Legislative assembly
- In every state, the legislature means the Legislative Assembly, even in the State where the legislative council exists.
- Actually, the Legislative Assembly is the first chamber or Lower House of the state legislature. Tamil Nadu legislature has only one house known as the Legislative Assembly.
Composition
- According to Article 170 of the Constitution, the Legislative Assembly of a state shall consist of not more than 500 and not less than 50 members.
- However, the parliament has the power to fix the minimum strength of a Legislative Assembly: through the amendment of the constitution.
- The Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu consists of 235 members out of which 234 members are directly elected by the people from the constituencies on the basis of adult franchise and one member is nominated by the Governor from the Anglo-Indian community.
- However, seats shall be reserved in the house for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
Qualifications
- A Person seeking election to the Legislative Assembly should have the following qualifications.
- He must be a citizen of India.
- He must have attained 25 years of age and,
- He must possess such other qualifications as may be prescribed by the parliament by law.