Council of Ministers

Also called: Union Council of Ministers, Article 75 · Topic: Union Executive: President, Vice-President, Prime Minister and Council of Ministers · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 9 "From the Rulers to the Ruled: Types of Governments"; Class 8, Ch 6 "The Parliamentary System: Legislature and Executive"; Class 11, Ch 4 "Executive"

Meaning

The Council of Ministers is the body of all Union ministers of every rank, with the Prime Minister at its head. It "aid[s] and advise[s]" the President, and the President must act on its advice (Art. 74) [3]. It matters because it holds the real executive power of the Union. It stays in office only while it keeps the trust of the Lok Sabha, to which it is collectively responsible (Art. 75(3)) [2].

Explanation

How it works: aid and advice

• The President acts on the Council's advice.
• Under Art. 74(1), the President "shall… act in accordance with such advice" [3].

• The 42nd Amendment (1976) made this advice binding [3].

• The President can ask once for a rethink.

• The proviso to Art. 74(1) lets the President send the advice back once for reconsideration [3].
• The 44th Amendment (1978) added this power [3].

• The President must follow the advice given after reconsideration [3].

• Courts cannot ask about the advice.

• Under Art. 74(2), no court may ask whether advice was given or what it was [3].

• Art. 163(3) has the same rule for the Governor and state ministers [3].

• The PM is central to the system.

• On 30 December 1948, Dr B.R. Ambedkar told the Constituent Assembly that the PM's office was "indispensable" [3].
• Without a PM, he said, there could be no collective responsibility, and the President could put pressure on single ministers [3].

Who can be a minister: appointment, size and limits (Art. 75)

• Appointment: the President appoints the PM. The President appoints the other ministers on the PM's advice (Art. 75(1)) [2].
• Size cap: the total number of ministers, including the PM, must not be more than 15% of the Lok Sabha's total membership (Art. 75(1A)) [2]. For 543 seats, the cap is 81.
• Defectors barred: an MP disqualified under the Tenth Schedule (the anti-defection law) cannot become a minister while the disqualification lasts (Art. 75(1B)) [2].
• Tenure: ministers hold office "during the pleasure of the President" (Art. 75(2)) [2]. In practice, the President removes a minister only when the PM advises it.
• Non-members: a person who is not an MP can be a minister. If they do not become an MP within six months in a row, they stop being a minister (Art. 75(5)) [2].
• Oaths: the President gives each minister the oaths of office and of secrecy, in the forms set out in the Third Schedule (Art. 75(4)) [2].
• Salary: Parliament fixes ministers' salaries by law. Until it does, the Second Schedule applies (Art. 75(6)) [2].
• In Parliament (Art. 88): a minister can speak in both Houses. But a minister can vote only in their own House.

Its parts: three ranks of ministers

Rank	Role	In the Cabinet?
Cabinet minister	Heads a major ministry and helps make key policy	Yes
Minister of State (Independent Charge)	Runs a ministry alone, with no cabinet minister above them	No; attends only when invited
Minister of State	Attached to a cabinet minister and handles part of the ministry's work	No
Deputy minister	Assists a minister; rarely appointed now	No

• The Cabinet is the small inner group of cabinet-rank ministers. It decides policy and approves bills before they go to Parliament.
• The larger Council rarely meets as one body.

Its limits: three kinds of responsibility

• Collective responsibility (Art. 75(3)): the whole Council answers to the Lok Sabha as one body [2].
• If the government loses a no-confidence motion (a Lok Sabha vote saying it no longer trusts the government) or a key vote such as the Budget, all ministers resign together.
• Ministers "swim and sink together".

• This applies to the Lok Sabha only, not the Rajya Sabha.

• Cabinet solidarity:

• Every minister must publicly accept and defend a Cabinet decision, even after disagreeing in private.

• A minister who cannot do this must resign.

• Individual responsibility (Art. 75(2)): each minister answers for their own ministry. Because ministers serve at the President's pleasure, the PM can have any one minister dismissed, even when the government as a whole still has the Lok Sabha's trust.

• No legal responsibility:
• In Britain, a minister countersigns (signs alongside) the Crown's official acts and is legally answerable for them.
• India has no such rule. Art. 74(2) also stops courts from looking into the advice [3].

• So Indian ministers have only political responsibility.

• Not enforceable in court: collective responsibility cannot be enforced by a court. In the Constituent Assembly, the PM's power to choose and remove ministers was seen as the only real way to enforce it [3].

In the Constitution and practice

• Art. 74: creates the Council with the PM at its head and makes its advice binding [3].
• Art. 75: covers appointment, size, tenure, responsibility, oaths, the six-month rule and salary [2].
• Third Schedule: the oaths. Second Schedule: salaries until Parliament makes a law.
• 42nd Amendment (1976): made the advice binding on the President [3].
• 44th Amendment (1978):
• Added the one-time reconsideration power [3].
• Added Art. 352(3). This is the only place the word "Cabinet" appears in the Constitution. The President can proclaim a national Emergency only after the Cabinet's decision is sent in writing.

• This was a safeguard after the 1975 Emergency, which was declared without first consulting the Cabinet.

• 91st Amendment (2003, in force 1 January 2004) [4]:

• Added the 15% cap at the Centre (Art. 75(1A)) [2][4].
• Added a 15% cap for states, with a minimum of 12 ministers (Art. 164(1A)) [4].
• Barred defectors from becoming ministers (Arts. 75(1B), 164(1B)) [2].
• Barred defectors from remunerative political posts (paid government posts given for political reasons) under Art. 361B.

• Its aim was to end "jumbo" ministries, which were very large Councils used in the coalition years to reward allies and defectors.

• Constituent Assembly debates (30–31 December 1948; 14 and 17 October 1949): members proposed replacing "pleasure of the President" with "confidence of the House of the People". Some also wanted only elected members as ministers. Neither change was adopted [2].

• Key instances:
• C.D. Deshmukh (1956): resigned as Finance Minister because he disagreed with the government's plan for Bombay during the reorganisation of states. This shows cabinet solidarity.
• Lal Bahadur Shastri (1956): offered to resign as Railway Minister after a major train accident, taking moral responsibility. Nehru accepted the resignation when it was offered a second time. This shows individual responsibility.

• Harsimrat Kaur Badal (2020): resigned as Food Processing Industries Minister over the three farm bills.

• The June 2024 Council: the President gave the oaths on 9 June 2024 at Rashtrapati Bhavan [5]. It had 72 members including the PM: 30 cabinet ministers, 5 Ministers of State (Independent Charge) and 36 Ministers of State. This is well below the cap of 81 (verify current).

Don't confuse with

• Cabinet: the Council of Ministers is the large body of all ranks, created by Art. 74. The Cabinet is a small inner group of cabinet ministers that is named only in Art. 352(3), added by the 44th Amendment. The Cabinet decides policy, and the whole Council shares responsibility for it.
• Minister of State (Independent Charge): runs a ministry alone but is not a Cabinet member.
• Collective responsibility vs individual responsibility: collective responsibility means the whole Council falls together if it loses the Lok Sabha's trust (Art. 75(3)). Individual responsibility means one minister can be removed at the President's pleasure on the PM's advice (Art. 75(2)), even when the government survives.
• State Council of Ministers (Art. 164): it has the same 15% cap but also a minimum of 12 ministers. The Union Council has no minimum.

Prelims Hooks

• The Council is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha only (Art. 75(3)), not to Parliament as a whole.
• The 15% cap counts the PM. It was added by the 91st Amendment, 2003. For a 543-member Lok Sabha, the cap is 81.
• Trap: the word "Cabinet" does not appear in Art. 74 or 75. It appears only in Art. 352(3), added by the 44th Amendment (1978).
• 42nd Amendment (1976): made the advice binding. 44th Amendment (1978): added the one-time reconsideration power [3].
• A non-MP can be a minister for up to 6 consecutive months (Art. 75(5)). Oaths are in the Third Schedule and are given by the President (Art. 75(4)).
• Under Art. 88, a Rajya Sabha minister can speak in the Lok Sabha but cannot vote there.

Mains Points

• The 15% cap: has it worked?
• It ended jumbo ministries.
• But states get around it with parliamentary secretaries and cabinet rank for chairs of boards. These posts carry a minister's perks but are not counted as ministers, and they are often challenged in court as an office of profit (a paid government post that can disqualify a legislator).

• Reform: count every post with a minister's perks within the 15% cap, and make the office-of-profit rules clearer.

• Cabinet vs Council, and the rise of prime-ministerial government:

• Real decisions are made by the Cabinet, and in practice by the PMO (Prime Minister's Office). The larger Council only shares the blame.
• Collective solidarity still works through resignation, as with Badal in 2020.

• But Shastri-style moral responsibility resignations have become rare, and this weakens accountability.

• Art. 74(2) and accountability:

• Ministers answer politically, not legally, because courts cannot look into the advice given to the President [3].
• Courts can still review the material behind a decision. This keeps judicial review (the power of courts to check whether government action is lawful) alive and also protects the confidentiality of Cabinet advice.

Related concepts

• Cabinet
• Minister of State (Independent Charge)
• Limit on size of Council of Ministers
• Collective responsibility
• Individual responsibility

Read more

• The Council of Ministers and the Cabinet