Prime Minister of India and PMO- UPSC Notes
Prime Minister of India (PM)
Article 74 of the Constitution provides that “there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President who shall, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice”.
Thus, the real executive power vests in the Union Council of Ministers (CoM), which is headed by the Prime Minister. Hence, it is clear that the President is the Constitutional head of state, but the real head of the government is the Prime Minister.
Appointment of the Prime Minister (PM)
- The Prime Minister is appointed by the President;
- However, the President does not exercise his choice in the selection of the Prime Minister; as per the Parliamentary conventions, s/he has to invite the leader of the majority party to form the government.
- However, there are some situational discretions available to the President in certain cases, such as:
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- When no party has a clear majority, in such cases, the President invites the person who is likely to command the support of a coalition of parties that make up the majority in the Lok Sabha. For instance, after the fall of the Janata government, the then President Neelam Sanjiv Reddy appointed Charan Singh (the then leader of a coalition) as the Prime Minister.
- When the Prime Minister dies during his term, and there is no obvious successor. For instance, after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, then President Gyani Zail Singh appointed Rajiv Gandhi as the Prime Minister, ignoring the convention of appointing a caretaker Prime Minister.
- Judicial Rulings regarding the appointment of the Prime Minister:
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- In 1980, the Delhi High Court ruled that the Constitution does not require a person to prove his/her majority before being appointed as the Prime Minister.
- In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that a person who is not a Member of Parliament (MP) can be appointed as the Prime Minister for six months, within which s/he must be elected/nominated to either house of Parliament.
Should a Rajya Sabha member be appointed as the Prime Minister? |
i. Jawahar Lal Nehru had asked all the cabinet members from the Rajya Sabha that they must contest elections if they wanted to continue as cabinet ministers after the general election. ii. After Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was elected from the Rajya Sabha, HV Kamath, a former member of the Constituent Assembly and then Member of Parliament, brought a private member’s bill to amend the Articles 75 and 164 of the Constitution to include that the Council of ministers at both union level and state level should consist of members directly elected by the people and the Prime Minister (PM) and the Chief Minister (CM) should in no circumstance be a member who has been elected indirectly. He gave the following arguments:
iii. In response to the bill, the Congress government stated that the government and the party both were in principle agreement with the view that the Prime Minister should be a member elected to the Loksabha; however, it should not be included in the Constitution but rather developed as a healthy convention. However, in defence, it can be said that the Constitution does not envisage a Presidential system where the head of government is directly elected. In India, people choose their representatives, who in turn choose the government. Further, this allows various domain experts, who cannot handle the rough and tumble of political life, to participate in the government. For example, Dr Manmohan Singh. |
Oath, Term and Remuneration of Prime Minister
- Oath: The Prime Minister is required to take the oath of office and secrecy before the President of India before entering the office. The oath of office and secrecy of the Prime Minister is mentioned in the 3rd Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
- Term: The Constitution does not mention any term for the office of Prime Minister. The Prime Minister holds office as long as s/he enjoys a majority in the Lok Sabha. If s/he loses the confidence of the Lok Sabha, s/he must resign, or the President can dismiss him/her.
- Remuneration: The remunerations of the PM are determined by the Parliament from time to time. S/he gets the remunerations that are payable to a Member of Parliament; in addition, s/he is entitled to sumptuary allowances, medical facilities, travelling allowances, free accommodation, etc.
- Resignation/Removal: Any minister, including the PM, can offer a resignation to the President. Ministers hold office during the ‘pleasure’ of the President. It means that ministers can also be removed by the President at any time, but only on the advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the PM.
In this article, we focus only on the Prime minister. The Council of Ministers will be taken in the next article.
