President’s Address to the Parliament

The President has addressed the first session of Parliament for the year 2023.

Constitutional Provisions –

• Article 86 and 87 of the Constitution deals with the Address by the President. Article 86 confers a right on the President to address either House of Parliament or both Houses assembled together, and for that purpose require the attendance of members.
• Article 87 deals with Special Address by the President and provides that the President shall address both Houses of Parliament assembled together at the commencement of the first session after each general election to the Lok Sabha and at the commencement of the first session of each year and inform Parliament of the causes of its summons

The Constitution gives the President and the Governor the power to address a sitting of the legislature. The special power is with regard to two occasions.

1. The first is to address the opening session of a new legislature after a general election.
2. The second is to address the first sitting of the legislature each year.

Commonly referred to as the President’s or Governor’s Address, they are a constitutional requirement. A session of a new or a continuing legislature cannot begin without fulfilling this requirement.

Background –

• In India, the practice of the President addressing Parliament can be traced back to the Government of India Act of 1919. This law gave the Governor-General the right of addressing the Legislative Assembly and the Council of State.
• The law did not have a provision for a joint address but the Governor-General did address the Assembly and the Council together on multiple occasions. There was no address by him to the Constituent Assembly (Legislative) from 1947 to 1950.
• And after the Constitution came into force, President Rajendra Prasad addressed members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for the first time on January 31, 1950.
• When the Constitution came into force, the President was required to address each session of Parliament. So during the provisional Parliament in 1950, the President gave an address for all three sessions. At the suggestion of Speaker G V Mavalankar, the first Constitutional Amendment in 1951 changed this position.

Content of the speech –

The President’s speech follows the convention of the British system, where it contains legislative and policy proposals that the government intends to initiate. The speech also recaps the government’s accomplishment in the previous years. The contents of the speech are put together by aggregating inputs from various ministries of the government.