Prime Minister and Council of Ministers

In the previous chapter we met the President, who reigns. Now we meet the people who govern: the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. In a parliamentary system the real executive power lies with a team that sits in Parliament and answers to it. The Constitution describes this team in just a few Articles, mainly 74 to 78, and then leaves much to conventions borrowed from the British system. If you learn the five Articles below with their one-line meaning, half the chapter is done.

Who becomes Prime Minister? The Constitution only says that the President appoints him. The convention is simple: the leader of the party or coalition that commands a majority in the Lok Sabha. When no party has a clear majority (a 'hung' Lok Sabha), the President may use his own judgement: he invites the leader he thinks can form a stable government and asks him to prove a majority within a fixed time. In 1996, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was invited as leader of the largest party, but he resigned after 13 days without winning a vote of confidence.

The Prime Minister must be a Member of Parliament, but not necessarily at the moment of appointment. A person who is not a member can be made PM or Minister, but must be elected or nominated to either House within six consecutive months (Article 75(5)), or he ceases to hold office. A PM can belong to either House. Indira Gandhi (1966), H.D. Deve Gowda (1996), I.K. Gujral (1997) and Manmohan Singh (2004) were all members of the Rajya Sabha when they became or while they were Prime Minister. The minimum age is therefore 25 if he is in the Lok Sabha and 30 if he is in the Rajya Sabha; the commonly quoted figure is 25.

On paper the President is the head of the Union executive. In practice the Prime Minister is the centre of the whole government: the Constitution gives the President the pen, but the Prime Minister decides what is written. He is chosen by the majority in the Lok Sabha, forms the team of Ministers, runs the Cabinet, speaks for the Government in Parliament and is the link between the Council of Ministers and the President. Understand these five roles and every question on the Prime Minister's position becomes easy.

Think of a class where Radhika is chosen monitor only because most of the class backs her. The moment the majority walks away, she cannot carry on, however much the teacher likes her. The Prime Minister is in the same position with the Lok Sabha: the President appoints, but the House decides whether the Prime Minister stays.

Collective responsibility means one Council, one voice. Every Minister, even one who spoke against a proposal inside the Cabinet room, must defend the final decision outside it. If the Lok Sabha loses confidence in even one important policy, the whole Council falls, not just one Minister. This rule is in Article 75(3) and has been in the Constitution since 1950; it was never added by any Amendment. It is the soul of the parliamentary system: the executive sits in Parliament only as long as Parliament trusts it.

No-confidence motion. It is not mentioned in the Constitution; it comes from the Rules of Procedure of the Lok Sabha (Rule 198). It can be moved only in the Lok Sabha, never in the Rajya Sabha, and needs the support of at least 50 members to be admitted. The motion need not state reasons. If it is passed, the entire Council of Ministers must resign. A vote of confidence, in contrast, is moved by the Government itself to prove that it still has a majority. Defeat of the Government on a Money Bill or on a major policy is also treated as loss of confidence.

Article 74 speaks of a single body, the Council of Ministers, but in real life it is a pyramid with several levels. At the top are the Cabinet Ministers who decide; below them are the Ministers of State who assist or manage smaller ministries. Understanding who sits at which level, how many people may sit in the Council at all (the 91st Amendment) and what they swear when they join is the whole of this topic.

The 91st Amendment (2003), in force from 1 January 2004, fixed the size of the Council. (1) The total number of Ministers, including the Prime Minister, cannot exceed 15 per cent of the total strength of the Lok Sabha (Article 75(1A)); with 543 elected seats this works out to about 81. (2) In a State the limit is 15 per cent of the Assembly's strength, with a minimum of 12 Ministers (Article 164(1A)). (3) A member disqualified for defection is also barred from holding any Ministerial post until the end of his term or until re-election, whichever is earlier (Articles 75(1B) and 164(1B)). (4) The exemption in the Tenth Schedule for a 'split' in a party was removed.

If the Council of Ministers is the whole school, the Cabinet is the staff room where the real decisions are taken. It is a small group of the most senior Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister, and it is the highest decision-making body of the Union executive. Around it sit the helpers that make it work: the Cabinet Secretariat that prepares its papers, the Cabinet Committees that do the detailed work, the Prime Minister's Office that advises the Prime Minister, and the informal Kitchen Cabinet. None of these is described in the Constitution; they all grew out of British practice and Indian convenience.

Cabinet Committees are extra-constitutional. They are not mentioned in the Constitution; they are set up by the Prime Minister under the Rules of Business, and he can change their number, names and members at will. They exist to cut the Cabinet's workload: they study a problem in detail and bring a recommendation, which the Cabinet may review. Most are chaired by the Prime Minister (for example the CCS, CCEA and CCPA), though a few are chaired by other senior Ministers. They are mainly Cabinet Ministers, but other Ministers can attend as special invitees.

Questions on Prime Ministers are the easiest marks in this chapter, but only if the list sits in your head in the right order. Remember one thing first: the Prime Minister is numbered by the person, not by the term. Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee returned to office, yet each counts once. The two acting Prime Ministers, Gulzarilal Nanda, are not numbered at all. That gives us Narendra Modi as the 14th Prime Minister, as of 2025.

The Prime Minister need not be a member of the Lok Sabha at the time of appointment. Indira Gandhi (1966), Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh were Rajya Sabha members when they led the government; whoever is appointed must become a member of either House within six months, under Article 75(5).

The government needs a lawyer too. The Attorney General of India is that lawyer: the first law officer of the Union, created by Article 76. He is not a Minister and does not sit in the Cabinet, yet he may speak in Parliament. This is why the office is a favourite of examiners: it looks like a minister's job but is not one.

Duties under Article 76(2): advise the Government on legal matters referred to him, perform other legal duties assigned by the President, and discharge functions given by the Constitution or any law. Under Article 76(3) he has the right of audience in all courts in India. He enjoys the privileges of a Member of Parliament, but he is not a Member.