"If a Second Chamber dissents from the first, it is mischievous; if it agrees, it is superfluous." In the light of this famous statement, discuss the utility of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

The statement, applied

• If the Parishad only copies every Sabha bill, Sieyès is right: it is superfluous cost.
• If it treats every majority bill as an enemy, it is mischievous in a parliamentary State where the Sabha is the confidence chamber.
• Utility therefore lives in the middle: revision, cooling, and specialised representation, not a veto on money or confidence.

Constitutional design in UP

• Uttar Pradesh is among the few States that still have a Legislative Council; Article 169 allows creation or abolition by Parliament on a State special-majority request.
• Article 171 mixes MLA-elected, local-body, graduate, teacher, and Governor-nominated members, with a six-year term and one-third retiring every two years.
• Money bills and confidence rest with the Vidhan Sabha; the Council can delay ordinary legislation, not kill the budget.

Utility that answers Sieyès

• Nominated and graduate–teacher seats can bring jurists, scientists, and educationists whom a first-past-the-post Sabha may miss in a 200-million State.
• A revising look at long State bills on universities, municipalities, and land can catch drafting errors before they become litigation.
• Staggered tenure gives some continuity when Sabha majorities swing, which is a feature in a politically volatile UP, not sabotage by itself.
• Public debate in the Parishad is a second Hansard for Lucknow, useful for record even when the vote is predictable.

Limits, so the discussion is honest

• If nominations are patronage, the “expert” claim collapses and Sieyès’s superfluous horn returns.
• Delay can be used to stall a mandate; then the mischievous horn is real, and the remedy is time-limit practice plus Sabha supremacy, not romantic bicameralism.
• Abolition debates recur because voters do not elect the whole Council; legitimacy is thinner than the Sabha’s.

Verdict

• The Council is useful as a revising and specialist chamber for a huge, diverse Uttar Pradesh. It is not useful as a rival government. Sieyès describes the two failures; UP utility is the refusal of both.