Hung Parliament

Also called: Hung assembly · Topic: Union Executive: President, Vice-President, Prime Minister and Council of Ministers · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 6 "The Parliamentary System: Legislature and Executive"; Class 11, Ch 4 "Executive"

Meaning

A hung Parliament is a Lok Sabha where no single party and no pre-poll alliance (parties that agreed to work together before the vote) wins a majority, which is 272 of 543 seats. It matters because the President then has to use their own judgment to decide whom to invite as Prime Minister. This is one of the few times the President does not simply act on ministers' advice.

Explanation

Why a hung House gives the President a real choice

• Normal rule: the President must act on the advice of the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister (Article 74(1)). [2]
• The gap: when no one has a majority, there is no Prime Minister yet whose advice the President can take. Under Article 75(1), the President alone decides whom to invite.
• Samsher Singh v. State of Punjab (1974): the President is a constitutional head and acts on ministerial advice. The exceptions are a few narrow situations, and a hung House is one of them.
• Class 8 NCERT: the President has the most discretion "during political crises, like when no party holds a clear majority".
• Discretion means the power to act on one's own judgment, not on ministers' advice.

Steps after a hung result

1. Check for a pre-poll alliance with a majority (272 of 543). If there is one, the House is not hung, and its leader is invited.
2. Invite the largest single party, if it can win enough support from others.
3. Invite a post-poll coalition (parties that join together after the results).

4. Ask for proof of support: - Letters of support from the backing parties, as K.R. Narayanan asked for in 1998. - A bare claim of support is not enough.

5. Swear in the PM, then hold a floor test: - A floor test is a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha. - It needs a simple majority of members present and voting. - In 1998 the time limit was within ten days of the swearing-in.

6. If the vote is lost: - The ministry resigns. - The President first checks whether anyone else can form a government. - If no one can, the President may dissolve the Lok Sabha (Article 85(2)(b)).

Limits on the President's choice

• The floor test decides the outcome, not the President's private view.
• Supreme Court on doubtful majority: when it is unclear who has a majority, an immediate floor test is the best answer. [4]
• Dissolution is not automatic: if a PM who has lost the majority asks for dissolution, the President may first look for another government.
• Caretaker government:
• The outgoing ministry stays in office until a new one takes over.
• By convention, it avoids major policy decisions and new appointments.

In the Constitution and practice

• Constitutional basis:
• Article 74(1): the Council of Ministers aids and advises the President. [2]
• Article 75(1): the President appoints the Prime Minister.
• Article 85(2)(b): the President dissolves the Lok Sabha.

• The Constitution does not set out an order of invitation. That order comes from convention and case law.

• The unstable decade:

• The four Lok Sabha elections of 1989, 1991, 1996 and 1998 produced no single-party majority.

Key instances

• 1979, N. Sanjiva Reddy:
• He appointed Charan Singh PM after Morarji Desai resigned.
• Charan Singh resigned without facing the House.
• Reddy dissolved the Lok Sabha on Charan Singh's advice and passed over Jagjivan Ram's claim.

• Critics said a PM who never won a floor test should not be able to get the House dissolved.

• 1989, R. Venkataraman:

• He first invited Rajiv Gandhi, as leader of the largest party. Rajiv Gandhi declined.

• He then invited V.P. Singh of the National Front, which had outside support from the BJP and the Left.

• 1996, Shankar Dayal Sharma:

• He invited Vajpayee, as leader of the largest party (BJP).

• Vajpayee resigned after 13 days, and H.D. Deve Gowda of the United Front became PM.

• 1998, K.R. Narayanan:

• The BJP and its allies had 251 seats, 21 short of a majority.
• Narayanan asked for letters of support and a confidence vote within ten days.

• This set the new standard of written proof plus a time-bound floor test.

• 1999, K.R. Narayanan:

• Vajpayee lost a confidence vote by one vote (269-270).
• Narayanan checked whether anyone else could form a government. No one could, so he dissolved the House.

• Vajpayee stayed on as a caretaker and ran the Kargil conflict (May to July 1999).

• 2024:

• The BJP won 240 seats on its own.
• The NDA (its pre-poll alliance) had a clear majority, so the House was not hung.

Rules from commissions and courts

• Sarkaria Commission (1983):
• It was headed by Justice R.S. Sarkaria to review Centre-state relations.

• It suggested rules to guide a Governor in choosing a Chief Minister. [3]

• S.R. Bommai (1994): set the floor-test rule. Shivraj Singh Chouhan (2020) applied it again. [4]

• Rameshwar Prasad v. Union of India (2006): approved the Sarkaria order of invitation. [4]
• Subhash Desai (May 2023): a Governor's decision to call a floor test is open to judicial review (a court can check whether it is lawful). The decision must rest on objective material. [4]
• U.N.R. Rao v. Indira Gandhi (1971): a Council of Ministers must exist at all times, even after dissolution. This is the legal basis of the caretaker ministry.

Don't confuse with

• Single party short of a majority, but its pre-poll alliance has one (2024): this is not a hung House. A Lok Sabha is hung only when neither a party nor a pre-poll alliance reaches 272.
• Post-poll coalition: it is formed after the results and comes third in the order of invitation. A pre-poll alliance is formed before the vote and comes first.
• Caretaker government: this is the outgoing ministry that keeps office until a new one is formed (U.N.R. Rao, 1971). A hung Parliament is the election result that often creates the need for one.
• Returning advice (Art. 74(1) proviso): a different kind of discretion. The President sends Cabinet advice back once and must accept it if it comes again. In a hung House, the President uses judgment because there is no clear majority to give advice. [2]

Prelims Hooks

• 1998: K.R. Narayanan asked Vajpayee for letters of support and a trust vote within ten days. The BJP and its allies had 251 seats.
• Trap: Bommai (1994) set the floor-test rule. Rameshwar Prasad (2006) approved the Sarkaria order of invitation. [4]
• Trap: Charan Singh (1979) is the only PM who never faced Parliament. Vajpayee's 1996 government lasted 13 days.
• 1999: Vajpayee lost the confidence vote 269-270, and the Lok Sabha was dissolved after the President found no one else could form a government.
• 1989: R. Venkataraman invited the largest party first. Rajiv Gandhi declined, and V.P. Singh then became PM.
• 2024: the BJP won 240 seats, but the NDA had a majority, so the House was not hung.

Mains Points

• Discretion grows with instability:
• From 1989 to 1999, Presidents had to decide whom to invite and when to dissolve the House.
• The 1998 rule of "letters of support plus a time-bound floor test" moved the real decision from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the House.

• Clear rules reduce the risk that the President uses discretion to favour one side.

• Codify the order of invitation:

• The Sarkaria order, approved in Rameshwar Prasad (2006), and the Bommai floor test exist only as conventions and case law.
• A binding written protocol for both the President and Governors would make outcomes predictable.

• Subhash Desai (2023) shows that the courts will step in when a constitutional head acts on extraneous grounds (reasons unrelated to the facts of the case).

• The caretaker problem after a hung House or a lost vote:

• An outgoing ministry must keep governing, as Vajpayee's did during Kargil in 1999, but it has no fresh mandate.
• Conventions and the Model Code of Conduct (Election Commission rules that bar new schemes and announcements during elections) try to balance continuity against accountability.
• There is a case for a written caretaker convention, like the cabinet manuals of Westminster-style systems.

Related concepts

• Discretionary powers of the President
• Caretaker government
• Duties of the Prime Minister

Read more

• Discretion, hung Houses and the President-Prime Minister relationship