Chapter 4: Civics: Prime Minister and Council of Ministers
On 4 November 1948, the Constituent Assembly of India met in New Delhi. This was the body elected to write India’s Constitution, and it had before it the Draft Constitution. B.R. Ambedkar, who chaired the Drafting Committee, rose to explain the choices the drafters had made. One of the largest concerned the executive — the part of government that actually runs the country. Two models lay before them. In the American system, the President is elected for a fixed term, chooses the ministers, and cannot be removed by the legislature except by impeachment. In the British system, the ministers sit inside the legislature and stay in office only while the House supports them. The first arrangement is steady. The second can fall in an afternoon. Ambedkar told the Assembly that the drafters had preferred the second. An executive with a fixed term, he argued, is judged by the voters only once in several years. An executive that sits in the House is judged every day it answers questions, and every time a vote is called against it. India, he said, needed responsibility more than it needed stability. That single decision created the offices this chapter studies. It left the President as the head of the State, and gave the real work of governing to a Prime Minister and a Council of Ministers — who hold office only while the Lok Sabha keeps faith in them.
Diagram
Fig. 4.0-1 Caption: The Constituent Assembly in session in New Delhi, where the shape of India’s executive was debated and settled. Brief: Archival photograph of the Constituent Assembly of India in session, 1946–1949. Show the semi-circular seating and members at their desks; label the chair of the President of the Assembly. No modern figures, flags or party symbols to be added.
4.1 Why The Constitution Needs A Council Of Ministers
India has a parliamentary form of government. This means the ministers who run the country are drawn from the legislature, and stay in office only while the elected House supports them.
An arrangement of that kind needs a body that can be identified, questioned and, if necessary, removed together. A country cannot dismiss ‘the government’ unless it knows exactly who the government is.
The Constitution therefore provides for a Council of Ministers, with the Prime Minister at its head, to aid and advise the President. Every major decision of the Union Government is taken by this body.
4.1.1 The Nominal Head And The Real Executive
Two different jobs sit at the top of any government. One is to stand for the country as a whole; the other is to take daily decisions about how it is run.
The Constitution separates them. The President is the head of the State, and the Prime Minister is the head of the Government.
The President is therefore called the nominal head of the State — the office in whose name the Government acts, but not the office that chooses what to do. The Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers form the real executive, the authority that actually decides.
Acting In The President’s Name
Read any order of the Union Government and you will find that it issues in the President’s name. This is not a courtesy. It is how the Constitution keeps the State single and continuous while governments come and go.
The words ‘in the name of the President’ tell you where the authority formally rests. They do not tell you who took the decision. That was almost always a minister, or the Cabinet as a whole.
There is a reason for building it this way. The person who takes a decision must be answerable to the House the voters elected, and the person who represents the whole Union should stand outside the daily contest between parties.
4.1.2 Aid And Advise: What The Relationship Means
The phrase ‘aid and advise’ sounds gentle, and for many years it was argued about. Advice, after all, is something a person may take or leave.
Article 74 settles it. There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President, and the President acts in accordance with that advice.
Two amendments shaped the present position. The 42nd Amendment of 1976 made the advice binding in express words, and the 44th Amendment of 1978 added a safety valve: the President may require the Council of Ministers to reconsider a matter, once.
If the Council sends the same advice back, the President must act on it. The power to return a file is a power to make ministers think again, not a power to refuse.
The route a decision travels is set out in FC 4.1.
Flowchart
FC 4.1 — How A Decision Becomes An Act Of The President Caption: The path a policy decision follows before it is issued as an act of the Union Government. Nodes: The Council of Ministers takes a decision → the Prime Minister communicates it to the President → the President acts in accordance with the advice, and the order issues in the President’s name → OR the President returns the matter once and requires reconsideration → the Council reconsiders and tenders its advice again → the President acts in accordance with the advice tendered after reconsideration.
Notice what the chain does not contain. There is no step at which the President may substitute a different decision, and no step at which the Council may act without the President’s formal assent.
Article 74 also protects the advice itself. Courts may not inquire into what the ministers advised the President, or whether any advice was given at all.
This has a sharp consequence. Ministers cannot defend a decision by saying the President wanted it, and they cannot be asked in court to prove what passed between them. They must answer for the decision in Parliament, as their own.
4.2 Appointment Of The Prime Minister
On the appointment of the Prime Minister, the Constitution says one short thing: the Prime Minister shall be appointed by the President. It does not say whom the President should appoint.
That silence is filled by convention — an established practice that is followed regularly, though no law commands it. Conventions do most of the daily work in a parliamentary system.
The governing convention is simple to state. The President appoints the person who can command the support of a majority in the Lok Sabha, because only such a person can keep a government running.
4.2.1 Who May Be Appointed
The Constitution lays down no separate qualifications for the office of Prime Minister. The qualifications come from a different requirement — that the holder must be a member of Parliament.
A Prime Minister must therefore be a citizen of India, and a member of either House of Parliament. A person who is not a member when appointed must become one within six months, a rule examined in Section 4.4.
Age follows the House. A member of the Lok Sabha must be at least 25 years old, and a member of the Rajya Sabha at least 30.
A minister may not hold any other office of profit under the Government — a paid post that could make the holder dependent on the very government they are meant to control.
From Which House?
A Prime Minister may sit in either House. Several Prime Ministers of India have held office while members of the Rajya Sabha.
But the two Houses are not equal in this respect. Only the Lok Sabha can remove a government, so a Prime Minister from the Rajya Sabha leads a House that cannot vote on the confidence question.
4.2.2 When One Party Has A Majority
Where one party has won an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha — more than half of the total members — the President has almost no choice to make.
The elected members of that party choose their own leader. The President then invites that leader to form the Government and appoints them Prime Minister.
The order of events matters. The party decides; the President appoints. A President who picked somebody else would be appointing a Prime Minister the House could throw out the same week.
4.2.3 When No Party Has A Majority
Sometimes no single party crosses the halfway mark. Several parties then agree to govern together, forming a coalition government — a government supported by a group of parties that separately hold too few seats to rule alone.
Here the President must exercise judgement. The task is to identify the person most likely to command a majority, and it is a question of counting, not of preference.
In practice the President looks for a claim that can be tested — the leader of an alliance formed before the election, or a leader who produces the written support of enough members. The claim is then put to the House.
The decisive step is the vote of confidence, a motion on which the House records whether it supports the new government. Letters of support can be withdrawn quietly; a recorded vote on the floor of the House cannot.
FC 4.2 sets out the two routes and where they meet.
Flowchart
FC 4.2 — How A Prime Minister Is Appointed Caption: The route from a general election result to the appointment of a Prime Minister, in both a clear and an unclear House. Nodes: General election to the Lok Sabha → one party wins an absolute majority → its elected members choose their leader → the President appoints that leader as Prime Minister → OR no party wins an absolute majority → the President identifies the leader most likely to command a majority → appoints that leader as Prime Minister → and sets a date for a vote of confidence → the House votes → confidence carried, the Government continues → OR confidence lost, the Prime Minister resigns and the President begins again.
The chain ends in the same place either way. Whatever route brings a Prime Minister to office, the office is held only for as long as the Lok Sabha will have them.
4.3 Formation Of The Council Of Ministers
Once a Prime Minister is appointed, the Government still has to be built. The Council of Ministers is formed next, and it is formed on the Prime Minister’s advice.
The President appoints every other minister, but appoints the ones the Prime Minister names. The list, the ranks and the departments are all the Prime Minister’s proposals.
Each minister is then given a portfolio — the department, or group of departments, that the minister is placed in charge of. Defence, Finance, Home Affairs and Railways are portfolios.
4.3.1 The Three Ranks Of Ministers
The Constitution does not divide ministers into ranks. Practice has produced three, and every Council of Ministers is built out of them.
Cabinet Ministers are the senior members. Each heads one ministry, and sometimes more than one, and together they settle the policy and programme of the Government.
Ministers of State come next. Some hold independent charge of a smaller department; others are attached to a Cabinet Minister and share the work of a large ministry.
Deputy Ministers are the junior rank. They hold no department of their own and assist the ministers above them.
Only Cabinet Ministers attend Cabinet meetings as of right. A Minister of State may be invited when a matter concerning their own department is being considered, and Deputy Ministers take no part in these meetings at all.
4.3.2 The Cabinet Within The Council
The Council of Ministers is large, and it rarely meets as a whole. The body that actually decides is smaller.
The Cabinet is that smaller body — the senior ministers holding the most important portfolios, chosen by the Prime Minister as the colleagues he or she will consult. It takes the major decisions of the Government.
Its decisions bind everybody. A minister who was not in the room, and who might have argued the other way, is still expected to carry the decision out and to defend it in public.
Fig. 4.3-1 shows how the two bodies sit inside one another.
Diagram
Fig. 4.3-1 Caption: The Cabinet is the inner core of the Council of Ministers, and every member of both is drawn from Parliament. Brief: Three nested shapes. Outermost band labelled ‘Parliament — Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha’. Inside it a circle labelled ‘Council of Ministers’, divided into three labelled bands: Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State, Deputy Ministers. Inside the Cabinet Ministers band, a shaded inner circle labelled ‘The Cabinet’, with ‘Prime Minister’ at its centre. No individual names, portraits or party symbols.
The drawing settles one thing and leaves another open. It shows that the Cabinet is a part of the Council and not a rival to it, and that no minister stands outside Parliament.
What it cannot show is influence. Two ministers of the same rank may carry very different weight in a discussion, and a diagram of ranks says nothing about who is actually listened to.
When The Word Entered The Constitution
For its first decades the Constitution did not use the word ‘Cabinet’ at all. It spoke only of the Council of Ministers.
The 44th Amendment of 1978 changed that. It provided that the President shall not issue a Proclamation of National Emergency unless the decision of the Union Cabinet has been communicated in writing.
The point of the change was to make one dangerous decision harder to take alone. It also put the distinction between the Cabinet and the wider Council into the text of the Constitution for the first time.
4.3.3 The Size Of The Council Of Ministers
For more than fifty years the Constitution fixed no number. A Prime Minister could appoint as many ministers as seemed useful, and ministries grew accordingly.
Two problems followed. Ministerial office became a reward that could be offered to members thinking of defection — changing from the party on whose ticket they were elected to another — and very large ministries cost a great deal to run.
The 91st Amendment of 2003 set a ceiling. The total number of ministers, including the Prime Minister, may not exceed fifteen per cent of the total membership of the Lok Sabha.
In a Lok Sabha of 543 members, fifteen per cent works out at 81.45, so the Council may not exceed 81 ministers. The same ceiling applies in the States, with a floor of twelve ministers so that a small Assembly still has a working ministry.
4.4 Tenure Of The Council Of Ministers
A Council of Ministers has no fixed term of its own. It is not elected as a body, and no date is written into the Constitution on which it must go.
Its life is borrowed from two other things: the will of the Prime Minister, and the confidence of the Lok Sabha. Either can end it.
Three rules shape how long a minister stays — the rule about pleasure, the rule about membership of Parliament, and the oaths taken before entering office.
4.4.1 Office During The Pleasure Of The President
The Constitution says that ministers hold office during the pleasure of the President. The phrase is an old one, and it means simply that the office is held for as long as the appointing authority wills.
Read against Article 74, the phrase changes shape. The President exercises this pleasure on the advice of the Prime Minister, so a minister in practice holds office during the pleasure of the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister may therefore ask any minister to resign, and if the minister refuses, may advise the President to dismiss them. No reason has to be stated.
When The Whole Council Goes
An ordinary Council of Ministers runs with the Lok Sabha, and so lasts up to five years. It can end far sooner.
If the Lok Sabha withdraws its confidence, the entire Council must resign together. And if the Prime Minister resigns or dies in office, the Council falls with the office at its head, because the Council is built around that office and cannot survive without it.
The salaries and allowances of ministers are not fixed by the ministers themselves. Parliament determines them by law.
4.4.2 Membership Of Parliament And The Six-Month Rule
Every minister must be a member of either House of Parliament. A person who is not a member when appointed has six consecutive months to become one.
If those six months pass and the minister is still outside both Houses, the minister ceases to hold office. No further step is needed.
The reason lies in how the parliamentary system holds power to account. Ministers are questioned, contradicted and voted against in the House, and a minister who never sits there cannot be reached by any of it.
4.4.3 The Oath Of Office And The Oath Of Secrecy
No minister may begin work on appointment alone. The President first administers two oaths, and only then does the minister enter upon office.
In the oath of office the minister swears to:
bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India;
uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India;
faithfully and conscientiously discharge the duties of the office;
do right to all manner of people according to the Constitution and the law, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will.
The last of these is the sharpest. A minister is a member of a party and often of a constituency, and the oath requires the office to be used for neither.
In the oath of secrecy the minister swears not to communicate or reveal, directly or indirectly, any matter that comes before them as a minister, except as the discharge of their duties requires.
4.5 Functions Of The Council Of Ministers
The Council of Ministers is the working government of the Union. Almost everything the Union Government does begins as a decision taken by ministers.
Its work falls into five kinds — making policy, running the administration, steering legislation, managing money, and acting in an emergency. The five overlap constantly, and Fig. 4.5-1 shows them together before we take each in turn.
Diagram
Fig. 4.5-1 Caption: The five kinds of work the Council of Ministers does, all flowing from the same body. Brief: A central oval labelled ‘Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister’. Five arrows radiating outward to labelled boxes: Policy-making, Administrative, Legislative, Financial, Emergency. One short example under each box — ‘decides a new industrial policy’, ‘runs the ministries’, ‘introduces and pilots bills’, ‘prepares the Budget’, ‘advises a Proclamation of Emergency’. Plain diagram, no portraits, flags or party symbols.
The diagram separates the five for convenience, and that is also its limit. A single decision, such as a new tax, is policy, legislation, finance and administration at once, and no drawing can show which of the five weighs most in a given government.
4.5.1 Policy-Making Functions
Policy is a settled line of action, decided in advance, that tells the whole administration what it is trying to achieve. Deciding policy is the first work of the Cabinet.
The range is wide. The Cabinet settles the country’s external and domestic policy — defence, relations with other countries, economic and industrial policy, trade, and proposals such as the formation of a new State.
An individual minister has reasonable freedom inside their own department. On any major matter, however, the minister must bring the question to the Cabinet, because the whole Government will have to answer for it.
4.5.2 Administrative Functions
A decision that is never carried out is not a government; it is an announcement. The Council of Ministers is also the body that runs the administration.
Once the Cabinet decides, the matter goes to the ministry concerned. The Minister of State or Deputy Minister works out the details, and the civil servants of that ministry — the permanent, trained officials who staff the department — put it into effect.
The Council also coordinates. Almost no real problem belongs to one ministry alone: improving public health touches health, finance and transport at once, and someone must make the departments pull together.
FC 4.3 traces a single decision from the Cabinet room to the citizen and back again.
Flowchart
FC 4.3 — How A Cabinet Decision Reaches The Citizen Caption: The route a policy decision takes through the administration, and the route by which it returns to Parliament. Nodes: The Cabinet takes a policy decision → the decision goes to the ministry concerned → the Minister of State or Deputy Minister works out the details → civil servants of the ministry carry it out → the citizen meets the decision as a rule, a scheme or an office → the minister answers for it in Parliament → if Parliament rejects or attacks the policy, the Cabinet must defend it or think again.
Advising On Appointments
High offices of the Union are filled by the President, and in almost every case the President acts on the Government’s advice. Governors of States, ambassadors to other countries and the Chief Election Commissioner are appointed this way.
Judicial appointments follow a different path. Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts are appointed by the President from names recommended by a collegium of senior judges, and the Government’s part in choosing them is limited.
The difference is deliberate, and it is worth pausing on. Courts exist partly to decide cases against the Government, and a judiciary chosen entirely by the Government would be judging its own appointer.
4.5.3 Legislative Functions
Ministers sit inside Parliament, and most of what Parliament passes reaches it from them. The Council of Ministers is the main source of legislation.
A bill moved by a minister is an official bill; one moved by any other member is a private member’s bill. Official bills are given priority in the timetable, and the great majority of Acts begin as official bills.
The minister in charge does not merely introduce a bill. The minister explains its purpose, answers objections and carries it through each stage until it is passed.
Ministers are also Parliament’s chief source of information. When a member asks about the working of a department, it is the minister who must answer, and through that answer the public learns what the department has been doing.
Two further duties belong here. The Government decides when Parliament should be summoned, though the summons issues from the President, and the Government prepares the address the President delivers to both Houses at the start of the first session after a general election and the first session of each year.
Law-Making Between Sessions
Parliament does not sit all year. If a matter cannot wait for the next session, the Council of Ministers may advise the President to issue an ordinance — a law made by the President when Parliament is not in session, which has the same force as an Act.
An ordinance is temporary by design. It must be laid before Parliament when the Houses next meet, and it ceases to operate unless Parliament approves it within the time the Constitution allows.
4.5.4 Financial Functions
No government can act without money, and no money may be raised or spent without Parliament’s approval. The Council of Ministers stands between the two.
The Budget — the Government’s yearly statement of expected income and expenditure — is prepared under the Finance Minister and presented to the Lok Sabha. Parliament then debates it, votes the demands for grants, and passes the laws that authorise the taxes.
A money bill, which deals with taxation and government spending, can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha, and only on the recommendation of the President — which in practice means with the Government’s approval.
The financial function carries a political edge. If the Lok Sabha cuts the Budget or refuses a demand for grants against the Government’s wishes, the Government has lost the House’s support and must resign.
4.5.5 Emergency Functions
The Constitution allows for situations in which normal working fails — war or armed rebellion, the breakdown of constitutional government in a State, and a threat to the country’s financial stability. Each is met by a Proclamation issued by the President.
The decision behind every such Proclamation is the Government’s. The Council of Ministers advises the President that the situation exists, and the President acts on that advice.
For a Proclamation of National Emergency the Constitution goes further, as Section 4.3 explained: the decision of the Union Cabinet must be communicated to the President in writing. The gravest power in the Constitution may not rest on one person’s word.
4.6 Position And Powers Of The Prime Minister
The Constitution gives the Prime Minister very few powers by name. What it gives instead is a position — at the head of the Council, between the Council and the President, and at the head of the majority in the Lok Sabha.
Nearly all the Prime Minister’s authority flows from that position. To see the office clearly, it is easiest to look at it from four sides in turn, and then at what holds it in check.
4.6.1 The Prime Minister And The President
The President is the head of the State and acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers. That advice reaches the President through one person.
The Prime Minister must communicate to the President every decision of the Council relating to the administration of the Union, and every proposal for legislation. A minister may not go to the President separately with a matter of national policy.
The President may also call for information about any matter of the Union, and the Prime Minister must supply it. And where a minister has decided something the Council has never considered, the President may require that it be placed before the Council.
It is also on the Prime Minister’s advice that the President summons and prorogues Parliament, dissolves the Lok Sabha, and appoints and dismisses ministers. The formal act belongs to the President; the decision behind it does not.
4.6.2 The Prime Minister And The Cabinet
Inside the Government, the Prime Minister’s authority is at its strongest. The Cabinet is not a committee of equals that happens to have a chairperson.
The Prime Minister decides who will be a minister and of what rank, since the Constitution creates no ranks and leaves the arrangement open. The Prime Minister allocates the portfolios, and may reshuffle them at any time.
The Prime Minister also decides what the Cabinet will discuss, presides over its meetings, and coordinates the work of departments so that ministries do not pull in different directions. A minister who will not fall in with a decision can be asked to resign.
Behind all of this stands the fact noted in Section 4.4 — that the Prime Minister’s own resignation brings down the entire Council. Every minister’s tenure is tied to one office.
4.6.3 The Prime Minister Inside Parliament
The Prime Minister leads the party or alliance that commands the majority, and so is the leader of the House — the member who speaks for the Government on the floor and manages its business there.
Major announcements of national policy are made in Parliament, and the Prime Minister is the Government’s chief spokesperson when they are. When a policy or a minister is attacked in debate, it is often the Prime Minister who rises to defend it.
The role has a limit built into it. A Prime Minister who sits in the Rajya Sabha cannot lead the Lok Sabha, and another senior minister carries that duty in the House that can remove the Government.
4.6.4 The Prime Minister As Leader Of The Nation
Outside Parliament, the Prime Minister is the country’s chief political spokesperson. Statements made abroad on India’s behalf are made by, or in the name of, the head of the Government.
The direction of India’s relations with other countries is settled by the Government under the Prime Minister’s leadership, and it is the Prime Minister who meets other heads of government and represents India at international meetings.
Elections have added to this. Parties now put a proposed Prime Minister before the voters, so a general election is fought partly as a choice between individuals, even though voters formally elect only their own member.
Certain responsibilities attach directly to the office. The Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairperson of NITI Aayog, the body that advises the Union and the States on policy, and the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Space are held under the Prime Minister’s direct charge.
4.7 Responsibility Of The Members Of The Cabinet
A parliamentary system rests on one idea: those who exercise power must answer for it to the people’s elected representatives. In India that answering takes two forms.
Ministers are responsible together, as one body, to the Lok Sabha. They are also responsible separately, each for the department in their charge.
The two are not alternatives. Every minister carries both at the same time, and they can pull in different directions.
4.7.1 Collective Responsibility
Collective responsibility means that the Council of Ministers stands or falls as a single body before the Lok Sabha. The Constitution states it in one line, and a great deal follows from it.
Three consequences follow.
A decision of the Cabinet applies to every minister. Ministers may argue against it in the room, but once it is taken, it is the decision of them all.
Ministers must support and defend that decision inside Parliament and outside it. A minister who is unwilling to do so is expected to resign and criticise from outside the Government.
A no-confidence motion is aimed at the whole Ministry, never at one member of it. A no-confidence motion is a motion in the Lok Sabha stating that the House no longer supports the Council of Ministers.
If such a motion is carried, the entire Council resigns — including ministers whose own work was never questioned. The same follows if the House rejects the Budget or an important government measure against the Government’s wishes.
This looks harsh, and it is meant to be. It gives the House a single, unmistakable way to change the Government, and it forces ministers to argue matters out among themselves before a decision is announced.
4.7.2 Individual Responsibility
Individual responsibility means that each minister answers personally for the department in their charge. Collective responsibility faces the House as a group; individual responsibility faces it one minister at a time.
Its everyday form is the duty to answer. When members question the working of a ministry, the minister in charge must reply, and cannot pass the question to an official.
Its sharper form concerns tenure. Ministers hold office during the pleasure of the President, exercised on the Prime Minister’s advice, so a single minister may be dropped even while the Government as a whole keeps the confidence of the House.
Ministers have resigned individually for several kinds of reason — a personal lapse, a departure from official policy by the minister or the department, a breach of the oath of secrecy, or a grave failure in the department’s work.
4.8 Distinction Between The Council Of Ministers And The Cabinet
The two names are often used as if they meant the same thing, and in ordinary speech ‘the Government’ covers both. In constitutional terms they are not the same, and the difference matters.
The Council of Ministers is the whole ministry — every minister of every rank, appointed by the President on the Prime Minister’s advice. It is the body the Constitution names, and the body that is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.
The Cabinet is the inner group within it: the senior ministers holding the chief portfolios, whom the Prime Minister consults. It is small enough to meet often and to decide quickly.
That difference in size produces the difference in work. A body of eighty people cannot sit down every week and settle policy; a body of twenty or so can, and does.
The Constitution keeps the responsibility with the larger body and lets the smaller one do the deciding. The Cabinet’s decisions bind every minister, and it is the whole Council that must then answer for them in the House.
Table 4.1 sets the two side by side.
Read the last row of the table carefully, because it holds the whole arrangement together. The Cabinet decides and the Council answers, which means a minister may have to defend in Parliament a decision taken in a room they were not in.
There is one thing the table cannot tell you at all. It shows the formal structure, not the working reality — and in any particular government, a few ministers may count for far more than their rank suggests, while others count for less.
4.9 Summary
India has a parliamentary form of government. The ministers are drawn from the legislature and hold office only while the Lok Sabha supports them, so the country can identify its government and remove it as one body.
The Constitution separates the head of the State from the head of the Government. The President is the nominal head, in whose name every act of the Union issues; the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers are the real executive that decides.
Article 74 provides a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at its head to aid and advise the President, who acts in accordance with that advice.
- The 42nd Amendment of 1976 made the advice binding in express words.
- The 44th Amendment of 1978 allowed the President to require reconsideration once, after which the President must act on the advice tendered.
- Courts may not inquire into what advice was given, so ministers must defend a decision in Parliament as their own.
The Prime Minister is appointed by the President, and the Constitution says no more than that. By convention the President appoints the person who can command a majority in the Lok Sabha — the leader chosen by a party with an absolute majority, or, where no party has one, the leader most likely to command the House, whose claim is then tested by a vote of confidence.
There are no separate qualifications for the office. A Prime Minister must be a citizen of India and a member of either House, at least 25 years old for the Lok Sabha or 30 for the Rajya Sabha, and must hold no office of profit.
All other ministers are appointed by the President on the Prime Minister’s advice, and are of three ranks:
- Cabinet Ministers, who head the chief ministries and settle policy;
- Ministers of State, some with independent charge, others attached to a senior minister;
- Deputy Ministers, who hold no department and assist those above them.
The Cabinet is the small inner body of senior ministers that takes the Government’s major decisions, and its decisions bind every minister. The word entered the Constitution only through the 44th Amendment of 1978, in the provision requiring the Union Cabinet’s written decision before a Proclamation of National Emergency.
The 91st Amendment of 2003 capped the Council, including the Prime Minister, at fifteen per cent of the Lok Sabha’s membership — 81 in a House of 543 — to check defections and the cost of very large ministries. The same ceiling applies in the States, with a floor of twelve ministers.
Ministers hold office during the pleasure of the President, exercised on the Prime Minister’s advice.
- A Council normally runs with the Lok Sabha, up to five years, but ends at once if confidence is lost.
- The Prime Minister’s resignation or death brings down the whole Council.
- A minister who is not a member of either House must become one within six consecutive months, or cease to hold office.
- Before entering office each minister takes the oath of office and the oath of secrecy, administered by the President.
The Council of Ministers does five kinds of work:
- policy-making — settling the Government’s external and domestic line of action;
- administrative — implementing decisions through the ministries, coordinating departments, and advising on appointments to high office;
- legislative — introducing and piloting official bills, answering questions, deciding when Parliament is summoned, preparing the President’s address, and advising ordinances between sessions;
- financial — preparing and presenting the Budget, moving money bills in the Lok Sabha, and raising revenue;
- emergency — advising the President on the Proclamations the Constitution provides for.
The Prime Minister’s power comes from position rather than from named powers: the sole channel to the President under Article 78, the head of the Cabinet who allots portfolios and sets its agenda, the leader of the House, and the country’s chief political spokesperson. That power is held on borrowed support — from the party, from coalition partners, from the Lok Sabha, and under the Constitution and the courts.
Ministers carry two kinds of responsibility at once. Under Article 75(3) the Council is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, so a carried motion of no-confidence removes every minister; individually, each minister answers to Parliament for their own department and may be dropped alone.
The Council of Ministers and the Cabinet are not the same body. The Council is the whole ministry of all three ranks and carries the responsibility; the Cabinet is the inner group that meets often and takes the decisions the Council must then defend.
The Idea In One Place
The Council of Ministers exists to make executive power answerable. It concentrates decision-making in a body that can be named, questioned and dismissed by the House the voters elected.
Two devices do the work: advice that the head of the State must follow, and responsibility that the whole body carries together.
The question the chapter leaves open is where that answerability actually bites. Decisions are taken by a small Cabinet whose discussions are protected by the oath of secrecy, while the House can only judge the Government as a whole — so the sharpest instrument Parliament holds is also the bluntest.
4.10 Key Terms
Absolute majority — more than half of the total members of a House.
Cabinet — the small inner body of senior ministers holding the chief portfolios, which takes the Government’s major decisions.
Coalition government — a government formed by a group of parties that separately hold too few seats to rule alone.
Collective responsibility — the rule that the Council of Ministers stands or falls together before the Lok Sabha.
Convention — an established practice that is regularly followed although no law commands it.
Council of Ministers — the whole ministry of the Union, headed by the Prime Minister, which aids and advises the President.
Defection — leaving the party on whose ticket a member was elected and joining another.
Individual responsibility — the rule that each minister personally answers to Parliament for the department in their charge.
Leader of the House — the member who speaks for the Government on the floor of a House and manages its business there.
Money bill — a bill dealing with taxation or government spending, which may be introduced only in the Lok Sabha.
No-confidence motion — a motion in the Lok Sabha stating that the House no longer supports the Council of Ministers.
Nominal head — the office in whose name the Government acts but which does not itself choose what to do.
Oath of office — the oath a minister takes to be faithful to the Constitution, uphold India’s sovereignty and integrity, and act without fear or favour.
Oath of secrecy — the oath a minister takes not to reveal any matter that comes before them as a minister, except as duty requires.
Office of profit — a paid post under the Government which a minister or member may not simultaneously hold.
Ordinance — a law issued by the President when Parliament is not in session, having the force of an Act until Parliament decides on it.
Parliamentary form of government — a system in which the executive is drawn from the legislature and holds office only while the legislature supports it.
Portfolio — the department or group of departments a minister is placed in charge of.
Real executive — the authority that actually takes the decisions of government, here the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers.
Vote of confidence — a motion by which the Lok Sabha records whether it supports a government.
4.11 Points to Ponder
The President must act on advice and may only send a matter back once. Does the office then check the Government at all, and what would have to change for it to do so?
Collective responsibility requires a minister to defend in public a decision they argued against in private. Is that dishonesty, or simply the price of governing as one body?
The oath of secrecy protects the discussion, while collective responsibility exposes the decision. Can citizens judge a government fairly when they know what was decided but never who argued for what?
The Constitution names the Council of Ministers, but the Cabinet takes the major decisions. Should the body that decides also be the body the Constitution holds responsible?
A minister may resign for a failure they did not personally cause. What does such a resignation actually repair, and what does it leave exactly as it was?
The Lok Sabha can remove an entire Government but not a single minister. Does that make Parliament’s control over the executive stronger, or blunter?
4.12 Objective Questions
The Prime Minister of India is appointed by
- the Lok Sabha
- the President
- the Council of Ministers
- the Chief Justice of India [1 mark]
A person who is not a member of either House of Parliament when appointed a minister must become a member within
- three months
- six consecutive months
- one year
- the term of that Lok Sabha [1 mark]
The 91st Amendment of 2003 limits the total number of ministers, including the Prime Minister, to
- twelve
- ten per cent of the membership of the Lok Sabha
- fifteen per cent of the membership of the Lok Sabha
- a number fixed by the President for each ministry [1 mark]
Which of the following is a financial function of the Council of Ministers?
- Preparing the annual Budget for presentation to the Lok Sabha
- Administering the oath of secrecy to a new minister
- Summoning a session of Parliament
- Recommending judges of the High Courts [1 mark]
Fill in the blank: A minister who reveals a matter that came before them in the course of their duties breaks the oath of ________. [1 mark]
State whether the following is true or false: An ordinance issued by the President continues in force permanently unless a court sets it aside. [1 mark]
Match the provisions in Column A with their subject matter in Column B.
| Column A | Column B |
|---|---|
| a. Article 74 | i. The ordinance-making power of the President |
| b. Article 75(3) | ii. Collective responsibility to the House of the People |
| c. Article 78 | iii. A Council of Ministers to aid and advise the President |
| d. Article 123 | iv. The Prime Minister’s duty to communicate decisions to the President |
[1 mark]
- Assertion (A): When the Lok Sabha carries a motion of no-confidence, every member of the Council of Ministers must resign. Reason (R): The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the House of the People.
- Both (A) and (R) are true, and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
- Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
- is true, but (R) is false.
- is false, but (R) is true. [1 mark]
4.13 Check Your Concepts
Name the three ranks of ministers in the Council of Ministers. [2 marks]
Define an ordinance, and state when it may be issued. [2 marks]
Differentiate between the oath of office and the oath of secrecy taken by a minister. [3 marks]
Give reasons why every minister must be a member of one of the two Houses of Parliament, or become one within six months. [3 marks]
Explain, with an example, what is meant by the individual responsibility of a minister. [4 marks]
Trace what follows, step by step, from the moment the Lok Sabha carries a motion of no-confidence against the Council of Ministers. [4 marks]
Describe the position of the Prime Minister in relation to the Cabinet, and state three powers that flow from that position. [5 marks]
Explain the principle of collective responsibility, and compare it with individual responsibility. Which of the two gives Parliament the sharper hold over the executive, and why? [6 marks]
4.14 Show Your Skills
- A general election returns no party with a majority in the Lok Sabha. Four parties, holding together rather more than half the seats, sign an agreement to govern jointly and name one of their leaders as their choice for Prime Minister. Letters signed by their members are handed to the President.
- Whom should the President appoint, and on what basis is the choice made?
- How will the new Government’s claim to a majority be tested, and where?
- State one thing the signed letters cannot settle that a recorded vote in the House can. [5 marks]
- A serious lapse comes to light in the working of a Union ministry. The minister in charge states in Parliament that the decisions were taken by officials of the department without her knowledge, and that she learnt of them from the newspapers.
- Which kind of ministerial responsibility does this situation raise, and what does it require of the minister?
- Can the minister be removed without the whole Government falling? Explain how.
- If the Lok Sabha is dissatisfied with the Government as a whole, state what it can do, and one thing it cannot do. [5 marks]
- Study the following description of a diagram. Three shapes are drawn one inside another. The outermost band is labelled ‘Parliament’. Inside it is a circle labelled with the name of a body, divided into three bands for the three ranks of ministers. Inside the topmost band is a shaded inner circle, with the Prime Minister at its centre.
- Name the body shown by the middle circle and the body shown by the shaded inner circle.
- Why is the middle circle drawn wholly inside the band marked ‘Parliament’?
- State one thing about the working of the Government that this diagram cannot show. [4 marks]