^[70] It is forbidden according to Swedish law for any administrative authority to make inquiries about the sources of any type of newspaper.^[71] These laws, and the hosting by PRQ, make it difficult for any authorities to take WikiLeaks offline; they place an onus of proof upon any complainant whose suit would circumscribe WikiLeaks' liberty, e.g. its rights to exercise free speech online. Furthermore, "WikiLeaks maintains its own servers at undisclosed locations, keeps no logs and uses military-grade encryption to protect sources and other confidential information." Such arrangements have been called "bulletproof hosting."^[67][72]

On 17 August 2010, it was announced that the Swedish Pirate Party would be hosting and managing many of WikiLeaks' new servers. The party donates servers and bandwidth to WikiLeaks without charge. Technicians of the party would make sure that the servers are maintained and working.^[73][74]

After the site became the target of a denial-of-service attack from a hacker on its old servers, WikiLeaks moved its site to Amazon's servers.^[75] Later, however, the website was "ousted" from the Amazon servers.^[75] In a public statement, Amazon said that WikiLeaks was not following its terms of service. The company further explained, "There were several parts they were violating. For example, our terms of service state that 'you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content... that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity.' It's clear that WikiLeaks doesn't own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content."^[76] WikiLeaks then decided to install itself on the servers of OVH in France.^[77] After criticism from the French government, the company sought two court rulings about the legality of hosting WikiLeaks. While the court in Lille immediately declined to force OVH to shut down the WikiLeaks site, the court in Paris stated it would need more time to examine the highly technical issue

This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page. (December 2010)

WikiLeaks is based on several software packages, including MediaWiki, Freenet, Tor, and PGP.^[80] WikiLeaks strongly encouraged postings via Tor because of the strong privacy needs of its users.^[81]

On 4 November 2010, Julian Assange told Swiss public television TSR that he is seriously considering seeking political asylum in neutral Switzerland and setting up a WikiLeaks foundation to move the operation there.^[82][83] According to Assange, Switzerland and Iceland are the only countries where WikiLeaks would feel safe to operate.

Name servers

WikiLeaks had been using EveryDNS's services, which led to DDoS attacks on the host.^{[clarification needed]} The attacks affected the quality of service at EveryDNS, so the company withdrew its service from WikiLeaks. Pro-WikiLeaks supporters retaliated by launching a DDoS attack against EveryDNS. Because of mistakes in the blogosphere, some supporters accidentally mistook EasyDNS for EveryDNS. These mistaken attacks caused EasyDNS to experience outages, instead of the intended EveryDNS. Afterwards EasyDNS decided to provide WikiLeaks its name server service.^[91]

Name and policies

Despite using the name "WikiLeaks", the website is no longer wiki-based as of May 2010.^[92] Also, despite some popular confusion^[93] due to both having the term "wiki" in their names, WikiLeaks and Wikipedia have no affiliation with each other ("wiki" is not a brand name);^[94][95] Wikia, a for-profit corporation loosely affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation, did however purchase several WikiLeaks-related domain names (including wikileaks.com and wikileaks.net) as a "protective brand measure" in 2007.^[96]
The "about" page originally read:^[97]
To the user, WikiLeaks will look very much like Wikipedia. Anybody can post to it, anybody can edit it. No technical knowledge is required. Leakers can post documents anonymously and untraceably. Users can publicly discuss documents and analyze their credibility and veracity. Users can discuss interpretations and context and collaboratively formulate collective publications. Users can read and write explanatory articles on leaks along with background material and context. The political relevance of documents and their verisimilitude will be revealed by a cast of thousands.

Because of the nature of the work of Wikileaks following Organisations and companies stopped providing services to Wikileaks:

FacebookWikiLeaks claimed in April 2010 that Facebook deleted its fan page, which had 30,000 fans.[205][206][207] However, as of 7 December 2010 the group's Facebook fan page was available and had grown by 100,000 fans daily since 1 December,[208] to more than 1.5 million fans. It was also the largest growth of the week.[

MoneybookersIn October 2010, it was reported that Moneybookers, which collected donations for WikiLeaks, had ended its relationship with the site. Moneybookers stated that its decision had been made "to comply with money laundering or other investigations conducted by government authorities, agencies or commissions."[211]

After providing 24-hour notification, American-owned EveryDNS dropped WikiLeaks from its entries on 2 December 2010, citing DDoS attacks that "threatened the stability of its infrastructure".

On the same day, Amazon.com severed its ties with WikiLeaks, to which it was providing infrastructure services

On 3 December, PayPal, the payment processor owned by eBay, permanently cut off the account of the Wau Holland Foundation that had been redirecting donations to WikiLeaks. PayPal alleged that the account violated its "Acceptable Use Policy",

On 6 December, the Swiss bank PostFinance announced that it had frozen the assets of Assange that it holds, totalling €31,000. In a statement on its website, it stated that this was because Assange "provided false information regarding his place of residence" when opening the account.[229] WikiLeaks released a statement saying this was because Assange, "as a homeless refugee attempting to gain residency in Switzerland, had used his lawyer's address in Geneva for the bank's correspondence".[

On the same day, MasterCard announced that it was "taking action to ensure that WikiLeaks can no longer accept MasterCard-branded products", adding "MasterCard rules prohibit customers from directly or indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal."[231] The next day, Visa Inc. announced it was suspending payments to WikiLeaks, pending "further investigations".[232] In a move of support for WikiLeaks, XIPWIRE established a way to donate to WikiLeaks, and waived their fees.[233] Datacell, the Swiss-based IT company that enabled WikiLeaks to accept credit card donations, announced that it would take legal action against Visa Europe and Mastercard, in order to resume allowing payments to the website.[234]

On 21 December, media reported that Apple had removed an application from its App Store, which provided access to the embassy cable leaks.[237]

 Reception of WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks has received praise as well as criticism. The organisation has won a number of awards, including The Economist's New Media Award in 2008 at the Index on Censorship Awards[242] and Amnesty International's UK Media Award in 2009.[243][244] In 2010, the New York Daily News listed WikiLeaks first among websites "that could totally change the news",[245] and Julian Assange received the Sam Adams Award[246] and was named the Readers' Choice for TIME's Person of the Year in 2010.[247] The UK Information Commissioner has stated that "WikiLeaks is part of the phenomenon of the online, empowered citizen".[248] In its first days, an Internet petition calling for the cessation of extra-judicial intimidation of WikiLeaks attracted over six hundred thousand signatures.[249] Supporters of WikiLeaks in the media and academia have commended it for exposing state and corporate secrets, increasing transparency, supporting freedom of the press, and enhancing democratic discourse while challenging powerful institutions.[250][251][252][253][254][255][256]

At the same time, several U.S. government officials have criticized WikiLeaks for exposing classified information and claimed that the leaks harm national security and compromise international diplomacy.[257][258][259][260][261] Several human rights organisations requested with respect to earlier document releases that WikiLeaks adequately redact the names of civilians working with international forces, in order to prevent repercussions.[262] Some journalists have likewise criticised a perceived lack of editorial discretion when releasing thousands of documents at once and without sufficient analysis.[263] In response to some of the negative reaction, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed her concern over the "cyber war" against WikiLeaks,[264] and in a joint statement with the Organization of American States the UN Special Rapporteur has called on states and other actors to keep international legal principles in mind.[265]

VETO power..

A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation.
A veto only gives power to stop changes, not to adopt them. The veto therefore conveys to its holder an ability to protect the status quo.
President enjoys the power to return a bill unsigned, but the constitution limits the power to send it back only once for reconsideration. If the Parliament sends back the bill with or without changes, the president has to sign it. However, deliberately or inadvertently, the constitution does not set a time limit in which the president is obliged to approve the bill, and so he may withhold assent indefinitely. This has come to be known in legal and constitutional circles as the "Pocket Veto" and has been used on a number of occasions against controversial bills. Former President Giani Zail Singh withheld assent to a Bill passed by Parliament that gave sweeping powers to the State to intercept mail. This was considered by the President to be an encroachment on citizens' freedom of speech and liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution. He was about to dismiss the government of Rajiv Gandhi because of the reason that the prime minister of that government had failed to give the information to the President. Former President Ramaswamy Venkataraman withheld assent to a Bill passed by the outgoing Members of Parliament that gave pension benefits to themselves. This was interpreted by the President to be self-aggrandizement.[5] President of India#Important presidential interventions

HOW A BILL BECOMES AN ACT...

India being a federal country, laws can be made separately at different levels by the Union Government (Federal Govt.) for the entire country and by the State Governments for their respective states. The legislative procedure in India for the Union Government requires that the proposed law or bill passing through two houses of the Indian legislature. The legislative procedure for the states requires that the proposed law or bill has to be passed in the State Vidhan Sabha (Lower House) and then through the State Vidhan Parishad (Upper House) if there exists one in that state.

Difference between a bill and an act

Legislative proposals are brought before either house of the Parliament of India in the form of a bill. A bill is the draft of a legislative proposal, which, when passed by both houses of Parliament and assented to by the President, becomes an Act of Parliament. As soon as the bill has been framed , it has to be published in the news papers and suggestions are invited from the general people, and after going through the suggestions of the people the bill is amended and then Bill may be introduced in the Parliament by ministers or private members. The former are called government bills and the latter, private members' bills. Bills may also be classified as public bills and private bills. A public bill is one referring to a matter applying to the public in general, whereas a private bill relates to a particular person or corporation or institution. The Orphanages and Charitable Homes Bill or the Muslim Waqfs Bills are examples of private bills.

Procedure relating to an ordinary bill in the Union Parliament

There are three stages through which a bill has to pass in one house of the Parliament. The procedure is similar for the State Assemblies.

First reading - introduction stage

A minister, or member-in-charge of the bill seeks the leave of the house to introduce a bill. If the bill is an important one, the minister may make a brief speech, stating its main features. After the bill has been introduced, the first reading is deemed to be over. Therefore, in the first stage, only the principles and provisions of the bills are discussed.

Second reading - discussion stage

This stage concerns the consideration of the bill and its provisions and is further divide into three stages.

First stage

On a date fixed for taking up consideration of the bill, there takes place a general discussion when only the principles are taken up for discussion. At this stage, three options are open to the house. The bill may be straightaway be taken into consideration or it may be referred to any of the Standing Committees or it may be circulated for the purpose of eliciting general opinion thereon

Second stage, that is, discussion on the report

The next stage consists of a clause-by-clause consideration of the bill as reported by the committee. When all the clauses have been put to vote and disposed of, the second reading of the bill is over.

Third stage

Changes or amendments to the bill can be made only in this stage. Amendments become a part of a bill if they are accepted by a majority of the members present and voting.

Third reading - voting stage

The next stage is the third reading. The debate on the third reading of a bill is of a restricted character. It is confined only to arguments either in support of the bill or for its rejection, without referring to its details. After the bill is passed, it is sent to the other house

 Bill in the other house

After a bill, other than a money bill, is transmitted to the Rajya Sabha, it goes through all the stages in that house as that in the first house. But if the bill passed by one house is amended by the other house, it goes back to the originating house. If the originating house does not agree with the amendments, it shall be that the two houses have disagreed.

Joint-session of both houses

In case of a deadlock between the two houses or in a case where more than six months lapse in the other house, the President may summon a joint session of the two houses which is presided over by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the deadlock is resolved by simple majority. Until now, only three bills: the Dowry Prohibition Act (1961), the Banking Service Commission Repeal Bill (1978) and the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (2002) have been passed at joint sessions.

President's assent

When a bill has been passed, it is sent to the President for his/her assent. The President can assent or withhold his/her assent to a bill or he/she can return a bill, other than a money bill, with his/her recommendations. If the President gives his/her assent, the bill becomes an Act from the date of his assent. If he/she withholds his assent, the bill is dropped, which is known as pocket veto. The pocket veto is not written in the constitution and has only been exercised once by President Zail Singh: in 1986, over the postal act where the government wanted to open postal letters without warrant. If the president returns it for reconsideration, the Parliament must do so, but if it is passed again and returned to him/her, he/she must give his/her assent to it. In the case of a Constitutional Amendment Bill, the President is bound to give his/her assent. In case of the State Governments, the consent of the State's Governor has to be obtained.

HOW A BILL BECOMES AN ACT

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A Bill is the draft of a legislative proposal. It has to pass through various stages before it becomes an Act of Parliament.

First Reading

The legislative process starts with the introduction of a Bill in either House of Parliament—Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. A Bill can be introduced either by a Minister or by a private member. In the former case it is known as a Government Bill and in the latter case it is known as a Private Member’s Bill.

It is necessary for a member-in-charge of the Bill to ask for leave to introduce the Bill. If leave is granted by the House, the Bill is introduced.  This stage is known as the First Reading of the Bill. If the motion for leave to introduce a Bill is opposed, the Speaker may, in his discretion, allow brief explanatory statement to be made by the member who opposes the motion and the member-in-charge who moved the motion.  Where a motion for leave to introduce a Bill is opposed on the ground that the Bill initiates legislation outside the legislative competence of the House, the Speaker may permit a full discussion thereon. Thereafter, the question is put to the vote of the House. However, the motion for leave to introduce a Finance Bill or an Appropriation Bill is forthwith put to the vote of the House.

Publication in Gazette

After a Bill has been introduced, it is published in the Official Gazette. Even before introduction, a Bill might, with the permission of the Speaker, be published in the Gazette.

In such cases, leave to introduce the Bill in the House is not asked for and the Bill is straightaway introduced.

Reference of Bill to Standing Committee

After a Bill has been introduced, Presiding Officer of the concerned House can refer the Bill to the concerned Standing Committee for examination and make report thereon.

If a Bill is referred to Standing Committee, the Committee shall consider the general principles and clauses of the Bill referred to them and make report thereon. The Committee can also take expert opinion or the public opinion who are  interested in the measure. After the Bill has thus been considered, the Committee submits its report to the House. The report of the Committee, being of persuasive value shall be treated  as considered advice given by the Committees.

Second Reading

The Second Reading consists of consideration of the Bill which is in two stages.

First Stage: The first stage consists of general discussion on the Bill as a whole when the principle underlying the Bill is discussed. At this stage it is open to the House to refer the Bill to a Select Committee of the House or a Joint Committee of the two Houses or to circulate it for the purpose of eliciting opinion thereon or to straightaway take it into consideration.

If a Bill is referred to a Select/Joint Committee, the Committee considers the Bill clause-by-clause just as the House does. Amendments can be moved to the various clauses by members of the Committee. The Committee can also take evidence of associations, public bodies or experts who are interested in the measure. After the Bill has thus been considered, the Committee submits its report to the House which considers the Bill again as reported by the Committee. If a Bill is circulated for the purpose of eliciting public opinion thereon, such opinions are obtained through the Governments of the States and Union Territories. Opinions so received are laid on the Table of the House and the next motion in regard to the Bill must be for its reference to a Select/Joint Committee. It is not ordinarily permissible at this stage to move the motion for consideration of the Bill.

Second Stage: The second stage of the Second Reading consists of clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill as introduced or as reported by Select/Joint Committee.

Discussion takes place on each clause of the Bill and amendments to clauses can be moved at this stage. Amendments to a clause have been moved but not withdrawn are put to the vote of the House before the relevant clause is disposed of by the House. The amendments become part of the Bill if they are accepted by a majority of members present and voting. After the clauses, the Schedules if any, clause 1, the Enacting Formula and the Long Title of the Bill have been adopted by the House, the Second Reading is deemed to be over.

 Third Reading

Thereafter, the member-in-charge can move that the Bill be passed. This stage is known as the Third Reading of the Bill. At this stage the debate is confined to arguments either in support or rejection of the Bill without referring to the details thereof further than that are absolutely necessary. Only formal, verbal or consequential amendments are allowed to be moved at this stage. In passing an ordinary Bill, a simple majority of members present and voting is necessary. But in the case of a Bill to amend the Constitution, a majority of the total membership of the House and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting is required in each House of Parliament.

Bill in the other House

After the Bill is passed by one House, it is sent to the other House for concurrence with a message to that effect, and there also it goes through  the stages described above except the introduction stage.

Money Bills

Bills which exclusively contain provisions for imposition and abolition of taxes, for appropriation of moneys out of the Consolidated Fund, etc., are certified as Money Bills. Money Bills can be introduced only in Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha cannot make amendments in a Money Bill passed by Lok Sabha and transmitted to it. It can, however, recommend amendments in a Money Bill, but must return all Money Bills to Lok Sabha within fourteen days from the date of their receipt. It is open to Lok Sabha to accept or reject any or all of the recommendations of Rajya Sabha with regard to a Money Bill. If Lok Sabha accepts any of the recommendations of Rajya Sabha, the Money Bill is deemed to have been passed by both Houses with amendments recommended by Rajya Sabha and accepted by Lok Sabha and if Lok Sabha does not accept any of the recommendations of Rajya Sabha, Money Bill is deemed to have been passed by both Houses in the form in which it was passed by Lok Sabha without any of the amendments recommended by Rajya Sabha. If a Money Bill passed by Lok Sabha and transmitted to Rajya Sabha for its recommendations is not returned to Lok Sabha within the said period of fourteen days, it is deemed to have been passed by both Houses at the expiration of the said period in the form in which it was passed by Lok Sabha.

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Salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill...

Salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill
1. An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up

2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.

3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.

5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

6. So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month’s time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

7. But won’t the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won’t be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process.

8. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

9. What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.

10. It will be the duty of the Lokpal to provide protection to those who are being victimized for raising their voice against corruption