"EXECUTIVE"
∆ Organs of Government
• Legislature (To make law)
• Executive (To enforce law)
• Judiciary (To protect law)
THE ORGAN OF GOVERNMENT THAT IS CARRIES ON THE FUNCTION OF IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION IS CALLED THE EXECUTIVE.
✓ POLITICAL EXECUTIVE IS ELECTED FOR A DEFINITE PERIOD. IT INCLUDES THE HEADS OF GOVERNMENT AND THEIR MINISTERS, FORMULATING GOVERNMENT POLICY.
✓ PERMANENT EXECUTIVE CONSISTS OF BUREAUCRATS AND CIVIL SERVANTS, RESPONSIBLE FOR DAY TO DAY ADMINISTRATION.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF EXECUTIVE-
1) PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM
2) PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM
3) SEMI PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM
PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM-
Presidential executive there are two important
posts like head of state and head of government.
These two posts are handled by one person only.
Such type of executive is presidential executive.
- E.g. America, Brazil.
President is both head of state and government. Office of President is powerful both in theory and practice.
e.g. USA, Brazil and most of the nations in Latin America follows this system.
PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM-
In a parliamentary executive, there are two
important post like head of state and head of
government.
These two posts are handled by two
different person. Such type of executive is
parliamentary executive.
Prime Minister is the head of government. President or Monarch is nominal head of state. Their role is ceremonial and Prime Minister along with cabinet holds effective power.
–
E.g. India, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan.
Canada has parliamentary democracy with constitutional monarchy, where Queen Elizabeth II is the formal chief of state and prime minister is head of the government.
Germany has Parliamentary system with President as ceremonial head of state and Chancellor as head of government.
Parliamentary system in Japan with Emperor as head of state and Prime Minister as head of government.
SEMI- PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM
It has both prime minister and president.
In this case president may possess significant day to day powers.
It is possible that both of these belonging to same or different parties resulting cooperation or being opposed to each other.
France, Russia and Sri Lanka follows this system.
In France both the prime minister and president are part of the semi-presidential system.
WHY INDIA ADOPTED PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT ?
Reasons for adopting parliamentary executive
in India –
• Familiarity with the system
• Responsible government
• Prevents dictatorship
INDIAN EXECUTIVE-
• At national level :
- president + prime minister +
council of ministers + civil servants
• At state level :
- governor + chief minister +
council of ministers + civil servants
PARLIAMENTARY EXECUTIVE IN INDIA-
India had experience of parliamentary system under the Acts of 1919 and 1935.
Presidential system carries the threat of one person becoming too powerful in absence of safeguards to check their power.
Parliamentary system has provisions where executive will be answerable to and controlled by the executive.
Under this system, President is head of the state and Prime Minister and council of minister run the government at central level.
At the state level, executive comprises of the Governor and the chief minister and the council of ministers.
PRESIDENT OF INDIA
Qualification to be an Indian president
• He should be an Indian citizen
• He should complete at the age of 35
• He doesn’t carry any job under central or state
government
• He should have the qualification to elect in Lok
Sabh
Election of President
• The president of India is elected by electoral
college.
. They are elected MLAs and MPs
(electoral college) (from all state legislative
assembly, all MP from Lok Sabha and Rajya
Sabha) .
This election takes place in accordance with the principle of proportional representation with single transferable vote.
• Term of office is 5 years
President holds wide range of Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Financial, Diplomatic, Military and Emergency Powers.
President of India is a nominal head and exercise these powers through the council of Minister headed by the Prime Minister.
Removal of President
• President can be removed from the post in
case of the violation of constitution.
• Removed from office by parliament
Impeachment process requires a special
majority
Art. 52.—There shall be a President of India.
Art. 53. (1) - The executive power of the Union shall be vested in the President and shall be exercised by him either directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with this Constitution.
Provided that the President may require the Council of Ministers to reconsider such advice, either generally or otherwise, and the President shall act in accordance with the advice tendered after such reconsideration.
POWER AND FUNCTION OF INDIAN PRESIDENT-
• Legislative power
• Executive power
• Judicial power
• Financial power
• Emergency power
LEGISLATIVE POWERS-
Parliament submit always begins with opening
address of Indian President.
He can summon or prorogue the Parliament and dissolve the Lok Sabha. He can also summon a joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament, which is presided over by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
He nominates 12 members of the Rajya Sabha and two members to the Lok Sabha from the Anglo-Indian Community.
• When There is urgent law is required, the Prime
Minister recommended the President to
announce the law. It is called ordinance. The
duration of ordinance is only 6 months ( Article 123) or (He can promulgate ordinances when the Parliament is not in session. These ordinances must be approved by the Parliament within six weeks from its reassembly. He can also withdraw an ordinance at any time.)
• President signature is essential to implement
any law in our nation.
When a bill is sent to the President after it has been passed by the Parliament, he can:
(i) give his assent to the bill, or
(ii) withhold his assent to the bill, or
(iii) return the bill (if it is not a money bill) for reconsideration of the Parliament.
EXECUTIVE POWERS-
ARTICLE-54
All executive actions of the Government of India are formally taken in his name.
He appoints prime minister and council of ministers.
He also appoint state governors, judges of Supreme Court and High Court, the election commissioner of India, high officials of military as well as diplomatic officials.
If no party gets a clear majority in lok sabha
President has to use his own discretion in
judging who really have the support of
majority or who can actually form and run the
government.
He can seek any information relating to the administration of affairs of the Union, and proposals for legislation from the prime minister.
He directly administers the union territories through administrators appointed by him.
He can declare any area as scheduled area and has powers with respect to the administration of scheduled areas and tribal areas.
He can appoint a commission to investigate into the conditions of SCs, STs and other backward classes.
JUDICIAL POWER
• President have the power to increase or
decrease the imprisonment period of a
criminal.
• A prisoner can gave a mercy petition to the
president and the president can gave pardon
to the prisoner
• Article - 72
FINANCIAL POWER
• Financial minister can present the budget only
after asking the opinion of president (Article - 112).
• The president appoint the finance
commissioner (Article – 280
EMERGENCY POWER
There are three types of emergency power for
Indian President-
• National Emergency (Article 352)- President
can declare national emergency in the case of
civil war and external aggression or armed
rebellion.
• State Emergency (Article 356) - The president
can declare state emergency in the case of
failure of constitutional machinery in state or
ruling party lost its majority.
• Financial Emergency (Article 360)- If India
faces economic crisis the president can
declare financial emergencies.
Discretionary Powers of President
President can send back the advice given by the Council of Ministers and ask the Council to reconsider the decision.
When the President thinks that the advice has certain flaws or legal lacunae, or that it is not in the best interests of the country, the President can ask the Council to reconsider the decision.
Although, the Council can still send back the same advice and the President would then be bound by that advice.
Veto power by which President can withhold or refuse to give assent to Bills (other than Money Bill) passed by the Parliament. This ‘veto’ power is limited because, if the Parliament passes the same bill again and sends it back to the President, then, the President has to give assent to that bill.
However there is no time limit defined to keep the bill pending. This power is often called ‘pocket veto’.
Formally, the President appoints the Prime Minister. But in absence of clear majority, the President has to decide whom to appoint as the Prime Minister.
In the four parliamentary elections held from 1989 to 1998, no single party or coalition attained a majority in the Lok Sabha. These situations demanded presidential intervention either in order to constitute governments or to grant a request for dissolution of Lok Sabha by a Prime Minister who could not prove majority in the House.
President as Head of State, with a fixed term becomes important when there is no stable government with majority and the need arises to select a new Prime Minister.
"VICE PRESIDENT OF INDIA"
Article 63 deals with Vice President of Indian
constitution.
The Vice President is elected for five years.
The Vice President may be removed from his office by a resolution of the Rajya Sabha passed by a majority and agreed to by the Lok Sabha.
The Vice President acts as the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha(article 64) and takes over the office of the President when there is a vacancy by reasons of death, resignation, removal by impeachment or otherwise(Article- 65).
The Vice President acts as the President only until a new President is elected.
B. D. Jatti acted as President on the death of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed until a new President was elected.
QUALIFICATION FOR BECOMING VICE PRESIDENT-
• He should be an Indian citizen.
• He should complete at the age of 35.
• He doesn’t carry any job under central and state
government.
• He should have the qualification to elect in Rajya
Sabha.
ELECTION OF VICE PRESIDENT-
• The Vice President is elected by electoral college
(Electoral college consist of the MPs of Lok Sabha
and Rajya Sabha).
REMOVAL-
• Vice president can be removed from the post
in the case of violation of constitution (A
resolution passed by Rajya Sabha and agreed
by the Lok Sabha)
Art. 75. (1) The Prime Minister shall be appointed by the President and the other Ministers shall be appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister.
"PRIME MINISTER AND COUNCIL OF MINISTER"
Prime minister (Art. 74 & 75)
• Prime minister is the head of government.
• Prime minister is the real executive.
• Duration 5 years.
• Prime minister is appointed by president.
• Prime minister is the leader of the parliament.
• Prime minister is the leader of majority party.
• Presides the cabinet meetings
• Prime minister act as mediator between
President and Council of ministers
Powers and Functions Of The Prime Minister
In relation to the council of ministers :-
Formation of Council of Ministers
Allocation of Portfolio
Re-shuffle the cabinet
Head of the government
In relation to the President :-
Prime Minister is the principal channel of communication between the president and the council of minsters.
Regarding the appointment of important officials prime minster advises the president
In relation to Parliament :-
He is the government’s chief spokesperson in the parliament and can recommend dissolution of Lok Sabha.
He makes all the principal announcements, clarifies govt. policies, , answer questions.
The Prime Minister and all the ministers have to be members of the Parliament. If someone becomes a minister or Prime Minister without being an MP, such a person has to get elected to the Parliament within six months.
The total number of ministers, including the Prime Minister, in the Council of Ministers shall not exceed 15% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha. This provision was added by the 91st Amendment Act of 2003.
The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.
Collective responsibility is based on the principle of the solidarity of the cabinet. This provision means that a Ministry which loses confidence of the Lok Sabha is obliged to resign.
Passing of no confidence even against a single minister leads to the resignation of the entire Council of Ministers. It means that if a minister does not agree with a policy or decision of the cabinet, he or she must either accept the decision or resign.
The Council comes into existence only after the Prime Minister has taken the oath of office. The death or resignation of the Prime Minister automatically brings about the dissolution of the Council of Ministers but the demise, dismissal or resignation of a minister only creates a ministerial vacancy.
The Prime Minister acts as a link between the Council of Ministers, the President and the Parliament. Owing to this role Jawaharlal Nehru described PM as ‘the linchpin of Government’.
It is the constitutional obligation of the Prime Minister to communicate to the President all decisions of the Council of Ministers relating to the administration of the affairs of the Union and proposals for legislation.
PM advises President regarding appointment of important officials.
PM delegates leadership of the Lok Sabha, command over the bureaucratic machine, access to media, projection of personalities during elections, projection as national leader during international summitry as well as foreign visits.
Support of majority in Lok Sabha is crucial for Prime Minister, loss of majority means the Prime Minister loses the office.
Since 1989, there have been many occasions when no party had majority in the Lok Sabha resulting in formation of coalition government.
Many of these governments could not remain in power for the full term of the Lok Sabha. They were either removed or they resigned due to loss of support of the majority.
It has affected the working of the parliamentary executive:
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS-
Council of ministers are classified into three:
• 1. Cabinet ministers- It is a small group of
senior ministers. Cabinet ministers deal very
important department
• 2. State ministers- They came under the
cabinet minister. To assist the cabinet minister.
• 3. Deputy ministers - They are appointed to
help the ministers.
Size of the Council of Ministers- Ministers shall not exceed 15% of total
number of members of the House of the
People ( or Assembly in the case of the State. 91st Amendment Act 2003
DISCRETIONARY ROLE OF PRESIDENT IN SELECTION OF PM-
Suspensive Veto:
The President has discretionary power when he exercises suspensive veto ie. when he returns a bill
(not money bill) for reconsideration of the parliament.
However if the bill is passed again by the Parliament with or without amendments and presented
again to the President, it is obligatory for him to give his assent to the bill.
Pocket Veto:
This is not a provision mentioned in the Indian constitution, but this is a possible situation when the
President of India can use his discretionary power. In this case, the President neither ratifies nor
reject nor return the bill, but simply keeps the bill pending for an indefinite period.
As the time limit within which the President has to take the decision with respect to a bill presented
to him for assent, has not been mentioned in the constitution, in effect the inaction of the President
stops the bill from becoming an act.
President can seek information from Prime Minister:
Under article 78 the President enjoys the right to seek information from the PM regarding the
administration of the affairs of the union.
Under the established convention, the President has the right to warn or encourage the Council
of Minister (CoM) in the exercise of its power.
Case of no majority:
• When no political party or coalition of parties enjoy the majority in Lok Sabha, then the
President has discretion in inviting the leader of that party or coalition of parties who in his
opinion is able to form a stable government.
Case of no-confidence with CoM- dissolving Lok Sabha:
• It is for the president to decide if he should dissolve Lok Sabha or not when CoM loses the
majority in Lok Sabha.
Note: The President can dissolve Lok Sabha only on the advice of CoM but the advice is
binding only if the government is a majority government.
PERMANENT EXECUTIVE: BUREAUCRACY
Bureaucracy: administrative machinery
Permanent employees of the government are assigned the task of assisting the ministers in formulating policies and implementing these policies.
Administration is under their control and supervision.
Bureaucracy works under political control to ensure working on policies defined by legislature.
Bureaucracy has to be politically neutral.
The responsibility of the administrative machinery to faithfully and efficiently participate in drafting the policy and in its implementation
UPSC(Union Public Service Commission ) recruits civil Servants for GOI at central (Union) level and State Public Service Commission for state level.
Removal and suspension is subject to enquiry made by judge of Supreme Court.
Norms of recruitment include efficiency and merit of the person.
It also gives reservation to make it more representative and social inequalities don’t hinder recruitment.
Higher level bureaucracy includes, IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS etc.
They are assigned a state working under supervision of state government.
Only central government can take any disciplinary action against them.
The administration of the State is looked after by officers appointed through the State Public Service Commissions.
Through bureaucracy welfare policies of government reach people.
People largely fear reaching bureaucracy, and feel them being insensitive to the demand and expectation of citizen.
Too much political influence has turned bureaucracy into a puppet.
No enough provision to ensure accountability of bureaucracy.
RTI may make bureaucracy more responsive and accountable.
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"-POINTS TO REMEMBER-"
• The executive authority is vested in a single
person it is called single executive
E.g. American President
• The executive authority is vested in number of
person is called plural executive. E.g. Switzerland (The executive power is
handled by 7 members)
• Nominal executive is the head of state, who
exercise only nominal power is called nominal
executive.- E.g. Indian President
• Real executive is the head of government,
who exercise real power is called real
executive. - E.g. Indian Prime Minister..
• Pocket veto – President can just keep the bill
pending with him without any time limit.
• Coalition Government - A coalition government is one in which multiple political parties come
together and often reduce the dominance of the party that has won the
highest number of seats.
Coalition governments are formed as seldom does a political party win
the necessary number of seats to form the government on its own.
In India, the first coalition government to complete its full-term was the
Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance from 1999 to 2004.
While some say that coalition governments generate more inclusive
policies, others believe that coalitions impose constraints on policymaking.
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