The Lok Sabha, or the "House of the People," is a fundamental institution and the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament. Its origin lies in the constitutional mandate to establish a directly elected chamber representing the will of the Indian populace. The institution was formally constituted for the first time on April 17, 1952, following the first General Elections held from October 1951 to February 1952. This structure solved the problem of ensuring democratic accountability by making the Union executive directly answerable to the people's representatives.
The mechanism of the Lok Sabha is governed by the Constitution of India. Article 79 establishes the Parliament as consisting of the President, the Rajya Sabha, and the Lok Sabha. Its members are chosen by direct election based on universal adult suffrage and the first-past-the-post system. Members serve a term of five years unless the House is dissolved earlier. The maximum strength is constitutionally set at 550 members (530 from States and 20 from Union Territories). A key provision is Article 75, which stipulates that the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, giving it primacy over the executive. Furthermore, Money Bills can only be introduced in this House. The presiding officer, the Speaker, is elected from among its members, as per Article 93.
The Lok Sabha connects to the concept of federal balance and representation through the 42nd Amendment Act of 1976, which froze the allocation of seats to the states, a freeze that was later extended until 2026 by the 84th Amendment Act of 2001. A significant recent change occurred in January 2020 with the 104th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2019, which abolished the provision for the President to nominate two members from the Anglo-Indian community. While the core functions and constitutional articles remain the same, the physical location changed when the new Sansad Bhavan was inaugurated on May 28, 2023, with the first session held there on September 19, 2023.