Can an amendment bill to the Constitution be passed in a joint session of both Houses of Parliament?

No, each House must pass it separately with special majorities

The correct answer is Option 2 - No, each House must pass it separately with special majorities

There is no provision for a joint session to pass an amendment bill. Both Houses of Parliament must pass the amendment bill separately with the required special majorities.

Ordinarily, all business of the legislature requires that a motion or resolution or bill should get the support of a simple majority of the members voting at that time. Suppose that at the time of voting on a bill, 247 members were present in the house and all of them participated in the voting on the bill. Then, the bill would be passed if at least 124 members voted in favour of the bill. Not so in the case of an amendment bill. Amendment to the Constitution requires two different kinds of special majorities: in the first place, those voting in favour of the amendment bill should constitute at least half of the total strength of that House. Secondly, the supporters of the amendment bill must also constitute two-thirds of those who actually take part in voting. Both Houses of the Parliament must pass the amendment bill separately in this same manner (there is no provision for a joint session). For every amendment bill, this special majority is required.

In addition to this, both the Houses must pass the amendment bill (with special majorities) separately. This means that unless there is sufficient consensus over the proposed amendment, it cannot be passed. If the party in power enjoys very thin majority, it can pass legislation of its choice and can get budget approved even if the opposition does not agree. But it would need to take at least some opposition parties into confidence, if it wanted to amend the Constitution. So, the basic principle behind the amending procedure is hat it should be based on broad support among the political parties and parliamentarians.