The Council of Ministers and the Cabinet

Detail

1. Council of Ministers: the body the Constitution creates

• Council of Ministers means all the ministers of the Union government, of every rank, with the Prime Minister at its head. It is the body the Constitution itself sets up (Art. 74).
• Art. 74(1): the Council must "aid and advise" the President, and the President "shall… act in accordance with such advice" [3].
• Proviso: the President may ask the Council to reconsider its advice once. After that, the President must follow the advice given after reconsideration [3].

• The 42nd Amendment (1976) made the advice binding. The 44th Amendment (1978) added the one-time power to send advice back [3].

• Art. 74(2): no court may ask whether any advice was given to the President, or what that advice was [3]. Art. 163(3) says the same thing for the Governor and state ministers [3].

• Constituent Assembly (30 December 1948): Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Chairman of the Drafting Committee, called the office of Prime Minister "indispensable". Without a PM, he said, the Cabinet could not have collective responsibility, and the President could put too much pressure on individual ministers [3].

2. Appointment, oath, membership and salary (Art. 75)

Clause	What it says
75(1)	The President appoints the PM. The President appoints the other ministers on the PM's advice [2]
75(1A)	Total ministers, including the PM, may not be more than 15% of the Lok Sabha's total membership [2]
75(1B)	An MP disqualified under the Tenth Schedule (the anti-defection law) cannot become a minister while the disqualification lasts [2]
75(2)	Ministers hold office "during the pleasure of the President" [2]
75(3)	The Council is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha [2]
75(4)	The President gives each minister the oaths of office and of secrecy, in the forms set out in the Third Schedule [2]
75(5)	A minister who is not an MP for six months in a row stops being a minister when that period ends [2]
75(6)	Parliament fixes ministers' salaries by law. Until it does, the Second Schedule applies [2]

• Pleasure of the President: in practice, this means the PM's choice. The President removes a minister only when the PM advises it.
• Constituent Assembly (30-31 December 1948; 14 and 17 October 1949):
• Some members wanted "pleasure of the President" replaced by "confidence of the House of the People".
• Some wanted only elected members to be allowed as ministers.

• Neither change was adopted [2].

• Art. 88: a minister may speak and take part in the proceedings of both Houses, but may vote only in the House they belong to. For example, a Rajya Sabha minister cannot vote in the Lok Sabha.

3. Three ranks of ministers

Ministers are placed in ranks by seniority and political weight:

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

• Minister of State (Independent Charge): runs a ministry fully on their own, but is still not a member of the Cabinet.

4. Cabinet vs Council of Ministers

• Cabinet: the inner group of senior (cabinet-rank) ministers. It decides policy, approves bills before they go to Parliament, and steers the government.
• The original Constitution of 1950 did not mention the Cabinet. The word appears only in Art. 352(3), added by the 44th Amendment (1978):
• The President can proclaim a national Emergency only after the Cabinet's decision is sent to them in writing.
• This was a safeguard against the 1975 Emergency, which was declared without first consulting the Cabinet.

Point	Council of Ministers	Cabinet
Legal basis	Art. 74 (constitutional body)	Named only in Art. 352(3), 44th Amendment 1978
Size	Large; all ranks	Small; cabinet ministers only
Role	Answers to the Lok Sabha as a whole	Decides policy, and its decisions bind the whole Council
Meets as a body?	Rarely	Regularly

5. The June 2024 Council

• The President gave the oaths of office and secrecy to the PM and the Union Council of Ministers on 9 June 2024 at Rashtrapati Bhavan [5].
• Strength (June 2024): 72 members including the PM: 30 cabinet ministers, 5 Ministers of State (Independent Charge) and 36 Ministers of State (verify current).
• This is well below the cap of 81 for a 543-member Lok Sabha.

6. Limit on the size of the Council: 91st Amendment, 2003

• The Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act, 2003 came into force on 1 January 2004 [4].
• Centre: Art. 75(1A). Total ministers including the PM must be ≤ 15% of the Lok Sabha's total strength [2][4]. For 543 seats, the cap is 81.
• States: Art. 164(1A). Total ministers including the Chief Minister must be ≤ 15% of the Legislative Assembly's strength, and there must be at least 12 ministers [4].

• The minimum of 12 matters for small states such as Goa, Sikkim and Mizoram.

• Defectors barred:

• Arts. 75(1B) and 164(1B): a legislator disqualified for defection under the Tenth Schedule cannot become a minister until the disqualification ends, which normally means until they are re-elected [2].

• Art. 361B: such a person also cannot hold any remunerative political post (a paid government post given for political reasons, such as chairing a state corporation).

• Why it was passed:

• In unstable coalition years, parties formed "jumbo" ministries: very large Councils used to reward allies and defectors and keep the government alive.

• This was a heavy cost to the public purse.

• How states get around the cap:

• They appoint parliamentary secretaries.
• They give cabinet rank to chairs of boards and commissions.
• These posts carry a minister's perks but are not counted as ministers.
• Such posts are often challenged in court as an office of profit (a paid government post that can disqualify a legislator). See the notes on Parliament and on office of profit.

7. Collective responsibility (Art. 75(3))

• Collective responsibility: the whole Council answers to the Lok Sabha as one body. If the government loses a no-confidence motion or a key vote, such as on the Budget, all ministers resign together.
• Ministers "swim and sink together".

• The rule applies to the Lok Sabha only, not the Rajya Sabha.

• In effect, the ministry is an executive committee of Parliament. It governs only as long as it keeps the Lok Sabha's majority.

• Cabinet solidarity:
• Once the Cabinet decides something, every minister must accept it and defend it in public, even if they disagreed in private.
• A minister who cannot do this must resign.

• A no-confidence motion against one minister is treated as a motion against the whole Council.

• Examples:

• C.D. Deshmukh (1956): resigned as Finance Minister because he disagreed with the government's plan for Bombay during the reorganisation of states.

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

• No legal sanction:

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

8. Individual responsibility (Art. 75(2))

• Individual responsibility: each minister answers for the work of their own ministry.

• Because ministers hold office at the President's pleasure, the PM can have any single minister dismissed, even when the Lok Sabha still trusts the government as a whole.

• Example: Lal Bahadur Shastri (1956).

• Shastri was Railway Minister when a major train accident happened.
• He offered to resign, taking moral responsibility (accepting blame for failures in his department even though he did not personally cause them).
• Nehru first refused the resignation. When Shastri offered it again, Nehru accepted it.

9. No legal responsibility

• In Britain, a minister countersigns (signs alongside) the Crown's official acts, so that minister is legally answerable for the act.
• India has no such countersignature rule. Also, Art. 74(2) stops courts from inquiring into the advice given to the President [3].
• So Indian ministers have political responsibility (to the Lok Sabha and to the PM), but no legal responsibility for the President's acts.

Prelims Hooks

• Art. 74: creates the Council of Ministers with the PM at its head. Art. 74(2): courts cannot inquire into advice given to the President. Art. 163(3) is the same rule for states.
• Reconsideration proviso to Art. 74(1): added by the 44th Amendment (1978). The 42nd Amendment (1976) made ministerial advice binding.
• The word "Cabinet" appears only in Art. 352(3), added by the 44th Amendment. It is not in Art. 74 or Art. 75. This is a common trap.
• Collective responsibility is to the Lok Sabha only (Art. 75(3)). Ministers hold office at the President's pleasure (Art. 75(2)).
• 91st Amendment (2003, in force 1 January 2004):
• Cap of 15% of the Lok Sabha, including the PM (Art. 75(1A)).
• States: minimum of 12 ministers (Art. 164(1A)).

• Art. 361B bars defectors from remunerative political posts.

• Oaths of office and secrecy: set out in the Third Schedule and given by the President (Art. 75(4)). Ministers' salaries are in the Second Schedule until Parliament makes a law (Art. 75(6)).

• A non-MP can be a minister for up to 6 consecutive months (Art. 75(5)).
• Art. 88: a Rajya Sabha minister can speak in the Lok Sabha but cannot vote there.
• A Minister of State (Independent Charge) heads a ministry but is not a member of the Cabinet.
• Resignations to remember: Deshmukh (1956) = cabinet solidarity; Shastri (1956) = individual or moral responsibility; Harsimrat Badal (2020) = disagreement over the farm bills.

Mains Points

• The 15% cap: has it worked?
• It ended jumbo ministries.
• But states get around it with parliamentary secretaries and cabinet-rank posts.

• A fix would be to count all posts with ministerial perks within the 15% cap, and to give clearer rules on office of profit.

• Cabinet vs Council:

• The Cabinet, and in practice the PMO, makes decisions. The larger Council only shares the blame.
• Critics see this as a shift to prime-ministerial government.

• The Constituent Assembly itself saw the PM as the only real enforcer of collective responsibility.

• Collective responsibility today:

• Coalition partners have quit over policy, for example Harsimrat Badal over the farm bills in 2020. This shows solidarity still works through resignation.

• But moral (individual) responsibility resignations in the style of Shastri in 1956 have become rare. This weakens accountability.

• Art. 74(2) and accountability:

• Because courts cannot look into advice, ministers are politically, not legally, answerable.
• Courts can still review the material behind a decision. This keeps judicial review alive without breaking the confidentiality of Cabinet advice.