Polity And Governance

Answer : Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body (under Article-324) vested with the responsibilities of superintendence, direction and control of conduct of elections. It consists of a Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners.

A free, fair and unbiased electoral process along with greater citizen participation is fundamental to safeguarding the values of a democracy. Unfortunately, Indian electoral system is grappling with certain issues which have eroded the trust of many people in the country such as role of black money, issues related to power of Election Commission of India (ECI), harassment of voters if voted against a party, etc.

In 2017, after the election results in 5 states of Punjab, Manipur, UP, Goa, and Uttarakhand are announced there have been allegations of tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).This has put a question mark on the fairness of elections in our democracy. The opposition parties have alleged that the EVMs have been tampered with in favour of the ruling party.

Election Commission’s Response to Criticisms

ECI said that EVMs can neither be reprogrammed nor controlled by the external devices. The source code is so designed that it allows the voter to cast the vote only once.

The next vote can be recorded only after the Presiding Officer enables the ballot on the Control Unit. In between, the machine becomes dead to any signal from outside.

Following a PIL by Subramanian Swamy, the Supreme Court asked EC to introduce VVPAT. VVPAT is a slip generated in a printer-like a machine attached to EVM and flashes voter’s choice of candidate and party. Generated slip is shown for a few seconds to the voter to cross check before it falls into a sealed drop box which can be opened during counting.

Challenges before the Election Commission of India to ensure the trustworthiness of elections in India

• Constitutional Protection to EC: Amendment to provide constitutional protection for all three of its members as opposed to just one at present.
• Appointment by Collegium: 2nd ARC, in its fourth report on ‘Ethics in Governance’, has said that it would be appropriate to have a collegium headed by the PM to appoint the chief and members of the EC.
• Opacity in donations to political parties and tackling black money in political funding
• Lack of security of tenure for Election Commissioners (ECs) was in news. Article 324(5) of the Constitution protects only CEC from removal, except if the manner and grounds of removal are the same as a judge of the Supreme Court.
• ECI told the SC that it should be given the power to make rules under the electoral law, instead of the Centre.
• Earlier in 2017, ECI sought an urgent amendment to the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, to empower it to punish anyone being disobedient or discourteous towards its authority.

Lack of statutory backing to model code of conduct.

• Lack of action against bribes and money power.
• Unlimited Corporate Donations: The maximum limit of 7.5% on the proportion of the profits a company can donate to a political party has been lifted.
• Allowing foreign funding: Amendment of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) has opened the floodgates of foreign funding to political parties.
• Lack of Transparency: Despite provisions under section 29 of RPA, 1951, parties do not submit their annual audit reports to the Election Commission.
• Dominance of money power and Muscle power.
• Criminalisation of politics.
• Financing of election exceeding the legal limit.
• Intimidation of voters, buying voters.
• Tampered electoral rolls, large-scale rigging of elections.
• Abuse of religion and caste in the enlistment of voters, etc.

Reforms Undertaken or Proposed to Maintain the Purity of Electoral Process

• Imposition of additional norms for candidates contesting elections by the Supreme Court: In Lok Prahari case, SC has asked the Centre to amend the rules as well as the disclosure form filed by candidates along with their nomination papers, to include the sources of their income, and those of their spouses and dependants.
• Provision of None of the Above (NOTA): The Supreme Court in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties vs. Union of India case, 2013 paved the way for the introduction of NOTA.
• Proposal for totalizer machines as recommended by Supreme Court.
• Introduction of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines.
• Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS).
• Political parties should be brought under the ambit of RTI.

Therefore, in order to reinstate the faith of voters in election process, the Election Commission, rather than going back to paper-ballot (which too can be tampered, and be inefficient) need to embrace newer technologies and make them fool proof to make the elections fair and just elections which is also mandated by the Constitution under Article 324 and is a ‘basic structure’ of the democracy.

Answer : Citizens’ Charter (CC) is an instrument which seeks to make an organization transparent, accountable and citizen friendly. It is a public statement that defines the entitlements of citizens to a specific service, the standards of the service, the conditions to be met by users, and the remedies available to the latter in case of non-compliance of standards.

Components of CC: Vision and Mission Statement of the Organization

• This gives the outcomes desired and the broad strategy to achieve these goals and outcomes. This also makes the users aware of the intent of their service provider and helps in holding the organization accountable.
• The organization must state clearly what subjects it deals with and the service areas it broadly covers. This helps the users to understand the type of services they can expect from a particular service provider. The Citizens’ Charter should also stipulate the responsibilities of the citizens in the context of the charter.

Nine Principles of the Citizens’ Charter

1. Set standards of service
2. Be open and provide full information
3. Consult and involve
4. Encourage access and promote choice
5. Treat all fairly
6. Put things right when they go wrong
7. Use resources effectively
8. Innovate and improve
9. Work with other providers

The Benefits of Citizens’ Charter

• Enhance accountability
• Increase organizational effectiveness
• Create a way for both internal and external actors to objectively monitor service delivery performance.
• Create a more professional and client-responsive environment for service delivery and foster improvements in staff morale.
• Increase government revenues by ensuring that the money citizens pay for services goes into the government’s coffers (and not into employees’ pockets).

Issues with Citizens’ Charter in India

• Poor design and content- Most organizations do not have adequate capability to draft meaningful and succinct Citizens’ Charter.
• Lack of public awareness.
• Inadequate groundwork in terms of assessing and reforming its processes to deliver the promises made in the Charter.
• Charters are rarely updated.
• Resistance to change.
• It has still not been adopted by all Ministries/Departments, primarily because of absence of penal provisions in case of non-implementation of the spirit of the Charter.
• Measurable standards of delivery are rarely spelt out in the Charters, so it becomes difficult to assess whether the desired level of service has been achieved or not.

2nd ARC Recommendations

• Internal restructuring should precede Charter formulation: There has to be a complete analysis of the existing systems and processes within the organization and, if need be, these should to be recast and new initiatives adopted.
• One size does not fit all: Therefore formulation of Citizens’ Charters should be a decentralized activity.
• Wide consultation process: It should be formulated after extensive consultations within the organization followed by a meaningful dialogue with civil society with a firm commitment.
• Redressal mechanism in case of default: It should clearly lay down the relief which the organization is bound to provide if it has defaulted on the promised standards of delivery.

Periodic evaluation of Citizens’ Charters.

• Benchmark using end-user feedback: Its systematic monitoring and review is necessary even after it is approved and placed in the public domain. In this context, end-user feedback can be a timely aid to assess the progress and outcomes of an agency that has implemented a Citizens’ Charter.
• Hold officers accountable for results.

Thus, in order to achieve Service Delivery Excellence Model which provides an assessment improvement framework to bring about excellence in public service delivery, adoption of Sevottam Model can be a right step forward.

Answer : National Commission for Scheduled Castes (SCs) is a constitutional body in the sense that it is directly established by Article 338 of the Constitution. It is an advisory and recommendatory body to look upon the holistic upliftment of the schedule castes.

Investigating and monitoring all matters relating to the constitutional and other legal safeguards for the SCs and to evaluate their working, inquiring into specific complaints with respect to the deprivation of rights and safeguards of the SCs and participating and advising on the planning process of socio-economic development of the SCs and to evaluate the progress of their development under the Union or a state are some of the functions of the NCSC.

Religious Minorities

National Commission for Minority Educational Institution Act, 2004 has defined ‘minority’ as a community which is defined as according to the central government based on religion within the meaning of Article 30 and ‘Minority Institution’ as an educational institution which is administered and set up by the minority.

Rights of Minorities: Article 30 grants the Rights to minorities, whether religious or linguistic to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice, and State shall not discriminate against any educational institution managed by a minority.

Benefits available to Minority Institutions: Advantages accessible to a minority educational institution that is not accessible to other institutions:

• Minority educational institutions don’t need to keep up a reservation in work or affirmations for SCs, STs, and OBCs as required to be done by other educational institutions.
• In respect of control over representatives, minority educational institutions have substantially more prominent power than other institutions.
• In case of admission of the student, minority educational institutions can have a reservation of up to 50 percent for the student of their own community.

The Supreme Court in P.A. Inamdar vs State of Maharashtra case held that the policy of reservation in terms admission and employment is not applicable to a minority institution.

The idea to make the provision for minorities as a fundamental right under the constitution to protect their educational right is not inequality towards the privileged classes but it definitely gives the sense of security to the minority groups against the perceived threat of majority.

Thus, Rights of minorities for administering institutions established by them are secured by the Constitution under Article 30 and can’t be violated by National Commission for Scheduled Castes though they can suggest steps which should be taken in this regard but can’t enforce the same.

At the same time, the Rights conferred on minorities under Article 30 is only to ensure equality with the majority and not intended to place the minorities in a more advantageous position vis-à-vis the majority.

Answer : Emergency provisions are contained in Part XVIII of the Constitution, from Articles 352 to 360. These provisions enable the Central government to meet any abnormal situation effectively. The rationality behind the incorporation of these provisions in the Constitution is to safeguard the sovereignty, unity, integrity and security of the country, the democratic political system, and the Constitution.

Financial Emergency

Article 360 empowers the President to proclaim a Financial Emergency if he is satisfied that a situation has arisen due to which the financial stability or credit of India or any part of its territory is threatened. A proclamation declaring financial emergency must be approved by both the Houses of Parliament within two months from the date of its issue. Once approved by both the Houses of Parliament, the Financial Emergency continues indefinitely till it is revoked. This implies two things:

• there is no maximum period prescribed for its operation; and
• repeated parliamentary approval is not required for its continuation.

Effects of Financial Emergency

• The executive authority of the Centre extends (a) to directing any state to observe such canons of financial propriety as are specified by it; and (b) to directions as the President may deem necessary and adequate for the purpose.
• Any such direction may include a provision requiring (a) the reduction of salaries and allowances of all or any class of persons serving in the state; and (b) the reservation of all money bills or other financial bills for the consideration of the President after they are passed by the legislature of the state.
• The President may issue directions for the reduction of salaries and allowances of (a) all or any class of persons serving the Union; and (b) the judges of the Supreme Court and the high court.

Thus, during the operation of a financial emergency, the Centre acquires full control over the states in financial matters. No Financial Emergency has been declared so far, though there was a financial crisis in 1991.

Answer : The Parliament is too unwieldy a body to deliberate effectively the issues that come up before it. The functions of the Parliament are varied, complex and voluminous. Moreover, it has neither the adequate time nor necessary expertise to make a detailed scrutiny of all legislative measures and other matters. Therefore, it is assisted by a number of committees in the discharge of its duties.

Accordingly, a parliamentary committee means a committee that:

• Is appointed or elected by the House or nominated by the Speaker/Chairman
• Works under the direction of the Speaker/Chairman
• Presents its report to the House or to the Speaker/Chairman
• Has a secretariat provided by the Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha

Recently, there are concerns over the diminishing importance of parliamentary committees and whether proper deliberations are taking place before the passage of various bills. Since the inception of the 16th Lok Sabha, only 29% bills have been scrutinised by parliamentary committees as compared to 60% and 70% of bills being examined in 14th and 15th Lok Sabhas respectively.

Importance of Parliamentary Committees

• Specialised jobs done by parliamentary committees.
• Detailed scrutiny of laws, government spending, etc.
• Forum for law makers to develop expertise to deal the situation.
• Engagement with relevant stakeholders
• Uphold government accountability
• Resolving issues in Bills
• Knowledge Reservoir

Estimates Committee

It has 30 members- all are from Lok Sabha only. The Rajya Sabha has no representation in this committee. These members are elected by the Lok Sabha every year from amongst its own members, according to the principles of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote. Thus, all parties get due representation in it. The term of office is one year. A minister cannot be elected as a member of the committee. The chairman of the committee is appointed by the Speaker from amongst its members and he is invariably from the ruling party.

Functions of the Committee

• To report what economies, improvements in organisation, efficiency and administrative reform consistent with the policy underlying the estimates, can be affected.
• To suggest alternative policies in order to bring about efficiency and economy in administration.
• To examine whether the money is well laid out within the limits of the policy implied in the estimates.
• To suggest the forth in which the estimates are to be presented to Parliament.

However, the effectiveness of the role of the committee is limited by the following:

1. It examines the budget estimates only after they have been voted by the Parliament, and not before that.
2. It cannot question the policy laid down by the Parliament.
3. Its recommendations are advisory and not binding on the ministries.
4. It examines every year only certain selected ministries and departments, thus, by rotation, it would cover all of them over a number of years.
5. It lacks the expert assistance of the CAG which is available to the Public Accounts Committee.
6. Its work is in the nature of a post-mortem.

Way Forward

• Extend the tenure of committee members
• Provide Institutional Research Support: Establishing Standing Committee on Economy to provide space for deliberations on economic policies and its implementation separately.
• Avoid overlapping functions: Regular Monitoring
• Adopting Best Practices: In several countries, the concerned minister appears before the committee to elaborate and defend the policies of the government

Answer : The Constitution of India (Article 148) provides for an independent office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). He is the head of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department. He is the guardian of the public purse and controls the entire financial system of the country at both the levels—the Centre and the state. His duty is to uphold the Constitution of India and laws of Parliament in the field of financial administration.

Appointment & Term

The CAG is appointed by the president of India by a warrant under his hand and seal. The CAG, before taking over his office, makes and subscribed before the president an oath or affirmation:

• to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India;
• to duly and faithfully and to the best of his ability, knowledge and judgement perform the duties of his office without fear or favour, affection or ill-will; and
• to uphold the Constitution and the laws.

He holds office for a period of six years or upto the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. He can resign any time from his office by addressing the resignation letter to the President. He can also be removed by the President on same grounds and in the same manner as a judge of the Supreme Court.

Constitutional Safeguards towards Independence of CAG

• He is provided with the security of tenure.
• He is not eligible for further office
• His salary and other service conditions are determined by the Parliament. His salary is equal to that of a judge of the Supreme Court. Neither his salary nor his rights in respect of leave of absence, pension or age of retirement can be altered to his disadvantage after his appointment.
• The administrative expenses of the office of the CAG, including all salaries, allowances and pensions of persons serving in that office are charged upon the Consolidated Fund of India.

Duties & Powers

• He audits the accounts related to all expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India, consolidated fund of each state and consolidated fund of each union territory having a Legislative Assembly.
• He audits all expenditure from the Contingency Fund of India and the Public Account of India as well as the contingency fund of each state and the public account of each state.
• He audits the receipts and expenditure of all bodies and authorities substantially financed from the Central or state revenues, Government companies and other corporations and bodies, when so required by related laws.
• He audits the accounts of any other authority when requested by the President or Governor.
• He advises the President with regard to prescription of the form in which the accounts of the Centre and the states shall be kept (Article 150).
• He submits his audit reports relating to the accounts of the Centre and states to President and respective governors of the states.
• He acts as a guide, friend and philosopher of the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament.

Role

The role of CAG is to uphold the Constitution of India and the laws of Parliament in the field of financial administration. The accountability of the executive (i.e., council of ministers) to the Parliament in the sphere of financial administration is secured through audit reports of the CAG.

The CAG is an agent of the Parliament and conducts audit of expenditure on behalf of the Parliament. Therefore, he is responsible only to the Parliament.

The CAG has ‘to ascertain whether money shown in the accounts as having been disbursed was legally available for and applicable to the service or the purpose to which they have been applied or charged and whether the expenditure conforms to the authority that governs it’.

The secret service expenditure is a limitation on the auditing role of the CAG. The Constitution of India visualises the CAG to be Comptroller as well as Auditor General.

However, in practice, the CAG is fulfilling the role of an Auditor-General only and not that of a Comptroller. In other words, ‘the CAG has no control over the issue of money from the consolidated fund and many departments are authorised to draw money by issuing cheques without specific authority from the CAG, who is concerned only at the audit stage when the expenditure has already taken place.

The role of the CAG in the auditing of Government companies is also limited. They are audited by private auditors who are appointed by the Government on the advice of the CAG.

Thus, CAG helps in upholding the Constitution of India and the laws made by the Parliament in the field of financial administration. The accountability of the executive (i.e., council of ministers) to the Parliament in the sphere of financial administration is secured through audit reports of the CAG further strengthening the democracy.

Answer : India has performed poorly in terms of minimising environmental degradation and ranks 177 among 180 countries in Environmental Performance Index (EPI).

Factors that led to Environment Degradation

• Lack of effective coordination among various ministries/institutions to implement and integrate environmental laws due to conflicting interests, for example, developmental activities versus environmental concerns.
• Direct impacts of agricultural development on the environment arise from farming activities which contribute to soil erosion, land salinisation and loss of nutrients.
• The manufacturing technology adopted by most of the industries like electronics industry has placed a heavy burden on environment especially through intensive resource and energy use.
• Mining of minerals and metals for developmental purpose affects the rights of tribals and farmers and displace them.
• Development of dams for energy generation affects the lives of people leading to protests and unrest in the society, for example, Narmada Bachao Andolan.
• Transport activities have a wide variety of effects on the environment such as air pollution, noise from road traffic and oil spills from marine shipping.
• Market distortions created by price controls and subsidies may aggravate the achievement of environmental objectives, for example, distorted subsidies on fuel and fertilisers and unfavorable MSP prices leading to distortion in cropping pattern.
• Sinking aquifers and short-sighted public works such as paving banks and even the riverbed in many places has hastened the decline of Godavari and Ganga majorly.

Though, it is tough to achieve a perfect balance between environment and development but further steps can be taken by strengthening the enforcement capabilities of environmental institutions, both at the Centre and the states and involving various stakeholders.

Answer : The Union government started Digital India programme which is a comprehensive approach to leverage the technology for the developmental purpose. It aimed at creating digital infrastructure, delivering services digitally and making people digitally literate.

Along with expanding the range of services delivered online with services like digital locker and e-hospitals in addition to missions under National E-governance plans. The program also aims at leveraging technology to impart skills and make people digitally literate with focus on digital classroom and e-education.

In the E-governance era, Government’s interaction with citizens and citizen to citizen interaction involve gathering of huge information with the government as well as private institutions. Along with government, citizens also have access to information using RTI ensuring accountability of authorities in decision making.

Information in present digital age can be used in multiple ways:

• Target based policy implementation or allocation of resources.
• To enhance feedback mechanism and decision-making process.
• Information if kept open for the access of citizens will bring more transparency and accountability in the administration, thus reducing scope of corruption.
• Efficient identification of beneficiaries and reduction in leakages in subsidies.
• Information can be used to analyse the outcome of the government schemes and programmes.
• Digital infrastructure can be used for behavioral change in citizens. For example, success of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan can be implemented in other areas as well.
• To better cater the needs of particular region or section of the society through good governance.

On the other side, information if misused can be disastrous as well. For example, leakage of AADHAR data and debit/credit cards details of customers of bank details. In this regard B N Srikrishna committee’s report should be implemented to ensure data security.

In present age, where Data is new oil, Information is playing an important role in good governance benefitting billions of citizens. Modernizing and utilization of machines in governance will help in serving better when we use this information in a more constructive and fruitful manner to serve the larger good of the society.

Answer : The Supreme Court in recent case of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) vs Union of India held that in a democratic form of government the real power must subsist in the elected arm of the State.

The issue arose due to the conflicting interpretation of Article 239AA of the Constitution of India by the Union government and the Govt. of NCT of Delhi on the nature of aid and advice tendered to the Lieutenant Governor by the Govt. of NCT of Delhi.

The Supreme Court by ruling in the favor of the Govt. of NCT of Delhi has reinforced the democratic principle of rule of the people.

It gave preference to elected government of the people: The Assembly of the NCT of Delhi is formed by the direct exercise of voting rights of the people of Delhi to choose their own elected representatives. While on the other hand, the Lieutenant Governor is nominated by the Union Government and appointed by the President. There is no say of the people in it. Thus, giving final authority to the Lieutenant Governor would violate the democratic principle.

Accountable Bureaucracy: Since, the bureaucracy is led by an elected political executive
they also become accountable to the people, as is their head. This was evident when recently there were reports of bureaucracy delaying in decision making because of tussle with the Govt. This was only possible because the bureaucracy was accountable not to the people but to the Lieutenant Governor.

• The judgment was significant for settling the political tussle between the Lt. Governor and elected government of Delhi as the Supreme Court observed:
• “The L-G is bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. In case of difference of opinion, the L-G should straightaway refer the dispute to the President for a final decision. The Lieutenant-Governor should act as a “facilitator” for good governance in the national capital and not as an “obstructionist”.
• The Lieutenant-Governor’s authority, saying he cannot exercise his discretion in “each and every matter” of daily governance. His discretionary powers are in fact limited to only matters in the State List — public order, police and land — over which the legislative power of the Delhi Legislative Assembly stand excluded under Article 239AA.
• The NCT government needs only to inform the L-G of its “well-deliberated” decisions. The government need not obtain his “concurrence” on every issue of day-to-day governance.
• The elected government could make policies on laws enacted by its own Assembly. The executive power of the NCT government was co-extensive with its legislative powers.

However, the Supreme Court did not address a critical issue which could still be the bone of contention in future litigation, i.e. the exact ambit of the provision to Article 239AA (4) of the Constitution and this might prove to be a stumbling block for the Delhi government whenever it is not ruled by the party which is in power at the Centre.

Article 239AA reads as follows: “There shall be a Council of Ministers consisting of not more than ten per cent, of the total number of members in the Legislative Assembly, with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Lieutenant Governor in the exercise to his functions in relation to matters with respect to which the Legislative Assembly has power to make laws, except in so far as he is, by or under any law, required to act in his discretion.”

The provision states that in case the Lt. Governor has a difference of opinion on any matter, he can refer it to the President, whose decision in this regard shall be binding. Thus, this provision effectively vests in the Lt. Governor the power to stall and overturn the actions/decisions taken by the Delhi government with respect to any matter by referring it to the President.

The judgment fails to provide a concrete answer to when the Lt. Governor should exercise his power under the proviso, the Court goes on to state that difference of opinion between the Lt. Governor and the Council of Ministers should have a sound rationale and the former should not adopt an obstructionist attitude. However, the practicality and feasibility of the recommendation is subjective in nature and a loophole when it comes to the actual exercise of power.

Answer : A tribunal is a quasi-judicial body established in India by an Act of Parliament or State Legislature under Article 323A or 323B to resolve disputes that are brought before it. While Article 323A deals with administrative tribunals, Article 323B deals with tribunals for other matters.

Advantages of Tribunals

• Flexibility: Administrative adjudication has brought about flexibility and adaptability in the judiciary as they are not restrained by rigid rules of procedure and can remain in tune with the varying phases of social and economic life.
• Less Expensive: They are set up to be less formal, less expensive, and a faster way to resolve disputes than by using the traditional court system. For example, Lok Adalats.
• Relief to Courts: The system also gives the much needed relief to ordinary courts of law, which are already overburdened with numerous suits.
• Technical Expert: They play an important role and part in the sphere of the adjudication of disputes especially when the subject demands technical expertise. For example, NGT (National Green Tribunal).
• Natural Justice: They do not have to follow any uniform procedure as laid down under the Civil Procedure Code and the Indian Evidence Act but they have to follow the principles of Natural Justice.
• Powers of Civil Court: They enjoy some of the powers of a civil court, viz., issuing summons and allowing witnesses to give evidence. Its decisions are legally binding on the parties, subject to appeal.

Problems with Tribunals

Tribunalisation of Justice: It means over reliance on tribunals to resolve disputes which is criticized for the following reasons:

• Violation of Doctrine of Separation of Powers: Tribunal is not a court of law and is controlled and manned partly by the Executive which is against the principle of separation of powers and allows the Executive to perform adjudication functions.
• Undermining the Authority of Judiciary: It adversely affect the role of the High Court as Courts of Appeal and deprive them of their power of judicial review. The superiority of the Constitutional Courts (HCs) over the statutory courts (tribunal) is compromised.
• Conflict of Interest: The Constitution protects the independence of the judiciary in terms of qualifications, mode of appointment, tenure and mode of removal, which is not available to members of tribunals. They come under the control of the Executive which is the largest litigant in the country and creates a conflict of interest situation.
• Increasing Pendency: The average pendency across tribunals is 3.8 years with 25% increase in the size of unresolved cases while pendency in High Courts is 4.3 years.
• Mere Court of Appeal: Number of constitutional matter dealt by Supreme Court has been gradually declining. Of the 884 judgments delivered in 2014, only 64 judgments were pertaining to Constitutional question.

Tribunals many a times have proved inefficient in delivering quick justice which erodes confidence of the litigants in the apex court.

Way Forward

Law Commission of India (LCI), in its 272nd report, has laid out a detailed procedure for improving the working of the tribunal system in the country by fixing qualification and tenure of judges of tribunals, ensuring impartial and transparent selection process by Separate Selection Committee, for both judicial and administrative members to make the tribunals more relevant as envisaged in the Constitution.

Answer : The Constitution of India provides for a parliamentary form of government, both at the Centre and in the states while in USA, a presidential form of government is present.

• The United States of America is a federal republic consisting of fifty states and a federal district.

Main Features of American Constitution

• Presidential Democracy: President is the head of state and head of government.
• Federal System: It is a federal state that emerged from an initial agreement between a numbers of separate states.
• The Constitution and the Rule of Law: In the United States, the Constitution is “king.” Only laws passed through the mechanisms established by the Constitution are valid. Furthermore, any law that is inconsistent with the limitations, structures or principles established by the Constitution is considered, by definition, invalid.
• The Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances: Another prominent feature of the U.S. Constitution is its scheme of separated powers. The Framers were well aware of the need to preserve liberty while establishing order with the new Constitution.
• Citizenship: A U.S. citizen may acquire foreign citizenship by marriage, or a person naturalized as a U.S. citizen may not lose the citizenship of the country of birth. U.S. law does not mention dual nationality. Also, a person who is automatically granted another citizenship does not risk losing U.S. citizenship. However, a person who acquires a foreign citizenship by applying for it may lose U.S. citizenship. In order to lose U.S. citizenship, the law requires that the person must apply for the foreign citizenship voluntarily, by free choice, and with the intention to give up U.S. citizenship.
• The Bill of Rights lists specifically enumerated rights: The Supreme Court has extended fundamental rights by recognizing several fundamental rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.

Main Features of Indian Constitution

The preamble of the Constitution declares India a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, and Democratic Republic. It highlights Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity as objectives of the Constitution and has following features:

• A written constitution - is a formal document defining the nature of the constitutional settlement, the rules that govern the political system and the rights of citizens and governments in a codified form.
• India constitutionally is federal system with unitary bias. Though normally the system of Govt. is federal; the Constitution enables the federation to transform itself into unitary state in emergencies.
• The Constitution of India provides for a parliamentary form of government both at the Centre and in states. The parliamentary system of GOI is largely based on the British parliamentary system.
• In India like USA, the written Constitution is regarded as the highest law of the land and Supreme Court acts as custodian of the Constitution through its power of judicial review. But there is a difference. American Supreme Court does not derive its power of judicial review from Constitution but Indian Supreme Court does so.
• India like USA has republic form of government where head of the state is elected.
• The President of India is the nominal head of state of the Republic of India.
• The Constitution of India provides single citizenship for all of India.
• Indian Constitution has certain fundamental rights modelled on American Bill of Rights. But unlike USA, fundamental rights in India are not absolute and hence govt. can impose reasonable restrictions on them. Whether the restrictions are reasonable or not is to be decided by the courts.
• The Constitution of India contains certain Directive Principles (Part 4) which confer no justiciable rights on individuals but are regarded to be fundamental in the governance.
• In India, there is no mention of the word ‘Due Process’. A strict literal interpretation of Procedure established by Law give the legislative authority an upper hand and they may enact laws which may not be fair from a liberal perspective. However, in India a liberal interpretation is made by judiciary after 1978 and it has tried to make the term ‘Procedure established by law’ as synonymous with ‘Due Process’ when it comes to protect individual rights.

Answer : Article 280 of the Constitution of India provides for a Finance Commission as a quasi judicial body. It is constituted by the President of India every fifth year or at such earlier time as he considers necessary.

The Finance Commission consists of a chairman and four other members to be appointed by the President. They hold office for such period as specified by the President in his order. They are eligible for reappointment.

The Constitution authorizes the Parliament to determine the qualifications of members of the commission and the manner in which they should be selected. Accordingly, the Parliament has specified the qualifications of the chairman and members of the commission.

The Finance Commission is required to make recommendations to the President of India on the following matters:

• The principles that should govern the grants-in-aid to the states by the Centre (i.e., out of the consolidated fund of India).
• The measures needed to augment the consolidated fund of a state to supplement the resources of the Panchayats and the municipalities in the state on the basis of the recommendations made by the state finance commission.
• Any other matter referred to it by the president in the interests of sound finance.

The terms of reference of Finance Commission is decided unilaterally by Central government which leads to raising of various issues by state governments.

Terms of Reference (TOR) of 15th Finance Commission and Related Issues

• Using 2011 Census to calculate population for allocation of Union tax revenue in place of 1971 Census: This seems to be penalizing those states which have focused on family planning and population control.
• Review on increased devolution of pooled tax: As TOR “The impact on the fiscal situation of the Union Government of substantially enhanced tax devolution to States following recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission” reflects an unease of central government about revenue sharing.
• Control or lack of it in incurring expenditure on populist measures: This TOR seems to be going against the spirit of cooperative federalism as it questions the choices made by states in expenditure.
• Find ways to encourage the Ease of Doing Business: This index has many problems, especially as it always scores few regulations better than more regulations. This may promote race to the bottom among states to dismantle all regulation, good or bad, which is not in India’s overall interests.
• Provision of revenue deficit grant: It was enacted to provide comparable public services and taxation to all citizens of various states. The TOR allows The Commission to examine whether revenue deficit grants be provided at all.
• Curtail borrowing by states: The TOR wants to curtail borrowing by States from the present 3% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) to 1.7% severely curtailing capital expenditure of states.

Way Forward

Answer : The Panchayat system in India signifies the system of rural local self government. It has been established in all the states of India by the Acts of the state legislatures to build democracy at the grass root level. It is entrusted with rural development. It was constitutionalised through the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992.

Panchayat system ensures the opportunity for people’s participation and involvement in the formulation and implementation of rural development programmes. The main
objective of Panchayat System in India is to strengthen the base of democracy at the grass root level. It was introduced as a real democratic political apparatus which would bring the masses into active political control from below, from the vast majority of the weaker, poor sections of rural India. They play the role of a catalytic agent in integrating development of tribal masses in rural areas.

Sources the Panchayats can Look out for Financing Developmental Projects

• Loans/grants from the State Government
• Toll tax
• License fees/charges
• Custom Duty
• Grants-in-aid from Centre and State government
• Money collected from gifts through Government schemes such as MPLADs

Reasons for Ineffective Performance

• Lack of adequate devolution: Many States have not taken adequate steps to devolve 3Fs (i.e., functions, funds and functionaries) to the PRIs to enable them to discharge their constitutionally stipulated function.
• Excessive control by bureaucracy: In some States, the Gram Panchayats have been placed in a position of subordination.
• Overwhelming dependency on government funding: Reluctance to use fiscal powers
• Status of the Gram Sabha: Empowering the Gram Sabhas could have been a powerful weapon for transparency, accountability and for involvement of the marginalized sections. However, a number of the State Acts have not spelt the powers of Gram Sabhas nor have any procedures been laid down for the functioning of these bodies or penalties for the officials.
• Poor Infrastructure: A large number of Gram Panchayats in the country do not have even full time Secretary. Around 25 percent of the Gram Panchayats do not have basic office buildings.

Way Forward

• Promote devolution of powers and responsibilities to Panchayats according to the spirit of the Constitution and PESA Act.
• Developing capabilities and capacities of the faculty of state Panchayat Resource Centres and District Resource Centres.

Answer : The vulnerable groups that face discrimination include- Women, Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Children, Aged, Disabled, Poor migrants, People living with HIV/AIDS and Sexual Minorities and Religious Minorities, etc. Sometimes each group faces multiple barriers due to their multiple identities.

These vulnerable section needs protection and special mechanism for safeguarding their interests. For their accelerated socio economic development and protections, India has several commissions such as National Commission for SCs, National Commission for STs, National Commission for Women, National Commission for Child Rights, National Commission for Minorities provided in the Constitution or through statue.

These commissions have similar objectives to provide safeguards against the exploitation of these vulnerable groups and to promote and protect their social, educational, economic and cultural interests, which sometimes lead to problems of overlapping jurisdiction and duplication of functions.

For example, National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Women protect women against violence.

Advantages of merging of all the Commissions into umbrella Human Rights Commission

• Efficient use of resources (Financial, Human, Time) in terms of human, financial resources as there will be no overlapping of functions.
• Victims will not get contrary judgements from different commissions.
• Issues of vulnerable sections such as women and children are inter-related, so holistic solution can be derived.
• It may speed up the judicial proceedings as lesser number of contradictions will be there in case of single commission.

However, there are some cons in merging all the commissions:

• Single commission will be overburdened with large volume of cases.
• Centralization might make it difficult to help someone responsible for protection of vulnerable rights.
• Different issues of different vulnerable groups need expert analysis. In current scenario, different commissions have specialisation in safeguarding interests of different vulnerable groups. Thus, merging all commissions may affect upliftment of these groups.

Way Forward

There should be rationalization of resources with more power and autonomy in functioning of these commissions. Steps should also be taken to improve coordination among them.

Therefore, it would be better to continue with separate commissions for various vulnerable groups but at the same time we should try to streamline the functions and their jurisdiction in a more rational and efficient manner.

Answer : The local self-government system in India is the 3rd tier of government which directly serves people at cutting edge. Despite having Constitutional status and independent existence, there are question over its effectiveness. But, to critically analyse the statement, we need to observe both: its failures and achievements.

Evidence of Ineffective Tool of Governance:

• Haphazard city and villages with mismanaged local roads, dirty public places, garbage everywhere and dingy slums are stark reminders of how local self-government has failed to deliver on its promises.
• Local self-governments across India is lacking 3Fs: fund, function and functionary. They have to rely on State Governments for fund, rendering it as an ineffective system to solve special needs of locality independently.
• The schools and hospitals run by local self-governments are either inadequate in number or inefficient.
• Caste bias and social stigma creep into local self-government, making it as an ineffective tool of governance.

Achievements:

• High level of literacy (93.91% in 2011 census) in Kerala owes it to effective local self- government which today claims 100% literacy rate.
• Local governments in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, etc. are able to provide specialist health care at local level. Through this, they are moving towards 100% institutional delivery.
• There are several sparkling examples of effective local governments. Like Mawlynnong village of Meghalaya which is famous as cleanest village of Asia. There are several such shining examples like Hiware bazar, Ralegun Siddhi, etc.
• Apart from these, the local governments have become a torchbearer of women empowerment. Most of the States have 33% women reservation and some like Bihar, MP, Himachal, etc. provide 50% seats to women in panchayats.

Solutions to Improve the Situation:

The 6th report of 2nd ARC (Administrative Reforms Commission) gives very useful suggestions to improve the functioning of local governments. There should be effective devolution of 29 items of 11th and 18 items of 12th Schedule to make local self-governments effective.

• Amendment in Article 243C for direct elections.
• MP/MLA should not be a member of local bodies.
• Autonomy should be given for fund and functionary.
• Regarding functional autonomy, activity mapping should be done to clarify functional accountability of State and local bodies.

Answer : NJAC Act 2014:

• The National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 11, 2014.
• The Bill was introduced in conjunction with the Constitutional (121st Amendment) Bill, 2014, which establishes the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
• The Bill provided for the procedure to be followed by the NJAC for recommending persons for appointment as Chief Justice of India and other Judges of the Supreme Court (SC), and Chief Justice and other Judges of High Courts (HC).

Supreme Court’s Judgement

• The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court declared National Judicial Commission (NJAC) unconstitutional as it violates basic structure of Constitution of India. In the verdict, the court said the NJAC Act, 2014 was an impingement upon the principles of independence of the judiciary, separation of powers and violative of the basic structure of the Constitution.
• The majority view was that the amendment to constitute the NJAC sought to trample upon the primacy of the judiciary and the role of the CJI, who would be “reduced to an individual figure from an institutional head” in the panel that has the Law Minister and two “eminent persons,” as its other members.
• The sensitivity of selecting judges is so enormous, and the consequences of making inappropriate appointments so dangerous, that if those involved in the process of selection and appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, make wrongful selections, it may well lead the nation into a chaos of sorts.

Answer : Elections are an essential tool to ensure democracy. Apart from electing legislators and executive in our parliamentary democracy it also functions as accountability mechanism for executives and politicians. Furthermore it ensures people’s participation in governance indirectly and legitimises the policy and actions.

Benefits of Simultaneous Elections:

• It will decrease the time required for elections
• It will decrease the cost of elections
• More focus could be given to development away from election politics
• There will be a limited Model Code of Conduct period so there will be limited restrictions on new projects
• Nation will not be in a continuous mode of elections

Disadvantages of Simultaneous Elections:

• Elections act as ensuring audit and accountability to the functions, actions, inactions and policies of the government and political parties. The argument that simultaneous elections will provide more time and attention for development seems misplaced. Because elections act as examinations for government which ensures performance.
• The argument that it will decrease the cost of elections appears faulty. The expenditure limit for candidate will remain same (Rs 70 lakh for Lok Sabha).
• Furthermore in the 16th Lok Sabha, Government expenditure was Rs 3426 cr (official figure). In State elections also proportionate expenditure figure were there. The point to note is the 2017-18 Union Budget was Rs. 21.47 lakh crores. So, the government expenditure (on 5 yearly) elections was 0.1% of annual budget which appears a petty price for accountability.

Further, the issue of unaccounted expenditure by the candidates and political parties are never going to be corrected by simultaneous elections. This requires different cure like stringent election monitoring and other steps.

• The issue of getting more focus and time for developmental activity is also faulty. Because it is very clear that due to upcoming election, many projects are announced and completed with faster speed.
• Restrictions during Model Code of Conduct period on projects are limited to announcement of only new projects. Ongoing projects remain unaffected.
• Nation in election mode is not detrimental to democracy; rather it strengthens and deepens the democracy.

Issues of Impracticality with Simultaneous Elections

• If mid-term elections happens in any State or at Union how the simultaneous character will be maintained?
• Even in case of large states like UP, elections are conducted in 5-8 phases. So, there is a serious question mark over fulfillment of required manpower, infrastructure and security forces to conduct huge task of simultaneous elections.
• There is another stream of argument that the 1st general elections in 1950s were simultaneous. But another aspect is that before T.N. Seshan of 1990s booth capturing and poll rigging was a regular phenomenon. So, hard earned fair electoral machinery should not be exposed to unwanted challenger.
• The recent development is very relevant to show scarce manpower. The Chief Election Commissioner gave reason for delayed announcement of Gujarat polls than Himachal that manpower was involved in Gujarat floods. When managing two State election is such challenging, simultaneous elections may pose impractical and deteriorating to Indian democracy.

So, instead of simultaneous election, focus should be on decriminalization of politics, preventing money power in politics and electoral reforms to increase peoples participation so as to strengthen Indian democracy and make system more accountable.

Answer : Pressure group is a group of people who are organized actively for promoting and defending their common interest. They are different from political parties. They never contest elections. But, they are concerned with specific programmes and issues.

How pressure groups influence Indian political process:

Pressure groups influence the Indian political process through:

(a) Legitimate methods

(b) Illegal methods

1. Legitimate methods: Through maintaining contacts with their legislators, correspondence, petitioning, public debating, publicity and propagandizing, pressure groups bring favourable changes in policy. They also use lobbying, electioneering and persuading public officials and public opinion towards their interests.
2. Illegal methods: They sometimes resort to illegal methods like calling for strikes, blocking roads and indulging in violence.

Formal and Informal Pressure Groups

• Formal pressure groups are those who work under some organisation under various acts and registrations. They have cadre or other kind of structure. They also work in a well-defined sector eg Assocham, Ficci, Dicci, ABVP, NSUI, AITUC, BMS, etc.
• Informal pressure groups are usually groups formed on some emergent issues of spontaneous nature. They revolve around emotive issues and assert strong pressure through large congregation or numbers and agitation.

Recent times saw many such groups and incidents like:

• 16 December, 2012 Nirbhaya Rape Case in New Delhi led to the formation of large informal pressure group for women safety. This pressure ultimately led to the changes in Juvenile Justice Law.
• September 2016 Cauvery agitation in Bengaluru
• Jallikattu agitation in January 2017
• Even the Jat quota agitation and anti-corruption agitation of India Against Corruption can also qualify as informal pressure groups

Whether informal groups more powerful than formal?

• The informal groups were involved in highly emotive issues which affect the life of masses.
• Their actions were highly visible, resulting in favorable response from the Governments.

This creates a perception that informal pressure groups are more powerful than formal pressure groups.

But, perception of formal pressure groups being less powerful does not hold ground. Many formal pressure groups are very successful in achieving their objectives. The difference is that, issues raised by them take time to get favorable response. They have to work for longer period to influence the Government’s policy. For example, Assocham, FICCI, etc. are very successful group in context of getting favourable policies in finance, commerce and industrial sectors.

Answer : In Indian parliamentary system the executive is accountable to the legislature or Lok Sabha. The financial accountability of the executive is ensured by many mechanisms including committee system. Public Accounts Committee is one of the most important committee in this context. Other committees are Estimate Committee, Committee on Public Undertakings, etc.

Role of Public Accounts Committee in establishing accountability of government or executive to the people:

• There are 22 members in it (15 L.S and 7 RS) and from 1967 onwards there is a tradition to have chairman from opposition party. This feature itself begins the mechanism of establishing accountability as opposition led committee will have interest to find flaws in government and ensure accountability.
• Public Accounts Committee looks into the government expenditure, disbursement and reappropriation. It checks the legality and efficiency involved in above matters thereby ensure financial accountability.
• Comptroller and Auditor General assists as a specialist organisation in audit to PAC which is a body of layman legislators. Therefore, this committee plays a very important role to establish accountability of the government. There are various examples in this context like, V.K Menon had to resign due to findings of PAC. There was role of PAC in unearthing CWG, 2G scams also.
• Due to very thin boundary between policy and non policy matters and propriety audit of CAG, Public Accounts Committee not only holds government accountable for legality of expenditure but also ensures propriety and performance of policy towards people of India.
• Establishment of accountability of government is ensured by action taken report which is submitted by the government on PAC’s report. Thereby PAC plays a very important role to establish accountability of government to the people in parliamentary form of government in India.

But there are many limitations also

1. Nature of PAC’s work is of post mortem in nature where audit observations are made much after the expenditure has already taken place.
2. PAC looks into the very small area of government expenditure so the impact is limited.
3. The term of member of PAC is of only 1 year now but the job of ensuring financial accountability requires expertise which is difficult to develop in 1 year.

So, a very important role of establishing accountability of government to the people on behalf of people is played by the Public Accounts Committee. This can be further strengthened by implementing the recommendation of National Commission on the Review of the Constitution in 2002 to bring all the financial committees under PAC for better coordination in their job, and tenure of member to be coterminous with that of Lok Sabha.

Answer : Although India was single nation from 1947 onwards but there was no single market. 101th Constitutional Act, 2016 is a transformational taxation reform for Indian economy after LPG of 1990s. To take a stand on whether it will be efficacious enough to remove cascading effect of taxes and providing common market or not, requires understanding of its salient features first.

Salient features

• The Act amends the Constitution to introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST). It amends the Articles 248, 249, 250, 268, 269, 270, 271, 286, 366 and 368. Amended the 6th and 7th schedules. Omitted Article 268A and inserted new Articles 246A, 269A and 279A. Basically this Act amended the Constitution to merge many taxes of States and Center into 1 GST and empowered to collect such taxes. As each was in the exclusive domain of either Center or State with only designated authority to collect it. But, now only GST will be there so amendments were necessary in many provisions.
• Provides for compensation to States for low revenue.
• Provides for Anti Profiteering Authority.
• GST Council is very important feature to make any change in the rules related with taxes and items in it and revise regularly.
• GST subsumes 17 indirect taxes and 23 cesses to create (I)GST, (c) GST, (s) GST.
• Except few items like petroleum, alcohol and electricity, all other goods and services are covered under GST.
• There is provision of input tax credit to prevent cascading.
• There are different slabs of indirect tax rate like 0%, 5%, 12%, 18%, and 28%.
• GSTN-GST Network a digital network to smoothen the tax collection, data monitoring, etc.

Will it be efficacious enough to remove tax cascading?

With the provision of input tax credit it is for sure that tax on tax or tax cascading will be the things of past.

But, as certain commodities are not within the ambit of GST, till their inclussion, tax cascading will continue for some time.

Will it be efficacious enough to provide common market for goods and services?

Except for petroleum, alcohol and electricity, there are enough provisions in GST to create common market. The toll plazas on interstate boundary related with indirect taxes are already removed to create a single market.

There will be seamless transportation of goods from and to every part of India thereby India will be one integrated market for goods. Similar scenario is expected in services also.

As all the states are cooperating with the Centre, so it is likely to achieve the objective of common market.

There are enough provisions within the GST to achieve the aforesaid objectives. But, there are some questions on the efficiency part. Because, efficiency depends on the implementation of the provisions on ground reality.

There are many media reports about several glitches in the GST. The input tax credit is not reimbursed efficiently. Further, there are reports of delays in registration of traders in GST and issues with filing tax revenue and compliance. There are reports about disparity in price of goods also.

But, due to responsive GST Council and regular flexible decisions taken by it, above mentioned obstacles are likely to to in near future. Therefore, potential provisions to remove tax cascading and create common market in GST is likely to be achieved soon and India which was a single nation since 1947 is likely to become a single common integrated market also.

Answer : The Supreme Court in August 2016 ruled that privacy is a Fundamental Right, protected as an intrinsic part of the Right to Life and Personal Liberty and as part of the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

Salient Points of the latest Privacy Judgment

• Privacy is a constitutionally protected Right emerging primarily from the guarantee of life and liberty in Article 21 of the Constitution.
• It includes the preservation of personal intimacies, sanctity of family life, marriage, procreation, the home and sexual orientation.
• Privacy connotes a Right to be left alone. It safeguards individual autonomy and recognises one’s ability to control vital aspects of his/her life.
• Privacy is not an absolute Right, but any invasion must be based on legality, need and proportionality.
• Informational privacy is a facet of this Right. Dangers to this can originate from both state and non-state actors.
• Government must put in place a robust regime for data protection. It must bring about a balance between individual interests and legitimate state concerns.

Fundamental Rights are basic human freedoms to enjoy harmonious development. This is also a kind of protection to citizens from government excesses. But, these are not absolute therefore their scope is also limited. Recent privacy judgement will have a definite impact on the scope of Fundamental Rights which needs examination.

• This judgement has expanded the Right to Privacy beyond its earlier scope established by R. Rajagopal case or by Maneka Gandhi case.
• The judgement is in direction to establish Right to Privacy as an explicit Fundamental Right.
• So, the scope of Fundamental Right has been expanded as a new Fundamental Right is added.

But, this expansion is not limited to mere addition of one more Fundamental Right; it goes much beyond this. For, Right to Privacy is going to expand the scope of other fundamental rights as well. For example, it will have definite implication over personal freedom and LGBT Rights. Their choice of partners will become the part of privacy Rights which will interfere with the Section 377 of IPC.

It will further the scope of freedom have choice of food, religious affair, etc. This is especially important in the context of latest beef controversies and conservative element’s effort to regulate women’s dress and other aspects of people’s personal life. It will also have implications over phone tapping, snooping, Aadhar, etc.

Answer : Indian Constitution adopted bicameral legislature based parliamentary democracy. To resolve any impasse between the two houses of bicameral legislature, there is a provision of joint session in Article 108 of the Indian Constitution.

As per Article 108 of Constitution, a Joint session of Parliament can be summoned in the following situations:

If after a Bill has been passed by one House and transmitted to the other House—

1. the Bill is rejected by the other House; or
2. the Houses have finally disagreed as to the amendments to be made in the Bill; or
3. more than six months elapse from the date of the reception of the Bill by the other House without the Bill being passed by it, the President may, unless the Bill has elapsed by reason of a dissolution of the House of the People, notify to the Houses by message if they are sitting or by public notification if they are not sitting, his intention to summon them to meet in a joint sitting for the purpose of deliberating and voting on the Bill.

However, in calculating period of six months, those days are not considered when house is prorogued or adjourned for more than 4 consecutive days.

If the above conditions are satisfied, the President of India may summon joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament.

1. Money Bill

Under the Constitution of India, Money Bills require approval of the Lok Sabha only. Rajya Sabha can make recommendations to Lok Sabha, which it is not required to accept. Even if Rajya Sabha doesn’t pass a Money Bill within 14 days, it is deemed to have been passed by both the Houses of Parliament after expiry of the above period. Therefore, a requirement to summon a joint session can never arise in the case of Money Bill.

2. Constitution Amendment Bill

Article 368 of Indian Constitution require that Constitution of India can be amended by both the Houses of Parliament by 2/3 majority. In case of disagreement between both houses, there is no provision to summon joint session of Parliament.

Answer : The Election Commission of India, established in the year 1950, is a permanent independent constitutional body vested with the powers of superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all Parliamentary and State elections and elections to the office of the President and Vice President in accordance to the Article 324 of the Constitution of India.

In 2016, the Commission suggested various electoral reforms. Some of the suggested reforms include:

1. Constitutional protection to all members of the Commission
2. Independent secretariat
3. Budget of the Commission to be charged
4. Making of false declaration punishable
5. Open ballot system in the State Legislative Council elections
6. Use of totaliser for counting of votes
7. Restriction on number of seats from which one may contest
8. Making bribery in elections a cognizable offence
9. Deregistration of political parties
10. Compulsory maintenance of accounts by political parties
11. Regarding misuse of religion in elections to be prevented
12. Ban on government sponsored advertisement
13. Ban on exit polls and opinion polls
14. Limit the number of star campaigners
15. Ceiling of campaign expenditure by political parties
16. Rule making authority to be vested with the Election Commission

Its Effectiveness:

• How far the suggested reforms will be successful to make Indian democracy successful can be assessed after looking into impacts of these reforms and how and when the reforms are implemented.
• Reform for rule making authority to be vested with Commission and constitutional protection to all members of Commission will strengthen the commission as elections could be conducted with more fairness.
• Limit over expenditure and star campaigner has the potential to stop misuse of money power and can prevent crony capitalism links to election funding. Further deregistration of political parties with audit and accounting recommendations will clean up the political funding and bring transparency.
• Ban on exit polls opinion polls and government sponsored advertisement will stop the misuse of media.
• All these reforms will enrich the Indian democratic system. It will bring fair play. Thereby politics could become issue based and even commoner could also contest and win elections. Thereby politics of India could become more representative hence policies and action of government will be responsive and proactive.
• But how far these reforms will be significant will necessarily depend on how they will be implemented. Earlier experiences show that many of the significant reforms suggested by the Commission were accepted and implemented with delay of decades; some of them were even rejected.
• Therefore, suggested reforms will become really significant only with proper implementation.

Answer : In the Constituent Assembly Debates, Sardar Patel said that civil service must be above party politics. Neutrality in civil services was considered to be essential for its effectiveness. Civil Servants should be neutral to political parties, and implement programmes and policy of the government of the day in letter and spirit, being guided by the law and rule only. Sadly, the civil service’s neutrality and autonomy are not under threat from political parties only; large part of the blame lie at the door of civil servants also, as the rot has set in the system.

The concept that civil services neutrality is fictitious seems to be a dominant view in India. Civil Servants are aligned to parties with vested interest. It is perpetuated by the transfer posting industry, a term used by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) and the Sixth Pay Commission. Mass transfer of bureaucrats in States is a norms, not exception. Ruling parties across India don’t want honest and upright civil servants. The parties in power bestow favouritism on civil servants loyal to them. Other factors like caste, region, religion and crony capitalism are also affecting neutrality.

Civil servants taking to politics is a detestable phenomenon. This trend severally compromises neutrality during their tenure in service. Traditionally, civil servants were sent as Governors, post-retirement. Now, even for this honour, civil servants are cultivating politicians unabashedly.

Reforms that need to be taken:

• The Central and State governments should pass and implement pending legislations that protects bureaucrats against politically motivated transfers and postings.
• Constitution of Civil Services Board to look into the matters of transfer, posting and promotion, etc. of civil servants.
• Complete transparency in programme implementation is another much needed reform so that any action could not be taken to serve vested interests.
• Officers deemed unfit for further service at certain career benchmarks be compulsorily retired through a transparent and uniform system of performance review.

Answer : The 69th Constitutional amendment designated Delhi as National Capital territory of Delhi and provided legislative assembly. However it was not conferred with full statehood and is administered by Union government through Lieutenant governor.

Essentials of 69th Constitutional Amandment Act (CAA)

1. To streamline administrative setup of the growing metropolis that also happened to be the nation’s capital.
2. To avoid the possibility of constant clash between centre and state given the common geography with overlapping jurisdictions.
3. Presence of high profile diplomatic representatives makes it vital that the control should lie with the central government. To ensure stability and permanence.

Anomalies of the 69th CAA

The political and constitutional status of Delhi has long been a matter of controversy. Some of these are:

1. Unique federal structure

• Delhi is more than a UT but less than a full state. As per Article 239(A)(A). Public order, police and land are under the purview of central government and rests lies with state government.
• Also, powers have been divided between elected Delhi government and appointed lieutenant governor.

2. Article 239 AA: Vagueness in powers of LG and CM.

• Language used in Art 239 AA (4) that pertains to Delhi reads identical to Article 163(1) that pertains to state and is vague. This means that the Delhi government’s power and jurisdictions were intended to be more or less analogous to that of a state government.

3. Federal Continue

• Matters relating to appointment of bureaucrats are a prerogative of the state government and must be done on the advice of Chief Minister. In Delhi, LG not the CM has the power to make appointments and that LG’s authority is final in appointments of Bureaucrats.

4. Parliament can make law on the subject of state lists also. Also any law passed by Delhi assembly with respect to the local bodies has to be sent to urban Development Ministry for approval and it should be in concurrence with municipal Act, 1957.

• All this above mentioned provision has been resulted in a constant conflict between elected representatives and administrative head. Recent Delhi High Court judgment recognized the administrative power of LG and his arbitrary powers. But the success of federalism depends on co-operation and communication between central and state government.
• Thus there is a need of constructive consultation between central and state government representatives to ensure smooth functioning of Delhi administration.

Answer : Article 370 of the Indian Constitution is a “temporary provision” which grants special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir. According to this article except for defense, foreign affairs, finance and communications, Parliament need the state government concurrence for applying other laws.

Article 370 bears marginal note “temporary provision” which clearly states that the provisions with respect to the state of J&K are only temporary and not permanent. It also empowers president to abrogate article 370 on recommendations of constituent assembly of J&K.

There have been widespread campaigns to repeal article 370 and also for replacing “temporary” word with “special” like Article 371. Parliament can amend Article 370 but only after the approval of J&K’s assembly, only when the union government and J&K’s State assembly arrives at a consensus, the temporary provision could be amended according to the needs.

Future prospects of this provision

Continuation of Article 370 might trigger similar demand for autonomy from other states especially north eastern states. Also it might lead to growth of separatist tendencies in diverse segment of Indian society.

Further recent incidents of raising pro Pakistan slogans and continuation of stone pelting on armed forces and support to terrorism might pose challenge to national unity , severity and integrity of county.

However unilateral attempt by central government to repeal Article 370 might disrupt the centre-state relations. In sum there was hope that J&K would one day integrate like other states of the union but this could happen only when the people of the state acquiesced to such an arrangement. Thus any attempt to repeal Article 370 must come with concurrence of people of J&K.

Answer : India adopted the system of parliamentary democracy where elections are fought between various parties to win and form government. Indian party system is witnessing following changes which has also resulted in various contradictions and paradoxes.

(i) Multi-party System: From single party dominance India is witnessing multiparty system where hundreds of parties have been recognized by election commission of India.

However, despite multiple parties, most of the central and state elections have been a direct contest between 2 or 3 major parties.

(ii) Personality Cult: Elections are seemed to be a contest between two major personalities rather than two parties. Thus despite adopting parliamentary democracy, India has moved towards presidential type of democracy. Even act of success or omission is seen as a result of leadership of one individual only.

(iii) Shedding ideologies: Various parties have shed their ideologies or major issues to gain political power. Thus various parties having opposite ideologies are seems to be forming government through coalitions. This desire to win power has aggravated to such content that criminalization of politics has also because soft underbelly in India.

(iv) Intra party democracy: After enactment of 10th schedule related to anti-defection, although defections have reduced but the voice of an individual member has been curtailed under the command of whip. This is mere ironical as the champions of democracy are themselves starved with democracy.

(v) Resistance to reforms: Although political parties fought election on governance reforms like police reforms, bureaucracy reforms, judiciary reforms etc but they themselves resist reforms like application of RTI on political parties, transparency in donations, stopping criminal entering politics, electoral reforms etc.

Thus Indian political parties have to rise above normal considerations if they really went to see as major superpower in the world.

Answer : According to Article 149 of the constitution the CAG shall audit the accounts of the union and state governments. However, in last some years the CAG has also started to audit the policy implementation aspects like questioning the method of auction in 2G spectrum and coal mine allocations, checking beneficiaries of schemes like farm loan waiver scheme etc. This has raised the issue with respect to jurisdiction of CAG.

Many critics have raised concern over this by citing that policy implementation is prerogative of elected government. For this if CAG raises question over policy implementation, then it creates negative image of government.

However CAG’s audit of policy implementation can be justified on following grounds.

1. Governance is moving towards “performance budgeting” thus CAG contributes the government by assessing its performance.
2. If CAG will be confined to accounts audit only, then it will not serve the purpose which was envisaged by founding father for it. CAG is watchdog of public purse and it has to seek value for money for each amount spent.
3. CAG audit report of implementation aspect will strengthen the parliamentary control of executive. The public Accounts Committee (CAG) and other parliamentary CAG will be more informed of government’s performance.
4. Many time CAG can come out with good practices with respect to implementation. for example e-auction has become reality in India after highlighting 2G Scam, coalgets scam etc.

Thus the government should use this as an opportunity to improve governance and CAG should also constructively audit implementation rather than fault finding only.

Answer : The Preamble provides that India is a sovereign socialist, secular, democratic Republic. These define the structure of India. The objectives to republic are as follows:

(i) Sovereign

• Sovereignty means independence and autonomy a country has in determining its internal and external policies. It was one of the most important reason for which freedom struggle against colonial rule was fought.
• However, presently due to globalization and liberalization concerns over its sanctity has been raised. For example, issues over intellectual property rights, environmental commitments, immense influence commanded by Multinational companies in India, Security pacts with other countries.
• However liberalization and globalization has only led to integration of India into world economy and governance. India still decides its major policies on its own. For e.gtalks over Doha round in WTO, recent India’s denial to USA over participation in naval exercise in south China sea etc. Thus it is very much defendable but within the interest of global governance.

(ii) Socialism

• India adopted unique “democratic socialism” where a place was also given to private sector and governments’ role was majorly to ensure inclusive growth and social justice.
• However, after liberalization and privatization, government is withdrawing from many areas. But it has not led to compromise with ideas of inclusive growth and social justice because government withdraw only from production and too to ensure better distribution of resources. In fact through “Corporate social Responsibility” and civil society activism, government is expending the horizons of socialism.

(iii) Secularism

• Again India adopted unique kind of secularism where state rather than being neutral will treat all religions “equally”. However recent communal riots and incidence of bigotry have raised concern over India’s secular credentials. But India is very much a secular country because it is united by “spirit of togetherness” whatever issue of conflicts have emerged, they could never overwhelm Indian Politic.

(iv) Democratic Republic

• India adopted representative democracy through parliament and state legislatures. However issues like corruption in elections, criminalization of politics, frequent disruptions in parliament, abuse of rights of citizens etc have raised concern over democracy.
• But, India is reforming its democratic system regularly thanks to Supreme Court and Election Commission of India. Further enacting 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment Acts, India made its democracy from representative to participative.
• Thus, the adjectives attached to republic are very much defendable despite regular attack on them.

Answer : The judgment of I.R. Coelho reaffirmed the doctrine of basic structure. The Supreme Court held that 9th schedule of Indian constitution is not immune from judicial review if any law under 9th schedule violates fundamental rights of citizen.

Thus, if parliament passes a law under 9th schedule which violates either fundamental rights or even any element of the basic structure of constitution, that law can be dismissed by supreme court. In this content the importance of judicial review can be seen from following.

1. Judicial review is a basic tool through which Supreme Court suo moto can protect any other element of basic structure.
2. Judicial review is essential to ensure check and balances between various organs of state. Thus, through judicial review the rights of citizens can be protected from executive and legislature.
3. Various functionaries under constitution enjoy various discretionary powers. For e.g speaker under Anti-defection law governor under presidents rule under Article 365 etc. Supreme Court through judicial review can ensure that these powers are exercised within the framework of constitution.
4. To ensure social justice where executive is delaying or failing. For e.g. Recent ruling of Supreme Court on Singur land Acquisition Act, Supreme Court’s guideline on sexual harassment at workplaces etc.

However while exercising judicial review, judiciary has to ensure that it doesn’t lead to judicial overreach because judicial overreach is itself against basic structure of constitution is it encroaches upon legitimate authority of people’s representatives.

Answer : The Government of India Act 1935 is many times termed as mini constitution because India after Independence retained many of its features under independent constitution. It is termed as “federal” because it provides for following federal features:-

1. All India federation: It was to comprise of British India provinces and princely states.
2. Division of federal subjects between centre and provinces.
3. Bicameral legislature: The proposed federal legislature was to comprise of council of states (Upper House) and federal Assembly (cover House). The upper house had majority of members nominated and elected by states.
4. Establishment of a federal court to adjudicate inter-state disputes.

However despite these federal features government of India Act 1935 did not lay down a complete federal constitution due to following reasons:

1. The residuary powers were retained by British officers like Governor General.
2. Despite provincial autonomy and division of federal subjects, major subjects especially financial were retained for central administration.
3. The autonomy and powers of parts of district collector and other functionaries were retained as they were earlier.
4. Although a federal court was established but the judicial system was an integrated one i.e. no seprate level of court for central and state laws.
5. The emergency powers were not abolished which could end provincial government as and when required.

Thus government of India Act, 1935 although started federalism but it was distant from laying down a complete federal constitution.

Answer : A Quasi-Judicial body is an entity such as an arbitrator or tribunal board, generally of a public administrative agency. Which has powers and procedures resembling those of court of law or judge and which is obliged to objectively determine facts and draw conclusions from them so as to provide the basics of an official action.

Important Quasi-judicial Bodies in India:

A. Constitutional Bodies:

(i) Tribunals under Article 323A and 323B.

• Art 323A provides for central administrative tribunal and Article 323B provides for other tribunals. These are Quasi-judicial bodies because on the one hand they objectively determine facts and draws conclusion. Their decisions are also enforceable like court of law but on the other hand they are Quasi-judicial bodies as they are not bound by rules of evidence like judiciary. They are manned by administrative officials also and they can give decisions different from their earlier rulings.

(ii) National Commission for schedule castes and National commission for schedule Tribe

• These commissions have power of a civil court like issuing summons for the examination of witnesses and documents summoning and forcing attendance of a person requiring production of documents etc. These powers to protest the backward sections of society make them Quasi-judicial bodies.

(iii) Parliament

• While deciding cases on its contempt and on the matters of its impeachment of president parliament also bureaucrats a Quasi-judicial body.

B. Statutory bodies

• There are various bodies like central vigilance commission, central information commission, security exchange Board of India (SEBI), National Human Rights commission etc. These are established under a parliamentary Act and they are Quasi-judicial bodies because they enjoys powers of a civil court they enforces punishment etc.
• Thus Quasi-judicial bodies have some judicial functions to perform but they are not strictly judicial because they also perform administrative or legislative functions.

Answer : Non-state actors refers to “A wide range of non-governmental development actors like civil society in all its diversity, economic and social partners. Here participation is open to all kind of actors such as the private sector, community based organizations, women’s group, human rights associations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), religious organizations and so on.

Non-state actors have been widely recognized as an essential third sector. Its strength can have a positive influence on the state and the market. Non state actors therefore seen as an increasingly important agent for promoting good governance like transparency effectiveness, openness responsiveness and accountability.

Contribution of non-state actors in Indian governance systems involves.

1. Election Reforms: Various reforms like submission of criminal cases against candidate’s provision of NOTA and others by consistent effort of association of democratic reforms (ADR).
2. Watchdog: Against violation of human rights and governing deficiencies.
   e.g. Amnesty international
3. Education: Promote quality education and supplementing government efforts.
   e.g. Pratham
4. Environmental protection: Survival international worked in Niamgiri areas to stop Bauxite mining by vedanta.
5. Child Rights: Bachpan Bachao Aandolan by Noble Laureate Kailash Satyarthi
   However some scholars arguing that role of non-state actor is marginal in Indian governance because:

1. Dubious role played by NGOs:

For example Greenpeace officials are found in halting developments projects in Madhya Pradesh for political gains. Also role of NGOs in Kundakulan protest against nuclear power plant is also doubtful.

2. Strict rules and regulation

Many NGOs are facing harassment by state authorities, issues with fund etc has hampered their participation.

Thus Non-state actors are playing a major role in Indian governance but transparency and accountability in their working is also necessary. Also government needs to involve there as complementary element to serve the unserved.

Answer : Good governance aims at providing an enabling environment in which all citizen can develop to their full potential. Also good governance aims at providing public services effectively efficiently and equitably to the citizens. Here, participation from people plays an important role to ensure fulfillment of good governance’s objective by seeking information giving suggestions, demanding better services holding service providers and other government against accountable and active participation in decision making.

People’s participation can influence policy and project formulation through membership of committees, submission of memorandum directly or through elected representatives and interactive rulemaking in the implementation of policies projects and schemes affecting citizens.

Also through the social audit (e.g MGNREGS) people ensures proportions of fund and their utilization. corruption at grass root level can also be minimized by active involvement of citizen.

Further various developmental projects failed to assess the displacement and other effects on locals. For example schedule tribe consists of about 8 percent of population but 60 percent of displaced belongs to this category. Hence involvement of citizen during planning phase itself may ensure proper rehabilitation, settlement and better future prospect for them.

Finally citizen centric administration is one major pillar of good governance. And it can only be fulfilled by active participation of people. The ides of panchayati Raj also comes from this only. Thus to ensure effectiveness of the government system at various level people’s participation is a complementary ingredient.

Answer : Economic reforms introduced in 1991 budget, leading to economic liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG), led to far reaching impacts on socio-economic sphere. From socialism to a mainly market oriented regime, India has witnessed large scale changes in its governmental system.

Response of Indian governmental system to LPG:

Public Sector Reforms

• De-licensing, de-regulation, reduction in role of public sector enterprise and shift towards privatization.
• Disinvestment & strategic sale led to improvement or doing-away of various sick psus.
• Miniratna, Navratna, Maharatna tags gave much needed operational/financial autonomy, reduced role of bureaucracy to PSUs.
• Example: “Air India” performance improved after privatization of aviation sector.

FDI & Trade Reforms

• Liberal FDI reforms, limiting govt interference in various sectors.
• Reduction in trade barriers through various FTAs.
• Doing away with export/import duties reduced role of custom & excise authorities and led to free flow of trade.

Fiscal & Monetary Reforms

• Fiscal prudence, reducing irrational spending on social schemes
• Introducing JAM to rationalize social-sector schemes
• Monetory Policy Committee etc are much in line with global practices and demand.

Legislations & Policies

• larr Bill (2015), Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (2016), Public Asset Rehabilitation Agency (PARA) proposed in Economic Survey 2017 are some legislative reforms to tackle economic challenges.
• New IPR policy, various committees’ reports are in line with global standards. But, India has limitations in responding to demands of LPG:
• Poor service delivery in health, education and weak state capacity, puts burden on govt spending.
• Ambivalence towards private sector/property leads to difficulty in bring economic reforms.
• Example: LARR Bill, 2015 faced challenges on ground of being private favoring.
• Higher tax rates, rigid labour laws, lack of basic infrastructure led to companies/industries shifting their bases outside India.
• Example: Textile industries shifting to Bangladesh, Vietnam etc.
• Complex FDI rules and policy paralysis has led to limited flow of foreign funds.
• Example: In e-Commerce sector 100% is allowed only in marketplace model and not in inventory based model.

Way Forward:

With growing economic interdependence and integration of world economy, India needs to step-up it’s efforts keeping domestic challenges in focus.

• Focus on social sector and delivery of essentials services for inclusive growth.
• Introducing/reforming policies & taking measures to tackle challenges like Jobless growth, Poverty.
• Rationalizing social service delivery through JAM and technology-led agricultural growth.
• tackling growth of crony capitalism and bureaucracy red-tapism.
• Securing India s domestic interest in forums like WTO, NSG, Paris Climate INDC etc.
• In current protectionist era, India needs to speed up it’s efforts by signing more FTAs & being part of various regional trade agreements, to achieve much needed growth rate via exports.

Answer : The current bureaucratic structure in India is a colonial relic. The laws governing policing, administration and the public delivery mechanism is still governed by the laws of the British era (for example Indian Police Act, 1861).

This has caused several problems and has led to hampering the socio-economic development in India in the following ways:

1. Red tapism: The complexity in the procedures involved in implementing a policy creates delay it creates a sense of risk in investor and also increase the overall cost of project which finally beer upon by taxpayers. Recently India ranks 130 out of 189 countries in World Bank’s ease of doing Business report.
2. Master-Ivory tower approach: Adopted by Bureaucrats to tackle socio-economic problems is failed. More than 30 percent of people below poverty line, leakages in FDS is almost 50 percent and other problem like poor health and education status raised doubt over adopted method to tackle it.
3. Political interference and Nexus: Bureaucracy deemed to be a public servant but currently it is projecting themselves as political servant. Involvement of high level administrator in coal scam, 2G scam and almost all other scam depicts a horrible picture of means between political master and administrator.
4. Lack of decision making: As pointed out by 2nd ARC and Economic Survey 2016, certain provisions of prevention of corruption Act prevent free and fair decision making by holding them accountable for any decision based on unrealistic criterion.
5. Other Like

1. Competitive packages and working condition in corporate sector have attracted talented youth in recent times.
2. Inter-service rivalry between different wings of governance like IAS, IPS and other.
3. Frequent positing of officers based or favoritism rather than honesty and diligence
4. Staff and resource crunch.

All above mentioned issues has led to poor planning, structuring and implementation of various programmes. Also, indifferent attitude of Bureaucrats towards downtrodden people has been resulted in exploitation and various social problems like Naxalism.

Answer : To fight with the problems emanating from practices of different laws, rules, rites in certain matters like marriage, adoption, inheritance etc. and bring justice in practical sense, codification and implementation of the Uniform Civil Code becomes indispensable. In Pursuant to these inherent conflicts and divergent practices prevailing as a result of diverse nature of Indian society, the UCC was added as one of the directions to the states under the Directive Principles of State Policy under article 44 of the part-IV of the constitution of India.

Uniform civil code (UCC) of India is a term referring to the concept of an overarching civil law code in India that administers the same set of secular civil laws to govern all people irrespective of their religion, caste and tribe. Though the DPSP are fundamental in the governance of the country, they are just directions and not enforceable by law. Therefore, the UCC could not be made and implemented so far.

The factors inhibiting India from enacting the UCC includes the view that it would infringe upon the fundamental right of freedom of religion as mentioned in Article 25. Secondly, it would amount to a tyranny to the minority, threatening their religious identity as the code will seek to merge all personal laws into one. Further, it is feared that any attempt to ignore personal laws of various religions might lead to civil war, rioting and social unrest. Additionally, no urgent requirement is felt to implement the code, as the code is neither a matter of priority nor a sine qua non for national integration. In fact, some intellectuals feel that implementation of the code should logically pass through three stages, involving codification of the personal laws, a transitional phase of optionality and exemption to a particular community, if the code comes into conflict with their personal laws.

Then, there are operational problems in adopting a uniform code of marriage, as it is difficult to borrow from all religions and customs, especially those associated with the solemnization of marriages. It wouldn’t significantly improve on the democratic ideal of India. For example, in Nepal, the establishment of a uniform civil code did not improve upon national integration. A democracy it can be argued can survive even by respecting separate personal laws of different communities.

Answer : The drawbacks in the existing federal structure are power tilting in favor of the center leading to the dominance of the center in the financial sphere and a consequent dependence of the states upon the central grants. Thus, the state government, in order to meet their ever growing and sometimes overambitious aspirations, as can be witnessed by the demand of special packages by the Bihar government, demands special financial packages often unviable thus putting irresponsible burden upon center’s financial health. Planning Commission was the main instruments that have nurtured the federal imbalance for long time.

Further, states are asserting autonomy and resisting to the interference of the center be it territorial disputes or water dispute. The victims of such negative attitude exhibited by the states are the GST bill, establishment of the National Counter Terrorism Center, Border Security Force amendment bill to increase its coverage etc. Apart from these, it is imperative to have a consensual relation between the center and the states as far as threat to national security is concerned: rising from both external as well as internal factors. In addition to this, Despite having a clear distribution of subjects, sometime states interfere in center area such as foreign policy e.g. Tamil Nadu Government’s interference vis-à-vis India’sSri Lanka policy and West Bengal government’s interference in Indo-Bangldesh foreign relations. All these instances necessitated the need to have a cooperative federalism framework where both the center and the state work as a partner and a facilitator to each other.

The concept of ‘co-operative federalism’ helps the federal system, with its divided jurisdiction, to act in unison. It minimizes friction and promotes co-operation among various constituent governments of the federal union so that they can pool their resources to achieve certain desired national goals.

Several areas of jurisdiction such as labour, social security and social insurance relief, rehabilitation of displaced people etc., have been placed in the Concurrent List. “Economic and Social Planning” was placed as entry 20 of the Concurrent List which is clearly indicative of the fact that it was in the jurisdiction and the responsibility of the Centre and the states. Sharing of powers and responsibilities between the three levels of government is a key element of the concept, which involves participative policymaking. This is particularly important in areas of concurrent responsibility, where the Centre has had a tendency to ride roughshod over the States by occupying the common legislative space. A reform of the seventh schedule lists in the direction of greater empowerment of States would be consistent with the logic of increased financial transfers and cooperative federalism. Locating the right level for making and implementing policy is a central feature of the cooperative responsibility matrix.

In situations such as external aggression or war, where concerns of national security take precedence, it is felt that co-operation between Union and state governments is the only way to tackle the problem expeditiously and efficiently.Also, the emergence of the concept of a social welfare state in response to public demand for various social services, involving huge outlays which could not be met by the states by their own resources, created the need for co-operative federalism for maximum mutual benefit.

To promote the spirit of cooperative federalism NITI Ayog was formed by replacing the planning commission and the recommendations of the fourteenth finance commission was accepted that provided more fiscal autonomy to the states by the incumbent government. All these measures will address the drawbacks of the existing structure.

Answer : Literacy levels amongst the representatives of the local governance system are found to be very low. This often leads to lack of conceptual clarity with regards’ to the objectives this system has been founded. The representative, owing to illiteracy, often does not understand what duties they are supposed to discharge, what their responsibility is and whom they are accountable to. Clearly what this leads to is mismanagement of funds coming to the tune of crores of rupees in the name of schemes such as MGNREGA etc. Further, lack of reasoning and open mindedness made the performance of these PRIs vitiated by political cum caste factionalism, rendering developmental projects into chimeras.

In addition to these, it is also believed, illiterate representatives tends to facilitates corruption, inefficiency, scant regard for procedures, political interference in day to day administration, parochial loyalties, motivated actions, power concentration instead of true service mentality- thus standing in the way of the success of Panchayati Raj instiutions. Negation of democratic principles in the functioning of these institutions also can be correlated to the illiteracy levels as representatives do not values the importance of democratic ideals. Also, the tendency towards politicization of these institutions, lack of co-ordination between the popular and the bureaucratic elements signals absence of organized local level governance system. Moreover, the panchayti raj institutions remains closely affiliated to the political parties. In fact, allegiance to the ruling party is the key to get the funds for their day to day functioning. Thus they are seen as organizational arms of the political parties.

Many committees have from time to time recommended imparting training to the members of the Panchayats and the Samitis. This also points towards their inefficiency in carrying out the agenda of these institution, which are conceived as the institutions of grass root democracy. So, it will be better to have a literate representative along with organized local level government system to transform into an instrument of governance. But this cannot be done by force through legislation. Which is done by Rajasthan and replicated by the Haryana government.

In fact, it raises another question: Does the performance of democracy is dependent on the quality of elected leaders? Does that quality is determined by the education alone? Even if it happens to be, then why those unqualified shold bear the brunt of this undemocratic legislation alone. Is it not the responsibility of the state to impart eduction to all its citizens. In fact, when no such criteria is being laid done under the Representation of peoples act, 1951, for mandatory minimum qualifications to contest elections, even Art. 326 of the Indian constitution does not provide for any such criteria. Then how come, a legislation through ordinance determine such a criteria bypassing democratic procedures of debate and discussion to bring in any law. Further, all the arguments given in favor of this mandatory qualification legislation, encompassing inefficient administration to failure in upholding democratic ideals, are true for MLA’s and the MP’s as well. Then why such a law is not applied to them. The change must flow from upwards to the down.

Answer : Khap panchayats are active in various states of the country, especially Haryana, are notorious for their outlandish edicts like declaring married couples siblings, ostracizing families and such other atrocious acts.The reason behind all these atrocious verdicts is to save the so-called honour and culture of the society.

The Supreme Court has declared ‘Khap panchayats’ to be illegal, which often decree or encourage honour killings or other institutionalized atrocities against boys and girls of different castes and religions who wish to get married or have married.

In his report to the Supreme Court Raju Ramachandaran, Senior Advocate appointed by the Court to assist it in PILs against Khap Panchayats has called for arrest of “self styled” decision makers and proactive action by the police to protect the fundamental rights of the people. It also asked for the recommendations being converted as directions to all States and the Union, till a law is enacted by the Parliament.

Various legislative efforts have been taken by the government to prohibit the unlawful activities of Khap Panchayat. The Prohibition of Unlawful Assembly (Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliance) Bill, 2011: Law Commission has drafted a Bill to prevent interference of any per ton in the matrimonial alliance in the name of honour and tradition. The draft bill also intends to declare such panchayats unlawful.

The Endangerment of life and Liberty (Protection, Prosecution and other measures) Act, 2011: Shocked by the growing cult of honour killings and swiftly dispersing roots of Khap Panchayats across the country, the Law Commission of India has also proposed legislation namely ‘The Endangerment of Life and Liberty (Protection, Prosecution and other measures) Act, 2011, to prosecute persons or a group involved in such endangering conduct and activities. Under the proposed law, the act of endangerment of life and liberty shall mean and include “any manner of acts of threat, encouragement, commending, exhorting and creating an environment whereby loss of life and liberty is imminent or threatened.

Khap System cannot be abolished by statutes or any punitive action because the common conscience of people is with them. The main source of strength of Khap Panchayat is massive community support of that particular society in which Khap exists. These are a great vote bank to the politicians therefore lack of political will to abolish them propagates this social ill. Therefore to abolish the Khap Panchayat it is needed that peoples’ support to this unconstitutional authority should be dejected by bringing awareness in the Khap societies. It is essential to make them start thinking that they are lacking some basic-moral principles, sentiments and values in their culture.

Answer : Article 123 of the Constitution grants the President certain law making powers to promulgate Ordinances when either of the two Houses of Parliament is not in session and hence it is not possible to enact laws in the Parliament.Just as the President of India is constitutionally mandated to issue Ordinances under Article 123, the Governor of a state can issue Ordinances under Article 213, when the state legislative assembly (or either of the two Houses in states with bicameral legislatures) is not in session.

The government justifies the series of ordinances, saying that it demonstrates its focus to push reforms and development. It has used the ordinance route to break through the logjam in Parliament.The Modi government’s very first ordinance to amend the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act, was the result of a hasty decision. Yet another ordinance that gives life-long visas to persons of Indian origin (PIOs) was pushed through ostensibly because the prime minister wanted to keep a promise he’d made when he addressed the Indian diaspora in the US last year.

The government brought three ordinances on land acquisition in violation of constitution norms, before letting it lapse. The Government’s (both at the Centre and the State) has misused this ‘extraordinary power’ with alarming regularity, for political gain and to subvert the parliamentary process of debates and discussions. The ordinance route which precludes deliberations and discussions is un-democratic in nature as far as law making is concerned, except under exceptional circumstances. It also point towards utilization of brute majority in the lower house to bypass the scrutiny of the upper house.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court has shown reluctance in defining limits to the exercise of this power and has further given contradictory verdicts on whether it is even subject to judicial review. This has resulted in considerable confusion.

One of the prerequisites of passing an ordinance is that the President must be satisfied that circumstances exist that require immediate action. The Apex Court has been unable to make up its mind whether this subjective satisfaction of the President can be questioned in the Court of law. Two five judge benches of the Supreme Court had given contradictory verdicts to this question. One holding that the ‘satisfaction of the President’ can be questioned in a Court of law (although making it virtually impossible for the ordinary citizen to challenge), while the other holding it is not.

It is high time that the Supreme Court should step up and clear this anomaly. It needs to keep in mind the exigencies of our times and not make such a challenge an impossible dream for the ordinary citizen. Further, it should define in clear terms the parameters within which this power can be exercised. In doing so, the Court should uphold the supremacy of the Parliamentary process.

Answer : Ordinance was promulgated in Oct, 2015 to introduce several significant changes to the Arbitration & Conciliation Act 1996 (‘the A&C Act’), aiming at expediting the arbitration process and minimizing court intervention in arbitration. This act would facilitate expeditious settlement of civil disputes including those pertaining to family and consumer affairs. Now, these disputes can be settled out of court using this fast and efficient Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism. These ordinances will fast track resolution of disputes within a time frame of 18 months.

The A&C Act was enacted for ensuring decreased court intervention in arbitration and greater coherence and consistency between domestic arbitration law and international practices. The Government with the intention of exhibiting its positive intent in making India an ideal investment destination has decided to immediately effect the desired changes to the A&C Act and therefore has promulgated the present Ordinance. An added advantage of this mechanism can be seen on dispute settlement cost minimization, as arbitration outside court reduces cost of litigation.

Some of the salient feature of this act are: it has made the principal civil court or high court as relevant court for all arbitration matters. Certain provisions of the act will be applicable to international commercial arbitration only when the place of arbitration was India and even outside India, if the parties involved agreed otherwise. Moreover, it empowers the court to refer any matter that is brought before a court to arbitration, if it is the subject of an arbitration agreement.

To rule out any form of impartiality by arbitrators, Section 12 is amended to mandate disclosure by the arbitrator in writing of certain information such as any direct or indirect interest in the subject matter in dispute thus precluding appointment of persons having specified relationship with any of the parties.

To speed up the process, a 12 month period has been specified for completion of arbitral proceedings. The award can be delayed by a maximum period of 6 months under special circumstances with all parties giving consent to such extension of time. Where the award is not made within the stipulated time period, the mandate of arbitrators shall automatically stand terminated.

Insertion of sub-section in Section 11 to the effect that an application for appointment of an Arbitrator shall be disposed of by the High Court or Supreme Court as expeditiously as possible and best efforts should to be made to dispose of the matter within 60 days from the date on which the notice has been served on the opposite party.

In conclusion, we can say that this ordinance will facilitate a faster resolution and disposal of the disputes between the parties and leaves very little scope for the elongation of the disputes. For this reason it inspires the confidence of the foreign investors to invest in India and reassures international investors in the reliability of the Indian legal system to provide expeditious, cheaper and flexible dispute resolution mechanism.

Answer : Every year, numerous cases are reported in the national capital of India, Delhi related to burn injuries as well as 30% to 40% increased cases of wheezing, respiratory diseases, exacerbation of bronchial asthma and bronchitis patients have been reported during and post-Diwali. Therefore, the government took up this issue seriously and enacted various legislations, including the Supreme Court giving out certain judgments and orders to curb this increasing level of combined pollution.

In the landmark case of 2005, “Prevention of Environment & Sound Pollution v. Union of India”, the apex court laid down a few essential guidelines relating to firecrackers and addressing other problems of sound pollution.Arguments have often been made against such restrictions on the grounds that it violates Article 25 of the Constitution, i.e., to practise and propagate our religion freely. What one must keep in mind that Fundamental Rights are not absolute in nature and falls under the umbrella of certain reasonable restrictions.

In a recent case, 3 toddlers moved to the Supreme Court with a petition to take action against the rising levels of air pollution, which has led to lethal levels of toxic in the air, which is directly affecting the youngest of the population. The Supreme Court dismissed this petition which was aimed at putting a blanket ban on bursting of crackers on Diwali or designating a particular place for bursting crackers. The Supreme Court exclaimed that such a blanket ban would be lethal and would cause an unnecessary uproar in the society. The court, however, has directed the government to spread awareness about the hazardous effects of crackers.

Article 21 of the Constitution, the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and the noise pollution rules defined under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, guarantee the right to live in a pollution-free atmosphere. Bursting crackers has been a custom in our society which is now proving to be lethal for the coming generations. Article 21- Right to Life, is a basic human right and a Fundamental Right for Indian Citizens, and to breathe clean air constitutes the same. Hence, it is necessary to exercise certain prudence and caution in this situation and one must give precedence to various rights in terms of their necessity.

Answer : Recently the government has brought some changes in the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) in a bid to strengthen scrutiny of financial transaction involving NGOs. This was done after cancelling the registration of around 1400 NGOs citing non-compliant reasons, anti-developmental activities, politically motivated actions etc. Greenpeace India and Ford Foundations are the two NGOs government is strictly vigilante about.

One of the most important change being government’s plan to equate “economic security” for NGOs under the FCRA with the definition provided in Section 2 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Section 2 of the UAPA, amended in 2013, reads: “Economic security includes financial, monetary and fiscal stability, security of means of production and distribution, food security, livelihood security, energy security, ecological and environmental security.” this provision would make NGOs dysfunctional.

According to the proposed changes, NGOs and organisations that receive foreign donations will now have to share personal details, bank account details and bio-data of their trustees with the government. This would make increase their workload and will take a toll on their financial as well as human resources.

Complying with this requirement will involve certain cost along with labour. NGOs efficiency may come down in order to fulfill these requirements and their focus may get diverted from their developmental activities.

In addition to this, the rule make it mandatory for the banks to provide online access to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Intelligence Bureau (IB) for monitoring the utilization of accounts of all FCRA-registered association. It will lead to undermining confidentiality of the banks. To bypass this requirements, the banks may even opt to deny accounts opening to such associations.

Further, the government also made it mandatory to take prior approval for receiving foreign fundings by these associations. The process of acquiring funds will become lengthy thus iompacting their functioning. For efficient functioning funds are utmost required, once they are delayed everything else gets delayed.

According to another amended rule, any foreigner associated with an NGO, who is visiting India, will have to furnish his/her details with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), spelling out the purpose as well as the date of visits. This rule may tarnish India’s image in the eyes of foreigners by making them suspicious about the political working environment in India. What kind of rules and regulations are being made and followed in India? Are they user friendly or meant to harass them?

Ironically, with these amended rule what is at stake is not that important - a relatively small amount of money that does not significantly help or harm India. The major uses of foreign funds are for rural development, education of the poor, health, and so on. Foreign funding of NGOs is dwarfed by other foreign money coming into India through international agencies route such as the World Bank, UN and its agencies etc. Of this, the amount used for potentially questionable purposes is said to be about 13 per cent.

The major reason that is offered for these controls is that sometimes NGOs indulge in activities that are “detrimental to national interest, likely to affect public interest, or likely to prejudicially affect the security, scientific, strategic or economic interest of the state.” This was the classic language used by the British colonials in order to justify new laws and regulations aimed at curbing civil liberties. This is not to say that no NGO ever does anything wrong. If they break the law, adequate action should be taken against them. And there are more than adequate laws to ensure that this happens.

For a handful of NGOs who may be doing something wrong, about 13,000 are completely paralyzed. This doesn’t bode well for the nation, in terms of development, international relations and perception.

Answer : Indian higher education sector is grappling with multiple problems. Being a consumer of knowledge indicates lesser research works and we are- not producers of knowledge. Access and quality are the other two key issues plaguing this sector of Indian learning system. In addition to this higher education system needs to incorporate best practices, greater institutional autonomy and availability of sufficient funds in combination with most advanced evaluation system both for students as well as for faculties. Lack of regulation of faculties encourage teacher absenteeism along with poor quality of instructions. Recognizing these problems and to ensure competition in this sector, recently the union government announced entry of foreign educational institutions.

Entry of foreign institutions will stop brain drain as the good opportunities to the Indian students will be present in their own Country. Research is one area where foreign educational institutions can make a difference. These institutions will come up with better infrastructure, better facilities, and better faculties, thus increasing the sea of opportunities for the students. Standards of Indian higher education systems will see an upward movement. They will immediately increase the competition for Indian institutes with resultant pressure on them to improve quality. They will bring with the culture of rigor and excellence in research and academic standards with possible spin-off effects on their Indian counterparts. Also, Indian students will get best education that too at relatively moderate costs, if they were to pursue same eduction abroad. Another benefit accruing to the students would be that, they will be offered internationally accredited programmes in India, thus Indian students will be entitled to transfer of credits globally.

Beside this positive aspects, there are some areas of concerns as well, with respect to entry of foreign institutions. First, these institution may not be subjected to the country’s rigorous regulations, thus, bypassing rule of the land for their vested interests. Second, the curriculum they design and teach may create may not be suitable under Indian context. Moreover, easy access to these institutions because of their proximity and affordability may encourage large number of enrolments. In such cases the syllabus taught by these institutions will have huge impact on the psyche of Indian students. In fact, they may go to the extent of imposing colonialism through education, by modeling mindsets of Indian students for their national interest. This can be compared to the allegation made against foreign funded NGOs anti-development activities in India. moreover, entrance of these institution will only contribute in the widening of education inequality in terms of content, curriculum and students access. Only students who would afford will take admission in these institutions.

Although opening up of higher educational sector to foreign institutions will bring some positive change in the education sector, but this alone could not be option to bring in reforms in the higher education system in India. Public sector alone could bring in the necessary improvements.

Answer : The Satyam Scandal of 2009 shook the foundations of Indian corporate sector, whose tremors were also felt across global corporate arena. The fraud had eroded the stakeholders trust in the regulators, companies as well as the markets alike. Huge outcry by all the sections of stakeholders lead to unfolding of unprecedented reforms related to audit committees, shareholder rights, and whistleblower policy, in corporate governance in India. The scam highlighted various loopholes in the corporate governance practices in India such as fraudulent accounting, ineffective board, unethical conduct etc.

After this scam, SEBI came out with a set of guidelines to strengthen corporate governance. Further ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) also issued guidelines for greater disclosure of assets. Also many petty steps were taken to make the company’s board more responsible and accountable. SEBI also came up with the proposal of amending clause 49 pertaining to equity listing agreement. The market watchdog have also set up a monitoring committee to ensure company’s compliance with clause 49, ascertain adequacy and accuracy of disclosures in the quarterly compliance reports received from the companies and submit a consolidated compliance report to it within 60 days from the end of each quarter.

In addition to these, companies are required to incorporate at least one-third Independent directors on the board. Also SEBI made it mandatory to rotate individual auditors and audit firms after certain time period. To cushion the voice raising questions of illegal or unethical practices, SEBI directed companies to devise the whistleblower policy.

Ministry of corporate affairs also responded firm handedly and created a “New corporate code” under the Companies Act, 2013 that minimizes the chances of conflict of interest and also empowers and protects minority shareholders.

This scandal reasserted the relevance of IFRS adoption by Indian INC. This would facilitate investor comparisons of financial performance across country lines and increase confidence in the accounting practices and published financial figures.

All these steps were taken to ensure adequate checks and balances to detect and prevent frauds in the Indian corporate by bringing in transparency and accountability.

Answer : The government has tabled a bill to amend the Whistleblowers Protection Act of 2011 in the Lok Sabha, but if the bill is passed, there may not be many whistleblowers to protect in the future. The bill includes a long list of forbidding don’ts which the activists say are likely to dissuade anyone from blowing the lid off corruption in the government or bureaucracy. The proposed amendments to Whistleblowers act, 2011 aims to bring in many exemptions, rendering it a sword without sharpness.

Firstly, whistleblowers of any kind be it a public servant or a non-profit organizations or an individual, will be not allowed to reveal any information or document under the Official secrets act of 1923. Even under situations of corruption, misuse of power or criminal activities etc. a person will be refrained from disclosing any information or document. Information “expressly forbidden to be published by a court or tribunal” is also exempted. However, leaking of information obtained through a “fiduciary” association will also not be protected under the law. Finally, information that would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or state legislature, too, cannot be disclosed. Such proposed amendments have raised the eyebrows of the activists, who are of the opinion that these may dilute the provisions of the Whistleblowers act, 2011.

Secondly, whistleblowers will be granted protection only when they have stood the criteria of the exemptions such as revelation contrary to the provisions of the Officials secrets act 1923, information impacting unity and integrity of India etc. In addition to this, The Act could put in place specific mechanisms to ensure that sensitive information is not leaked to the public - such as making sure whistleblower complaints go straight to a judicial officer in a sealed envelope.

Thirdly, the act entails the provision of punishment in case of false complaints. This provision discourages the whistleblowers and it should be done away with. What is required is the establishment of act in first place, once it is established and widely used, and then caveats can be included that too after 10-15 years. Fourthly, identity revelation clause is also not in the interest of the whistleblower. So, if with such exemptions law is made, then there won’t be any whistleblowers and therefore no one to protect.

Answer : Recently some of the actions taken by the government appeared to be encroaching upon the autonomy of the institutions. Some such actions were proposed Indian Institute of Management bill, the controversy associated with the appointment at the post of director to the Film and television Institute of India, attempt to bring NJAC to appoint members to higher judiciary thereby government accused of interfering in the court’s appointment process (however the provision got struck down by the SC), appointment of the chairperson of the Indian council of Historical research, who according to the historians is not a professional and relies only on ancient religious books for historical references and reconstruction. Further a draft version of the Indian finance code proposes to limit the RBI’s veto in the monetary policy committee, which would severely dent the central bank’s competency, according to experts in the field.

If anyhow the institutional autonomy gets impacted then these institutions, which are entrusted with the responsibility of creating knowledge, regulating different sector of the Indian economy, ensuring justice, etc. may not work well. Therefore, the basic purpose for their respective births may get defeated.

Institutions are the mirror of the society. In this way they help the society to see what it had missed or refused to see. If they are not independent, than they may not reflect true picture leading to marred image, and thus self deceptions. In this case it will act as an obstacle in the path of correction and thus will impact the overall development. Further, unwarranted restraints are perceived to be ineffective in producing intellectual output. Freedom for academics and thinkers, artists, etc. is a must for the intellectual development which would take human beings to newer greater heights.

But, there should be checks and balanced to see excessive autonomy. Autonomy cannot be absolute in the government regulated institutions. The Universities, Cultural Bodies, Science Institutions etc. can’t be above social audit. Autonomy shouldn’t mean absence of checks and balances as in the recent case of IIMs the proposed bill rightly calls for limiting the over-sized boards filled entirely with corporate and accountability in appointments. Vested interests should be eliminated and only national, public interests should prevail.

So, need of the hour is to put in place a system of social audit (oversight mechanism) so that institutions be made more accountable to the public with whose money they have been nurtured all along. But this surveillance should not be mistaken as governance of institutions by the state thus interfering in their functioning.

Answer : Judicial Activism is use of judicial power, where in India’s, Supreme Court, interprets the laws and constitution for welfare of large section of society. Founding fathers of our constitution explicitly provided the rights of judiciial review to the judiciary to review laws under Article 13, if any law violates Fundamental Right is subject to null and void paved way for judicial activism in India in the name of judicial review under Article 32 and 226 and developed the doctrine of ‘Basic Structure’ in famous Keshwananda Bharati case in 1976.

Supreme Court under his review mechanism of laws on FRs in Eleven Bench Golak Nath case ruled that Part III of the Constitution of India are immutable and beyond the reach of amending procedure process. Thus, in Golak Nath case SC took away the power of Parliament to amend FRs.

In Keshwananda Bharati case, SC over ruled its previous judgement and stated that parliament has the power to amend the FRs under Article 368 but not to alter the Basic Structure of the constitution. It listed some features of Constitution as Basic features like secularism, separation of power, federal character and so on but not clearly defined what constitutes under Basic Structure doctrine.

With this Basic Structure doctrine Indian judiciary laid strong foundation for judicial activism in India with its power of interpretation of laws and constitutional provisions.

Role of Judiciary in achieving ideals of democracy

Judicial activism in recent times by judiciary is very much prominent with daily news headlines. India practices Constitutional democracy with high rate of misuse of political power by the power elite gives rise to judicial activism to better implement the ideals of Indian democracy.

There are many instances in India where Judiciary over acted in many landmark cases like in the Menaka Gandhi case in 1978, Supreme Court overruled its previous decision of due process of law clause provided in Indian Constitution by its interpretation with that of American Bill of Rights procedure followed while framing laws.

In M.C. Metha vs Union of India 2001 case SC has passed directions to Delhi government to phase out all diesel buses which causes environmental pollution with CNG gases in short stipulated time.

In Aruna Shaubng 2011, case it allowed passive euthanasia i.e. withdrawal of life support to a person who is in permanently vegetative state under Article 21.

And in recent times judiciary has intervened in various decisions like SEBI-Sahara issue, IPL betting, challenge to Section 377, electoral reform guidelines and direction to Election Commission seems judiciary is entering into all decision making authority in the country.

The Judicial intervention in all section of Governance is mainly because of Legislature and Executives inaction. Besides inefficiency along with improper functioning of parliamentary sessions in the recent past are another reaons for judicial interfence. Further, this has created a vacuum because of non-effective functioning of Indian democracy. In order to fill those vacuums judicial activism plays a major role in implementing the ideals of democracy in Indian society.

But for ideal democracy, the parliament should play a key role in implementing the democratical ideal and judiciary, as prescribed in constitution should function as interpreter of laws and legislations to act as checks and balances in Indian Constitutional set-up. Thus, judicial activism has almost touched all section of governance in India to do justice. But one thing judiciary must keep in mind is that while going overboard to do justice to masses it should not over step the limitations as prescribed in the Constitution.

Answer : Federalism constitutes a complex governmental mechanism for the governance of the country. In a way federal set up seeks to balance between the powers of center and state administrating in the country as a whole and in unit respectively. Indian constitution clearly states that India as a non destructible union making strong center with federal features of governance in India.

Founding fathers of Indian constitution decided to have a nation with strong center because India is a multi religious nation with improper distribution of wealth, high illiteracy rate, lack of economic development at the time of independence, hence, India cannot afford federalism as followed in the western country but it needed federalistic character to address the regional issues using federal mechanism.

Indian constitution has both the features of federal character and non federal features which made the political thinkers to debate on Indian polity, whether, it is federal or non federal. It can be broadly understood on following analysis under the broad topic of legislative relation, administrative set up, financial relation and finally during emergencies.

Legislative Relation: Indian constitution divide the legislative power between center and state broadly under three heads as union list, state list, and concurrent list in schedule 7. Center has legislative power under union list, state is empowered with state list and both center and state has legislative power in concurrent list, if there is any contradictory exist on law framed in concurrent list then center’s law prevails over state law. Residuary power rests with union government, to frame laws on state subject. Further, center has the power to implement if the international treaty or agreement on state subject (Article 253). Finally, Parliament can legislate on state subject when two or more state jointly request Rajya Sabha to frame laws on state subject. Thus, from the above constitutional provision in legislative relation clearly indicates that center has more legislative power than state.

Administrative Relation: The Indian constitution is based on the principle that executive power is coextensive with legislative power, means executive from union and state derives power from the legislative subject matters as discussed above. In the administrative set up, center may direct on issues related to military or national importance, protection of railways, maintenance of means and communication and with regards to SC/ST (Article 257).

Financial Relation: Both union and state have been provided with independent source of revenue. Parliament can levy taxes under union list and state legislature under state list. But for smooth functioning of state machinery the center’s grant is needed for successful implementation of schemes. For this, framers of our constitution established Finance Commission (Article 280) to distribute financial resources between center and states.

During emergencies: In case of national emergency center has complete control over state in all spheres of administrative and legislative power, making it completly a unitary form of government.

In case of state emergency, the concerned state administrative and legislative functions would come under the control of parliamentary and union executive. During financial emergencies, all financial relation comes under center’s control, where president is empowered to suspend division of taxes between center and states.

From the above analysis it is clear that Indian polity is provide for strong center with federal characters and at the same time in order to make federalism more participatory, concept of co-operative federalism (article 263), which empowers president to establish inter-state council and zonal council(statutory) to promote better center–state and inter-state relation.

Thus, it can be concluded by the quote K.C.Wheare, political analyst, described Indian federal character as “Quasi-federal”, it has federal features but not in the real federal principles. So, it is Indian kind of federal mechanism developed by our founding fathers to adopt Indian parliamentary democracy.

Answer : Articles 105 and 194 of our Constitution have granted some privileges to the Parliament and Assemblies respectively in order to perform their duties towards the people.

Freedom of speech in Parliament (under the provision of constitution and regulating procedure of Parliament)

No member of Parliament shall be liable to any proceeding in any court

Other power, privileges and immunities may be defined by parliament by law

The founding fathers believed that without such privileges, the members of the legislatures would face various problems in performing their duties and, hence, these two Articles were inserted in the Constitution. Thus, clause (1) of Articles (105 and 194) has guaranteed that, subject to the standing order and rules of the legislature, they would enjoy freedom of speech. Secondly, under clause (2), they can enjoy freedom of vote in the divisions and that of publication of articles in any journal published by or on behalf of the House.

But, as the makers were preparing a Constitution of ‘elephantine size’, they had little time and less energy to engraft a detailed list of such privileges. So, by clause (3), they empowered the legislators to codify other privileges by law.

The provisions under article 105 and 194 and rules of parliamentary under MP privileges and immunities are not subject to interpretation of court and it is under the discretion of speaker. If these privileges and immunities are codified under legislation then it comes under judicial review under Article 13. If any law violates Fundamental Right it is subject to null and void. There are some privileges like freedom of speech, not to arrest during parliamentary proceedings which are enjoyed by MPs are of FRs in nature.

Further, if these privileges and immunities are made into legislation then parliamentarians are bound to follow these laws, if not they are subjected to litigation under judiciary if they breach any provisions of the law. So, Indian politicians (legislators) are deliberately avoiding in framing laws on Parliamentary privileges and immunities even after 67 years of independence.

However, there is only one solution to this crucial problem. As clause (3) of Articles 105 and 194 indicate, the makers of the Constitution expected that our legislators would, within a reasonable time, formulate and codify their privileges. So, it is their duty to codify all other privileges by law. Of course, in such a case, some of the codified privileges may be invalidated by the superior courts, because a law cannot, under Art. 13 (2) take away or abridge a right. But the rest of the list will prevail and people would respect them as statutory laws. But, in no way, can a legislature be turned into a law court and the Speaker cannot, by any means, have a punitive power over others. But our legislators have not done so in order to keep up their privileges perpetually over the Fundamental Rights of individuals whom they are supposed to represent.

Answer : Freedom of speech is the most basic of all freedoms guaranteed to citizens of India, without which there won’t be any free political discussion, freely express ones idea or thought through different medium of expression like art, painting, literature and any other visual and audio medium. This freedom of speech not only guarantees oneself to express his views and opinions, it also guarantees individual not to express. Supreme Court of India under its role of judicial interpretation haveexpressed many-a-times that silence is also a form of expression.

In the Constitution under Article 19(1)(a) freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed as a fundamental right. But this form of expression is not absolute freedom there are some restrictions imposed under Article 19(2) which says such form of expression is restricted by law on the ground if it affects

• Security, sovereignty and integrity of India
• Friendly relations with foreign states
• Public order or defamation
• Decency or morality
• Contempt of Court
• Incitement to offence

Hate Speech: Hate speech is defined as any form of expression designed to promote hatred on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity or national origin, the issue of hate speech creates complex problems in contemporary constitutional rights to freedom of expression. In the Indian context the hate speech is more referred to any speech that intends to promote hatred or violence between Indian religious communities.

In its judicial interpretation on Fundamental Rights Supreme Court ruled in A.K Gopalan case in 1950 cited restriction imposed on under Article 19(2) for freedom of speech is justified on the utilitarian ground, some form of restriction is necessary so that others may also enjoy their liberties.

Further, on hate speech Supreme Court ruled in Gopal Vinayak Godse (book author) case in 1969, that Indian Constitution has guaranteed right to religion under Articles 25-28. Here Freedom of speech is interpreted along with religious rights, so no one should not disturb the harmony of nation in the name of hate speech. Thus hate speech is restricted under Article 19(2).

Films as form of Expression: Films is also another form of expression, here expression is in the form of motion picture format. But often such kind of expression is facing range of agitations to ban the movie even without screening, without knowing creators motto and his expression of opinion in the film, starting from Davinci code to latest Vishwaroopam states that it is not seen same as other form of expression.

In general form of expression let it be speech, written or art form it clearly projects one’s opinion directly, on the contrary films need to by-pass Censor Board under the Cinematography Act, 1952 where range of movies banned and edited because of censor experts, quoting that it would affect the national harmony without giving the viewers to have their opinion on the movie, in a way it is against freedom of expression since right to viewership is also a form of freedom of expression. Supreme Court in many cases from Menaka Gandhi to Ranga Rajan case rule that ‘Free debate’ and ‘open discussion’ are form of expression without which democracy has no value. With the advancement of technology there are numerous way to reach the viewers, banning the movie is not right form of restriction.

It can be concluded with the recent Supreme Court ruling on litigation filed by petitioner on banning the film “PK” for its obscene poster, Judges ruled that society is more matured and masses are very much aware of what is good and bad, and above all they know it’s just a movie. Thus in a democratic set-up films are seen different from other form of expression in one way or other.

Answer : The power to pardon is one of the powers which have been conferred on the executive. Article 72 confers this power on the President and Article 161 does the same on the Governor. The pardoning power of Executive is very significant as it corrects the errors of judiciary. It eliminates the effect of conviction without addressing the defendant’s guilt or innocence. The process of granting pardon is simpler but because of the lethargy of the government and political considerations, disposal of mercy petitions is delayed.

Debate on President’s delay in granting pardon: From 1997 to 2007, just one mercy petition was decided by executive and from 2007 to 2013, 40 mercy petitions were cleared by President and 20 were rejected. This has raised the public debate on granting pardon with no prescribed time limit and making death sentence convict to have tantamount torture and inhuman form of punishment.

Supreme Court in Shatrughan Chauhan case observed that keeping convict in suspense for many years in the name of consideration by President creates adverse effect on physical and psychological condition of death sentence convict. While Supreme Court interpreted considering of Clemency petition by interpreting Article 21 of Constitution, stated that it cannot excuse the agonizing delay in clearing clemency petition.

The next range of debate raised out of delay in accepting/rejecting the pardoning of death sentence by President is that, making death sentence convict waiting for long years for his clemency petition can be treated as a ground for commuting his/her death sentence to life term imprisonment or other form of commutation is issue raised by Human rights observers and legal expertise.

Finally, the experts opine that making delay in accepting the clemency petition of death sentence convict itself is biggest torture than death sentence where he/she suffers psychologically on daily basis. So, why India shouldn’t abolish the death sentence as many countries already abolished the death sentence from their statutory books.

Debate on Time Limit for granting pardon: The next arena of debate in President power of granting pardon is that can we have time limit for accepting/rejecting the mercy petition. Here there are two contradictory stand points was ruled by Supreme Court in different cases.

First, Supreme Court has observed that delaying the pardoning petition is against the basic Fundamental Right guaranteed under Article 21 affecting individual psycho. This creates unnecessary harm to the death sentence convict, hence there should be time frame during which President has to givehis decision on clemency petition.

Second, Supreme Court in another case opined differently on time limit for granting pardon, stating that time taken by the executive for disposal of petition may depend upon the nature of case and scope of enquiry to be made. So it ruled that court cannot prescribe time limit for disposal of mercy petition. The major reason for delay in granting the pardon is that executive action on re-examining the mercy petition and the procedure followed in accepting/rejecting the petition is causing an undue delay in pardoning of death sentence convict. So, in order granting pardon the executive procedure should be streamlined as it decreases time delay for granting pardon. Further, executive machinery needs to be proactive in clemency petition on humanitarian grounds.

Granting pardon is judiciary power of President, so by delaying the petition it denies justice to death sentence convict and by limiting it to time frame may lead to “hurried justice is buried justice”. Hence there should be certain framework needed in granting pardon to death sentence convict on humanitarian ground in future, which rests on the executive’s decision and implementation. Therefore, there is an urgent need to make amendment in law of pardoning to make sure that clemency petitions are disposed quickly.

Answer : Discusssion on Size of Cabinet: India’s first PM headed with a cabinet of total 17 ministers and previous Manmohan Singh government had a ministry size 70. So there is no concrete evidence that more ministries would lead for good governance of nation.

In India the size of cabinet is not driven on the basis of work and governance of nation, it is more driven by the coalition politics and allocation of portfolios to their supporting political parties.

The size of cabinet should be determined by the PM and should be on the basis of the portfolio functioning. PM is “First among the equals” and he also plays the role of aid and advice to President. In India PM is empowered to determine the cabinet size depending upon his/her leadership quality, if necessary PM can integrate various ministries to form single portfolio and direct those ministeries for efficient functioning of government agencies.

Thus, size of cabinet should be determined on the basis of effective functioning of government, not on the basis of political promises or coalition politics. It is not only size of cabinet that determines the effective governance, it is determined on the basis of their functioning capability of head of the portfolios and above all PM of India should have complete command over his cabinet colleagues for leading India in a development oriented path.

Discussion on Efficiency vs Size of Cabinet: It is said that minimum government (small cabinet) may lead to maximum governance and big cabinet affects the efficiency of governance but in reality both form of cabinet has certain advantages and disadvantages.

Merits of Small cabinet:

• It offers more concentrated governance mechanism from PM’s perspective, where he/she can monitor the small group effectively as compared to big cabinet.
• Small Cabinet offers quick decision making process by PM in less time with his small cabinet that improves accountability of government.
• By having small cabinet there may also some unnecessary expenditure from public exchequer.

Demerits of Small cabinet:

• It gives more workload to cabinet personnel where he/she has to take more responsibility by administering more portfolios.
• It lacks concentration of ministry personnel as more portfolios clubbed together because of this certain departments efficiency may gets decrease.
• By reducing the size of Cabinet, certain portfolios may get eliminated.

The above mentioned merits and demerits of small cabinet gets reversed for big cabinet, where disadvantages of small cabinet become advantages of big cabinet and vice versa in demerits of big cabinet (merits of small cabinet).

Thus, Indian cabinet size has ranged from as small as 17 members to 78 member cabinet in previous years. Hence, for better governance of nation it is not about the size of the cabinet rather visionary leader and real head of the government i.e. PM should actively lead the cabinet for better governance of country.

Answer : Recently government announced that it is planning to increase FDI limit in news media from the current FDI limit of 26%, where Government already announced 100% FDI in non news media broadcasting. This announcement of government has raised a debate over news broadcasting personalities and experts. Here, in the following discussion, evaluation of merits and demerits of increase in FDI limit on news media is examined.

Merits of Increased FDI in News Media

• If there is increase in FDI it would bring more funds in modernizing the news media to the international standard. Where, the current shortage of funds affects the news channel in gatheringhonest report of quality news.
• By way of increasing FDI it would bring more foreign players in domestic players infusing more competitive atmosphere and by this regional players were forced to improve their quality and standard.
• Increased FDI limit in the news channel would also help in curving the paid news getting reported on news channel, currently news channel are publishing these paid news for funds which affects the ethics of news broadcasting and publishing.

Demerits of Increased FDI in News Media

• Currently in news media FDI is allowed upto 26%, if there is increase in any limit it should not beyond 49% are else it would make Indian news media and the ownership of foreign nationals.
• If there is FDI limit beyond 49% it would make news media very sensitive, it may also have adverse effect on security and integrity of India.
• By way of increasing FDI limit in news media it also affects the local news channels reporting to the public, where the foreign giants will subsume the local dwarfs easily by way of marketing and advertisement strategy in popularizing their channel.
• If foreign nationals are involved Indian news media report they may be biased to their national’s interest in news reporting, it may have contradictory opinion among general masses on Indian policymakers and their function.

So, it can be concluded that there should be increase in FDI limit to news media with some regulatory frame work and policies like head of news publishing channels should be an Indian, restricting FDI limits beyond 49% and news reporting and analysis personality should be Indian in nature, then there won’t be any discrepancy in news reporting and analyzing.

Answer : Rail Tariff Authority (RTA) was initially proposed in the 2012-13 Budget for transparency in fare decision. The proposed RTA would advise the government fixing of fares and freight. At present, determinations of rail tariff were done by Railway Board and it is not in a transparent manner make users unaware about the reasons and criteria behind the tariff structure in Indian Railways.

The proposed RTA would not only consider requirement of railways but also engage with all stake holders to usher in a new pricing regime through transparent manner. The proposed RTA is expected to lead era of rationalization fares and freight structures for improving fare-freight ratio and gradually bring down cross subsidization between different segments. In a way, RTA would help in financial health of railways and minimize volatility of market conditions.

Experience of Power Sector: Power sector in India has been mired with contradictory rules and rampant corruption before the induction of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to regulate the power tariff and take necessary regulatory activities after considering all the stake holders involved in the power sector to function in a transparent manner in fulfilling the energy demands.

CERC plays an active role in determining the power tariff norms for central generation and transmission utilities. As a regulatory body it governs all areas of power sector, recently in Tata power generation it allowed to hike the power tariff to certain extent but without affecting the consumers. Since, CERC’s primary role is to make power available at an affordable cost.

RTA on private container carrier: With only 3% revenue share on Indian railways, private container traffic are subjected to frequent rate hikes, and increase of input cost of container operators have hiked up transition cost of import and export and it also affect the domestic rate.

With the proposed RTA, private container players expect level playing field along with the mighty Indian Railways, as CERC doing in the power sector considering government, private players and consumers.

RTA on Indian Railways: Rail Tariff Authority is expected to tackle the distortion between Indian railway’s freight and passengers activities by delinking the process of passenger fare increase from political decision making and bringing it into line with market realities, this would positively impact on Indian railways finances.

In order to achieve enhanced financial viability and improved operating efficiency in Indian Railways, there is need of some form of competition from private players. For this there is need of RTA as a regulatory body to take care of proper functioning Indian railways in efficient manner.

RTA on Consumers: RTA places a crucial rule in fixation of consumer’s charges in the Indian railways. Further, it is expected to implement provision for tariff setting in order to improve safety and quality of rail services.

Thus, the proposed RTA would positively impact on all stake holders ranging from consumers, private container carrier to Indian Railways on the whole, as CERC done in power sector after the reform was initiated in 1998 to regulate the power tariff and to remove the role of political body in determining the tariff by the expert panel on fixing tariff and other regulatory function in power domain. Hope, the proposed RTA would function in the line of CERC to make Indian Railways more competitive, highly effective and with transparent tariff framing body.

Answer : Human Rights Commission is an autonomous Public body responsible for protection and promotion of Human Rights related to life, liberty, equality and dignity as enshrined in constitution. It is a quasi-judicial body, has the power to direct the government agencies and personnel if there is any violation of human rights to individual or society as whole.

Even after 67 years of independence there still exists violation of human rights in various cross-section of Indian society. Human Rights violations are taking place against women, children, Dalit, Tribal communities, religious minorities, person with disabilities and other section of society in one form or other. The most important reason for such violation is because of lack of efficient government machinery with trained public officials in stopping discriminating activities.

Though India took many proactive steps and following welfare state model, still it follows colonial approach of police and bureaucracy to exhibit their power to control the citizens. Most of the human rights violations are occurring because of such powers of governance like police brutality, torture, extra judiciary killing (encounter), ill-treatment of prisoners, custodial death and other social issues like sexual violence, terrorism, migrant rights issue and so on.

Over the years Judiciary has been playing a proactive role as a custodian of human rights through its public interest litigation and judicial activism by directing government and also expanded the scope of human rights using the judicial review tool under Fundamental Rights guaranteed in constitution. In a way, judiciary acted as custodian to human rights and to decrease human rights violation through its judgements and decrees.

In order to achieve the aim of NHRC on promoting and protecting human rights, it cannot be done alone, where NHRC statutory power gives HRC quasi-judicial status, means it can issue direction and orders like judiciary but these decision are not binding in nature it is only recommending body. Such recommendations of the NHRC are not completely followed by the concerned government agencies and private players where NHRC didn’t provided enough teeth to curb the human rights violations.

To reduce the human rights violations the institutions like police, bureaucracy, community should all work together along with this there is need of change in nature and quality of national legislations, policies and enforcement mechanism to guarantee liberty and dignity to citizens to achieve the aspirations of founding fathers of our constitution to have complete freedom with no violence and discrimination in India to make India as an ideal democracy in the world.

Answer : The Cadre based Service common form of personnel organization in government, in India it is because of colonial legacy with its administrative set-up from low level services of general administrator to higher authority along with technical cadres (engineers and doctors).

Such cadre based civil services organization make not only guaranteed professional career to administrators but also provide proper channel for climbing up in the ladder for higher position. These top level administrators with fixed period of service tenure and secured salary make nation’s progress slow because of administrator’s inefficiency and lack of domain experience along with organizational set-up based on cadre.

Hence, the question raised by political thinkers and experts, with such advancement of technology, knowledge and quality domain expertise exists in nation, is there still need of such cadre based civil services organization in India, where nation is thriving for development and economic progress.

In order to achieve the development agenda there is urgent need to relook the cadre based generalist Civil Services, since, most of the top administrative official lack the domain knowledge, say for example, how come Health Secretary can address the problems and issues involved in the health sector without having much knowledge and experience on health and its allied sector functioning under him. If there would been health professional (doctor or equivalent) he/she would have sufficient knowledge to address the issue by understanding the nature of problem before him.

Though it is difficult to have a sea change in the cadre based services but executive may take stringent action in implementing the recruitment based on specialist (Economist, Scientist, Doctor, Engineer, Statistician etc.) in their respective domain with proper training to adopt the organizational set-up and by providing proper salary to them.

If this can be achieved in near future it would bring more professionalism and also bring the required knowledge to civil Services. Recently, Government started giving importance to specialist than generalist, which is visible from the appointment of RBI Governor and expert in national Security advisor. Thus, it can be concluded, because of our age old cadre based Civil Services organization is one of the causes for slow nation growth. So, we need to address such organizational set-up with the growing demands of nation by bringing more professional expertise to share their knowledge and vision for nation’s progress.

Answer : Since independence government has initiated several identification programmes for citizens like ration card, voter ID, PAN card and passport. In order to streamline the identity of citizens and duplication government has introduced unique ID for residents under Aadhaar scheme in 2006 and National Population Register (NPR) under Citizenship Act, 1955 got amended in 2004 and made compulsory for every citizen of India to register under NPR. Since, NPR and Aadhaar introduced there is nationwide debate why two identification schemes with similar motto has become a subject matter among political analysts.

NPR is legally recognized, in contrast Aadhaar lack legal sanctity since it didn’t have statutory guarantee. But Aaadhar is widely recognized as a ‘proof of identity’ by most government institutions like RBI, SEBI, IRDA and PFRDA and other state and central government bodies. On the contrary NPR has limited acceptable in government bodies.

Both NPR and Aadhaar follow similar enrollment procedure like using biometric to provide Unique ID to residents of India. Hence both schemes follow same pattern of procedure one with legal sanctity and other without it. Instead of having two similar schemes, there can be single identification scheme of resident is well enough is an argument developed by experts. Because of two parallel run schemes it creates chaos in masses at one point of time government announces Aadhaar ID is necessary and in other point of time it asks general public to get registered under NPR is mandatory for certain schemes and policies.

So, instead of two parallel schemes either NPR or Aadhaar is sufficient for identification of residents. Recently, Policy makers are also expressed same opinion and they are planning to merge NPR and Aadhaar to single entity for identification of residents.

Aadhaar and NPR on equitable growth and development: This identification scheme has the potential to enable several mainstream applications that are essential for social and economic development of the country.

• In the health–care sector, Aadhaar/NPR can facilitate creation of digitized medical records. This can, in turn, facilitate electronic/mobile health applications that can cater to the needs of different segments of the population.
• In the education and skilling sector, Aadhaar/NPR–based records on educational and vocational courses that an individual takes has the potential to impact the entire value chain by smoothening the enrolment process by digitizing certificates and reducing frauds due to duplication.
• In the energy sector, Aadhaar/NPR can be used to create and foster ‘energy consciousness’ in individuals. By tracking energy consumption across time at the individual/household level, systems and processes can be developed to incentivize ‘energy conscious’ behavior

Further, Aadhaar/NPR can also facilitate development of some next generation applications to enhance productivity of operations and reduce transaction costs for organizations.

• Aadhaar/NPR can fundamentally improve the supply chain infrastructure, especially for small– and medium–sized chains, by identification and tracking of its supplier firms with fragmented sourcing and distribution and distributor network.
• On electronic and mobile payments, Aadhaar/NPR can influence rural distribution infrastructure by providing alternate business models as well as enhance the e/m– commerce experience and provide an impetus to the already growing urban e/m–commerce story.
• Areas such as social welfare delivery where the application becomes the norm and the benefits are realized post individual authentication.
• Areas where the enrolment is registry based and is maintained with high levels of privacy and will need individual authentication to release each time over and above the registry.

Answer : Anti defection law was added to the constitution via Xth schedule through 52nd constitutional amendment act, 1985. Parliament can be effective only if individual MPs have a significant role as law makers, and if they can be held accountable for their actions by the electorates. In the last few years, we have seen the role of individual Members of Parliament diminish on account of the Anti-Defection Law.For example, when the issue of FDI in retail was voted upon, all MPs voted on party lines. It is difficult to believe that every Congress MP supported the move, or that every BJP MP opposed it, or that every MP of the BSP had no opinion on the issue and decided to abstain.

Two arguments are often made in support of the Anti-Defection Law. One argument is that this Law would ensure stability of the government in an environment where money power can be used to persuade individual MPs to bring down elected governments. The other argument is that MPs are elected on the party ticket. Voters have exercised their preference for a set of policies espoused by the party, and therefore, MPs should be bound by the decisions taken by the party.

Furthermore, the Anti-Defection Law removes the need for the government to build a broad consensus for its decisions.The ruling party can ensure the support of each of its MP by issuing a whip. If it needs to build further support to get a majority, it only needs to convince the leaders of other parties, and not individual MPs. In a sense, the role of an MP is diminished to just a person who has to follow orders from the party bosses. To that extent Anti-defection law can be held responsible. Also the general decline in the moral values in the society is a reason for not focusing on social issues.

Answer : Section 66A (a) refers to the sending of any information through a communication service that is ‘grossly offensive’ or has ‘menacing character’.

Section 66A curbs freedom of speech and expression and violates Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution. The expressions used in the Section are “vague” and “ambiguous” and that 66A is subject to “wanton abuse” in view of the subjective powers conferred on the police to interpret the law.

The Supreme Court has said that no person should be arrested for posting objectionable comments on social networking sites without taking prior permission from senior police officials. However, due limitations on fundamental rights have been already made explicitly in the constitution through Article 19 (2) which places reasonable restrictions on the ground of law and order, health and morality.

Answer : Article 371A facilitated negotiated sovereignty of the Nagas on matters pertaining to their religious and social practices, customary laws and procedure, administration of civil and criminal justice, ownership and transfer of land and resources, as the Nagaland Legislative Assembly can make any law of Parliament inapplicable by passing a resolution. Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, asked the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) to withdraw the Nagaland Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulation, 2012 (NPNGR) that it framed within the ambit of Article 371A. Drawing upon its special status, and after extensive legal consultation and advice, the NLA bypassed Entry 53 of List I of the Seventh Schedule and the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957 (MMRDA), which exclusively invests mines and minerals as the “occupied field” of the Union, while framing NPNGR in December 2012. It has since suspended all oil operations in the State. Subsequently, it invited “Expressions of Interest” (EoI) from companies to explore and exploit the 11 oil and gas fields it identified across 11 districts of the State early this year.

Answer : According to the Constitution, the role of the Supreme Court is guardian of Constitution & that of a federal court. Under article 32 any person can file a writ petition in case of violation of fundamental rights. S.C. can review any law passed by Parliament and declare it ultra-vires.

The current limitation on amendments comes from Kesavananda Bharati vs. The State of Kerala,where the Supreme Court ruled that amendments of the constitution must respect the “basic structure” of the constitution, and certain fundamental features of the constitution cannot be altered by amendment. Parliament attempted to remove this limitation by enacting the Forty-second Amendment, which declared, among other provisions, that “there shall be no limitation whatever on the constituent power of Parliament to amend ...this Constitution”. However, this change was itself later declared invalid by the Supreme Court in Minerva Mills vs. Union of India.

Answer : There is no denying that India needs smaller states. Some states are simply too unwieldy-due to large populations spread over huge areas-to be effective administratively. The question is how to reorganize these states in an effective and least partisan manner? It is not possible to avoid political considerations in the process as by its very nature the creation of new states is a political act. But at the very minimum concerns about administrative and financial viability of new states have to be addressed. There are three issues-one financial and the other two political-that need to be addressed carefully while forming new states.

First and foremost is the question of administrative and financial viability of the new states. Usually, when demands for statehood are made, there are equally strong claims about the viability of these states. In the case of Jharkhand, for example, it was claimed that abundance of mineral resources was enough to make the state prosperous. A decade later, the reality is different. Other issue is that there are strategic and national security issues in creating new states with ethnic majorities especially in border regions. And last is how to share natural resources. For example issue of river water sharing.

Second state reorganization commission can be appointed to consider these issues and then further decisions can be taken.

Answer : There is no denying that India needs smaller states. Some states are simply too unwieldy-due to large populations spread over huge areas-to be effective administratively. The question is how to reorganize these states in an effective and least partisan manner? It is not possible to avoid political considerations in the process as by its very nature the creation of new states is a political act. But at the very minimum concerns about administrative and financial viability of new states have to be addressed. There are three issues-one financial and the other two political-that need to be addressed carefully while forming new states.

First and foremost is the question of administrative and financial viability of the new states. Usually, when demands for statehood are made, there are equally strong claims about the viability of these states. In the case of Jharkhand, for example, it was claimed that abundance of mineral resources was enough to make the state prosperous. A decade later, the reality is different. Other issue is that there are strategic and national security issues in creating new states with ethnic majorities especially in border regions. And last is how to share natural resources. For example issue of river water sharing.

Second state reorganization commission can be appointed to consider these issues and then further decisions can be taken.

Answer : The recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission redefine the existing structure of fiscal federalism in the country, setting the stage for a different political dynamism by vesting greater powers with the third tier of government, the local bodies, both urban and rural. The commission has recommended that local self-government bodies be given a direct share in Union tax revenues, bypassing the state governments, and that the cut for urban local bodies be raised in tune with their population growth vis-à-vis rural bodies.

It also called for a 2.5% share of the divisible pool for local bodies in the form of grants, as the constitution does not allow the sharing of tax revenues with them. While 1.5% will be constant, 1% will be on the basis of performance.

Answer : The overlapping of products has been a bone of contention and have resulted as a “turf war” between two regulatory bodies like SEBI and IRDAas was seen in the case of ULIP (unit linked insurance plan). It strengthened the need of looking into diversification of financial products, unification of regulation and supervision of financial firms such as mutual funds, insurance companies, and a diverse array of firms which are not banks or payment providers, so as to yield consistent treatment in consumer protection and micro-prudential regulation across all of them. It would also deal with all financial firms other than banking and payments. It would yield benefits in terms of economies of scale in the financial system too. It was on this aspect when FSLRC (Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission) under B N Srikrishna was constituted. It recommended for:

• A unified regulatory authority (URA) comprising of 5 financial institution like SEBI, IRDA, PFRDA etc.
• Replacing various forms of financial products like circulars, notices, etc by a single mode.
• Creation of Debt management office.
• Constitution of FSDC (Financial Stability and Development Council)

Answer : A pressure group can be described as an organised group that does not put up candidates for election, but seeks to influence government policy or legislation. They can also be described as ‘interest groups’, ‘lobby groups’ or ‘protest groups’. Some people avoid using the term ‘pressure group’ as it can inadvertently be interpreted as meaning the groups use actual pressure to achieve their aims, which does not necessarily happen.

The aim of all pressure groups is to influence the people who actually have the power to make decisions. Pressure groups do not look for the power of political office for themselves, but do seek to influence the decisions made by those who do hold this political power. Pressure groups can be classified based on wide scale. A classification is of following types of pressure groups:

• Profession specific pressure groups, e.g. bar council, medical council that act on policies related to their profession
• Industry lobbying: such lobbying is legal in the USA but is illegal in India. Yet they survive as pseudo associations e.g. ficci, cii, individual industry / sector specific pressure groups
• Rise of NGOs and social Activist groups, e.g. sardar sarovar, safai karamchari association
• Groups that conduct surveys to add pressure based on their studies, eg. hungama, acer, green peace, which conduct studies and try to build pressure on the government to act via their results
• In certain situations there gets created Informal citizen groups: like Delhi rape which are highly issue specific and leaderless and mohalla associations

Pressure groups are a vital part of a healthy democracy. Indeed the sustained and rapid expansion of pressure group activity and involvement in the political process is often heralded as a sign of growing political involvement among many thousands of people. Various roles played by pressure groups include:

• Promote discussion and debate and mobilise public opinion on key issues
• Perform a role in educating citizens about specific issues
• Groups can enhance democratic participation, pluralism and diversity
• Groups raise and articulate issues that political parties perhaps won’t touch because of their sensitivity
• They provide an important access point for those seeking redress of grievance
• They represent minorities who cannot represent themselves
• Groups can be an important and valuable source of specialist information/expertise for an overloaded legislature and civil service
• Many groups play an important role in implementing changes to public policy “Pressure groups encourage a decentralization of power within the political system. They act as a check and balance to the power of executive government

Answer : The Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) do not fall within the subjects allocated to the Union Government in List I of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. However, they are funded by the Union Government to achieve certain national objectives. Actual expenditure under the CSS is incurred only when payment is made either to a beneficiary of the scheme or to the supplier of goods and services. However, due to the lack of a proper information system, the tracking of fund flow and correlation between the amount released and expenditure made could not be determined. Further, when funds are transferred directly to the implementing agencies in the States, it has to be done in advance which results in a substantial accumulation of funds in the pipeline.

Strengthening the federal system is necessary for meeting the aspirations of the people who are governed through State Governments and for preserving the unity of India. Therefore, Centre-State relations need to be reviewed. Some steps need to be taken are: Centre should allocate more revenue to the states; Innovations at the state level should be shared among others to aid development, and Centre-State institutions like National Development Council should be given more enforcement powers.

There is a need to work on cooperative federalism (which means that the centre and the states share a horizontal relationship and neither is above the other) to reach the goal of inclusive growth. Various recommendations have also been suggested by B K Chaturvedi committee such as to reduce CSS from 127 to 66 so as to have better implementation of programs and better monitoring.

Answer : Electronic cash transfer system aims at transferring cash into bank accounts of beneficiaries. The benefits are:

Firstly, the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme is aimed at cutting the bloated subsidy bill of government. India’s budget deficit was 5.8 per cent of gross domestic product in the financial year ending 31st March, 2012.

Secondly, unlike other welfare schemes launched so far by the Centre, DBT helps in timely and quick transfer to intended beneficiaries.

Thirdly, the transfer of direct cash into account of targeted beneficiary eliminates middlemen in various government sponsored welfare schemes and subsidized food, fuel and fertilizer schemes. Take for instance, it’s estimated that public offers can be richer by several crore yearly just by switching to cash handouts for LPG and kerosene, a proposed move that would also curb diversion of subsidised cylinders for commercial use and diesel adulteration with inexpensive kerosene. Bringing all subsidies under DBT’s ambit can be the major fiscal game-changer the economy needs very much.

Fourthly, the Direct Benefits Transfer scheme is likely to be simple and error free. On the basis of Aadhar cards money is deposited in beneficiaries’ accounts.

Fifthly, it is transparent, safe and not prone to leakages.

Sixthly, with the actual transfer of cash taking place with the help of micro automated teller machines (ATMs) it would infuse financial inclusion on a greater scale in rural India. Quoting a World Bank study the Reserve Bank of India last year in its annual report has said, in India only 35 per cent have formal accounts versus an average of 41 per cent in developing economies. With the implementation of DBT, it could fuel financial inclusion.

Answer : “Citizen’s Charter is a written, voluntary declaration by service providers that highlights the standards of service delivery that they must subscribe to, availability of choice for consumers, avenues for grievance redressal and other related information”.

Charter’s formulations are deficient on the following grounds:

1. In a majority of cases, the Charters were not formulated through a consultative process;
2. By and large, service providers were not “familiar with the philosophy, goals and main features of the Charter;
3. Adequate publicity to the Charters had not been given in any of the departments evaluated. In most departments, the Charters are only in the initial or middle stage of implementation;
4. No funds have been specifically earmarked for awareness generation of Citizen’s Charter or for orientation of the state on various components of the Charter.
5. Good Charters usually cover those services which can be standardized and having larger public interface. Charter can be for all or for selected few services. But whatever services selected under Charters necessarily is defined as to the quality, standard and cost effectiveness so that the consumer is aware of the improvement after the Charter’s initiative. But this aspect has not been given its due importance. The Charters cover all departmental services without any exception.Many Charters simply list out all the programmes in detail.

Answer : Lokpal and Corruption: Lokpal is a statutory mechanism intended to curb corrupt practices. While there is no question on efficacy of such an ombudsman, there is wide apprehension about corruption being wiped out. The reason behind such a statement is that “corruption is a moral misdeed”.

Corruption and Immorality: There are arguments to suggest that corruption may be an act of desperation in some cases. But by and large greed and misappropriated desires are the ultimate drivers of a corrupt act. Getting things that you are not entitled to is sheer immorality.

Lokpal, Public Affairs and Immorality: Laws can’t be perfect and mechanisms can’t be foolproof. What Lokpal does is apprehending the culprit once deed is done. What about those immoral impulses and desires that causes one to act as a corrupt? Without addressing the root cause Lokpal will only be catching fish that comes out of pond.

In order to enable the Lokpal to enhance effectiveness and to increase the trust the public has in the institution, it is essential for the Lokpal to establish mechanisms for effective interaction with the public in general and the private sector and the civil society in particular. Such association would also help better understanding of the environment, build checks and balances in its functioning, and prevent abuse of authority by investigating agencies by bringing them to the Lokpal’s notice.

Answer : Article 21 of the constitution explicitly guarantees right to life and personal liberty by saying that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. Supreme Court of India has expanded the horizons of this right to include right to life with human dignity which includes basic necessities of life like food, shelter, nutrition etc. Right to health, Right to education, Right to privacy and Right to pollution free environment also flow from the article 21 of the constitution as per Supreme Court of India's judgments in various cases.

Answer : Preamble of RTI act says that RTI is not a newly conferred right but a part of Fundamental Right to freedom of expression under article 19(1) of the constitution. It says that informed citizenry is necessary in a democracy to contain corruption and to hold governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed. However, it expresses concern that this may conflict with the public interests of efficient operations of the governments, preservation of the confidentiality of sensitive information and optimum use of limited resources. Finally it seeks to harmonise the benefits of informed citizenry and concerns of conflict with public interest in its operation.

Answer : A five-member committee headed by Dr V Mohini Giri in its final draft of National Policy on Senior Citizens 2011 to the Indian Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment recommended setting up of a National Council for Senior Citizens.The Council will be chaired by the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment and its members are the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, the oldest members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, representative of five state governments (one each from the north, south, east, west and the north-east regions) and one Union Territory by rotation, five representatives each from senior citizen's associations, pensioners' association, NGOs working for senior citizens and five senior citizens who have distinguished themselves in various fields.

The Council would advise the Union government and States on policies, programmes and legislative measures; promotion of physical and financial security, health and independent and productive living; and awareness generation and community mobilization.

Answer : Value of MLA Vote =

Total population of the State

Total number of elected members’ ×1000

Value of MP Vote =

Total value of all MLAs' votes

Total number of MPs

The value of MLA's vote changes from state to state but the value of MP's vote remains constant.

Answer : Fundamental duties were inserted in the constitution with the 42nd amendment act 1796 on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee. It was inserted into the constitution to make the Fundamental Rights more meaningful. The religious texts of the country also lay down duties in the form of commands. Failure to perform each duty is considered as sin for which there is punishment in another world. A close scrutiny of the clauses of Article 51A indicate that a number of these clauses basically refer to each values as have been a part of the Indian tradition, mythology, religion and practices. At this juncture of history, the nation realised an urgent need to re-emphasize these in a manner that would be acceptable to and be imbibed by all generations. To achieve these objectives it was essential to create public awareness of the need to appreciate and internalise the concept and practice of fundamental duties with particular emphasis on the necessity of creating a harmonious society with a scientific outlook free from tensions and turmoil’s.

The Supreme Court of India has in several cases relied on fundamental Duties to determine the duty of the state, and when necessary give directions or frame guidelines to achieve the purpose. This has been also done in several cases relating to preservation and conservation of environment, ecology, prevention of degeneration of forests, wildlife, flora and fauna etc. The court also observed that preservation of environment and maintenance of ecological balance are the responsibility not only of government but also the fundamental duty of every citizen. These fundamental duties have various characteristics. Some of them are moral duties while others are civic duties for instance, cherishing noble ideas of freedom, struggle, to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India, to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so are moral percept.

However, like the directive principles, the fundamental duties are non-justifiable and contribution also does not provide for their direct enforcement by the courts. Moreover, there is no legal sanction against their violation but the Parliament is free to enforce them by imitable legislation.

Answer : The Judicial powers of the president are provided in the Article 72 of the constitution. As per the Article 72, the president is empowered to grant pardon, reprieve, respite, remit, suspend and commute a sentence of convicted persons. The exercise of power is not a privilege, rather depends upon facts and circumstances of each case and necessity of the justification for exercising that power has to be judged from case to case. Article 72 of the constitution empowers the president to grant pardons to persons who have been tried and convicted for any offence in all cases where the punishment for an offence against a Union have, punishment or sentence by a Court martial (military court) and sentence of death. The pardoning power of the president is independent of the Judiciary and it is an executive power. But, the president while exercising this power does not sit as a court of appeal. The object of conferring this power on the president is of two fold (i) to keep the door open for correcting any judicial errors in the operation of law and (ii) to afford relief from a sentence which the president regards as unduly harsh. Justifying the vesting of this power in the president, the law commission in its 1967 report on capital punishment has said that there are many matters which may not have been considered by the courts and the hands of the courts are also tied down by the evidence placed before it. However, the president cannot be compelled to give a hearing to petitioner and the courts also cannot interfere with the decisions of the president on merits, whether the president has considered all relevant materials. Therefore SC ruled in Kehar Singh's case that no specific guidelines can be laid down with regard to Article 72 and hence discretion required. However, at the same time it also ruled that to check the executive arbitrariness in exercise of such power, the public consideration is of it most importance. Further in Maru Ram case and again in Kehar Singh case SC ruled that the judicial powers need to be exercised in accordance with the aid and advice of the council of ministers.

The Supreme Court has also examined the pardoning power of the president under different cases and said that exercise of power by the president is not subject to judicial review except where the presidential decision is arbitrary, irrational, malafide or discriminatory. The President can also examine the evidence afresh and take a view different from the view taken by the court. But this power is to be exercised by the president on the advice of the Union Cabinet.

Answer : Department-related Standing Committees: Parliamentary Standing Committees of the Houses (to be called the Standing Committees) are related to Ministries/Departments. Each of the Standing Committees shall be related to the Ministries/Departments as specified in the Third Schedule of constitution.

Each of the Standing Committees constituted under Rule 268 of lok Sabha consists of not more than 31 members, 10 members nominated by the Chairman from amongst the members of the Council, and 21 members nominated by the Speaker from amongst the members of the House.

Functions of Standing Committee

Each of the Standing Committees shall have the following functions, namely,

1. To consider the Demands for Grants of the related Ministries/Departments and report thereon. The report shall not suggest anything about the nature of cut motions;
2. To examine Bills, pertaining to the related Ministries/Departments, referred to the Committee by the Chairman or the Speaker, as the case may be, and report thereon;
   To consider the annual reports of the Ministries/Departments and report thereon; and
3. To consider national basic long term policy documents presented to the Houses, if referred to the Committee by the Chairman or the Speaker, as the case may be, and report thereon

Parliamentary Forum

Parliamentary Forum can effectively function as an informed action group in the policy making process. As representatives of people and as policy and decision makers overseeing government functions, parliamentarians are in a unique position to engage with policy making. Theme based Forums provide Parliamentarians, cutting across party lines, a common platform to come together and discuss the different views and concerns and engage with experts and civil society groups and consequently bring convergent knowledge to influence the policy making process. The Forum Secretariat can provide access to adequate information on issues and necessary assistance to carry out important parliamentary functions, which will greatly benefit the Members of Parliament.

Objectives include, creating a platform for MPs to exchange views and information with civil society groups and experts and to provide assistance to Forum Members in raising issues and concerns in the Parliament.

Answer : Arab Spring is the name given to the pro-democracy movement in the Western and North African nations. The economic causes were: youth unemployment, high levels of poverty, impact of global financial crisis, widening gulf between rich and poor, and likewise.

Political causes: autocratic regime and tribocracy, increasing intervention of major powers to acquire the strategic resources, the civil unrests, high level of corruption, and likewise.

Hindrances: the existing fault lines like Shia-Sunni tension, tribal conflicts, no creditable alternative and lack of effective central leadership are prominent.

In fact the movement which started due to existence of internal force without external interference has become a hot bed for the major powers to acquire larger share and the threats of another Afghanistan or Iraq looms large.

Demographics, technology, foreign policy, legitimacy of the state, torture, corruption and other factors all played a part in bringing discontented people out on the streets. When interpreting something like the Egyptian upheaval, people tend to project their own passions on to the screen. Some see a social media revolution, the foodies sea food price hikes at its core, others see a hunger for democratisation, human rights groups see a backlash against routine torture and abuse. But all played a part in bringing discontented Egyptians out on the streets. First, consider the demographics: an explosive mix of high population growth, leading to a "youth bulge", combined with urbanisation, jobless growth partly linked to structural adjustment, and the rapid expansion of university education has produced the graduate with no future". Two-thirds of Egyptians are under 30, and each year 700,000 new graduates chase 200,000 new jobs.

Then there's the technology, social media have clearly played an important part.

But various other events brought deeper rumblings to the surface. The most celebrated event of the protests (other than the overthrow of two presidents and counting) was of course the sacrifice of Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor whose self immolation sparked Tunisia's Jasmine revolution and the ensuing domino effect across the Arab world. Others include the impact of the WikiLeaks revelations that US diplomats saw Tunisia as a "mafia state" run by President Ben Ali and his hated wife, Leila Trabelsi - did that weaken elite support for Ben Ali? And how did all these factors interact? What were the pathways and dynamics of change?

The most striking aspect is path dependency-how a sequence of events and actions were able to overcome the deep-rooted (and well-justified) fear of potential protesters, getting enough people onto the streets to give them a degree of immunity. In Egypt, small groups put on simultaneous "flash mob" demonstrations in numerous locations, out maneuvering the security forces in a new kind of urban, social media-driven guerilla protest. Finally, protesters used humour - a weapon that always seems to baffle autocrats.

Answer : As part of its e-governance initiative, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has introduced the system of online submission of applications for the competitive examinations it conducts. Although this facility is in addition to the option of submitting paper applications.

Answer : The 106th Constitution Amendment Bill, 2006 and 111th Constitution Amendment Bill, 2009 specify provisions regarding empowering Cooperative Societies by preventing unnecessary interference by states.

The salient features of the Bills are:-

• The Bills propose to insert a new part IX B (the Cooperative Societies) in the Constitution and adding Articles 243ZH through 243ZT providing for incorporation, regulation and winding up of co-operative societies.
• The Bills propose inserting article 43B in Part-IV of the Constitution which says that the “State shall endeavour to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management of co-operative societies.”
• The Bills specify provisions for maximum number of Board members and their tenure. It provides that the directors in the cooperative societies will also include two women and one Scheduled Caste representatives.
• The Bills also provide for an independent body in each state, on the lines of the State Election Commission, which oversees election to local bodies and panchayats, for free and fair elections in cooperative societies. It ensures that co-operatives are not dissolved with change of government in any state.
• They provide audit of Cooperative Societies by independent auditors or Auditing firms out of the panel approved by State Government.

Answer : Under Article 102 of the Constitution a person is disqualified to be a Member of Parliament:-

• If he holds any office of profit under the government other than an office declared by the Parliament by law not to disqualify its holder;
• If he is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court;
• Is an undischarged insolvent;
• Has ceased to be a citizen of India;
• Is disqualified by any law made by Parliament; and
• Isdisqualified on the ground of defection;

Besides these constitutional provisions Representation of People Act, 1951, also provides certain grounds of disqualification for Member of Parliament.

• Person convicted for promoting enmity between different groups,
• Person convicted for the offence of bribery,
• Person punished for preaching and practising social crimes such as untouchability, dowry and sati;
• Person convicted for any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than 2 years stands disqualified for a period of 5 years after his release.
• Government servant dismissed for corruption or for disloyalty to the State is disqualified for a period of 5 years from the date of his release.

Answer : The Rajya Sabha is empowered under the Article 249, to declare by a resolution, supported by not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting that the Parliament should make laws with respect to any matter given in the State list. This kind of resolution remains in force for a specified period, not exceeding one year. According to Article 312, the Rajya Sabha, declares by resolution, supported by two-thirds of the members present and voting, that in the national interest, it is necessary that the Parliament should create one or more All India Services, including All India Judicial Services, common to the Union and the States, and also to regulate the recruitment and conditions of the service of persons appointed to such services.

Answer : The general election held in the month of April '09 has broken many judgments about the voting pattern in India that were by default considered as acceptable truths.

With the new and detailed psychological studies done by Center for Developmental Studies (CDS) has brought to light the fact, with a renewed sense of proofs that though hinterlands of India is uneducated but surely it is literate in the matters of democracy. Of late, it has made itself liberated from the suffocating tethers of caste based ghettoic politics of retribution. The masses want development and positive intervention of the government. One more thing that is evident is that now a politician cannot dole out rustic sense of false belongingness towards masses without any 'walk the talks' attitude. Anti-incumbency as the accepted truth has also been proved wrong to some extent. It is also evident from the voting pattern that the naxal infected and disturbed areas are coming out in large numbers to vote rather than the cocooned masses of the urban metros where the voting percentage has been consistently reducing.

Answer : "Corruption is cancer that eventually destroys its own existence". In this context India is badly plagued by this disease. Society in a way has started to appraise success on the parameters of the materialistic gains. So, in the present times corruption has become an accepted fact that is not looked in a disparaging way. Resultantly, rampant growth of spillage in the context of government programmes has become a norm. The Corporate sector has always been benefiting from the obnoxious nature of the regulatory laws and tax evasion has also become de-facto truth of the white-collar society. Tax evasion reduces the capability of the government to help the "haves-not" of the society. There is so much spillage in the grant programmes of the government that for every rupee spent only eleven paisa goes into the hands of the deserving. Corruption not only poses a fatal challenge to the development of India, it is rampantly degrading the next generation also.

Answer : The Apex recruitment agency of Union Government, UPSC has been successful in its functioning of assigned duties for the past 50 years. With its independenceand autonomous powers it has effectively functioned in the areas of recruitment to services and posts of Union government, advising on recruitment policy and disciplinary action, advising on suitability, transfer, promotion etc.,

There exists some limitation on the functioning of UPSC;

It cannot recruit staff for Scientific and research organizations like CSIR, IARI, ISRO etc, this is a handicap on the part of UPSC which with its strong recruitment machinery and integrity, can recruit qualified individuals. Thus it must be allowed to conduct recruitment for scientific organizations provided with scientific advisors to aid its functions.

The Prevalence of Secrecy on the part of UPSC hinders its reputation that must be changed in the context of information driven governance system and transparency in the functioning.

The Report of UPSC to the government must be provided with mandatory acceptance that will give strength to extensive role of UPSC in Recruitment.

The UPSC must be consulted by state governments while appointing the Chairmen and members that will reinforce the integrity of state public service commission which are facing severe political interference.

Though the expansion of functions of UPSC is burdensome, that can be solved equipping the personnel system and administration. The neutral and upright organization must be utilized to provide effective and efficient civil service that will reorient the system of recruitment in all areas catering to the needs of society.

Answer : The form of government introduced by our constitution at the Union and the State is the Parliamentary government. According to this, policy making is done by legislature, implementation is taken care by executive and judiciary is responsible for reviewing and also acts as guardian of constitution.

The concept of Judicial Activism is relatively new and judiciary is very active in all respect. Judicial activism means judiciary is taking active part where ever legislature is failing. The concept of judicial activism can be seen to be reflecting from the following trends namely.

• Expansion of rights of hearing in the administrative process
• Excessive delegation without limitation
• Expansion of judicial control over discretionary power.
• Expansion of judicial review over the administration
• Promotion of open government and etc.

Judicial activism did not visit the High Courts and the Supreme Court for the first three decades of independence, after the end of Emergency, both SC and HC started showing the signs of judicial activism. They began to intervene in executive as well as legislative areas albeit cautiously. The first major case of judicial activism through social action litigation was the Bihar under-trials case.

• Then, the SC began to take cognizance of custody deaths, bride burning and rape in police stations. It ordered that no women can be taken to a police station after dusk.
• The entry of court into hitherto a chartered areas specially into the developmental areas has changed the dynamics of governance. Recently, Public interest Litigation has become a new power of judicial initiatives in new fields traditionally marked out as legislature and executive.
• The coverage of PIL has become vast. They include civil and political rights-to a speedy trial, release of bonded labour, conditions of detention, and economic and social issues, livelihood, primary education, environment pollution.
• The Indian Supreme Court has cited the constitutional imperative of a welfare state as the cause of its PIL interventions. The duty of the court is not only to protect the constitution by nullifying unconstitutional acts but further to advance and achieve constitutional intent.
• Judicial Activism counters the traditional concept that judiciary is a mere umpire’s it, on the contrary, should work as an active catalyst in the Constitutional scheme. It has to be an arm of social revolution.

Answer : The Indian federation has been established as ‘union of states’ by the Indian constitution. The spirit of cooperative federalism runs as the central thread in the aspects dealing with federal polity. The federal polity is affected by not just constitutional articles but also many other aspects. The rise of extra- constitutional factors like Planning Commission as the central planning body, National Integration Council, Zonal Council, National Development Council and along with this there is rise of regional parties and regionalization of national parties has affected the political angle.

• The Planning Commission is responsible for the national planning. It is an extra constitutional body but leaning much towards the centre. Its planning are to be passed by NDC, which also sometimes takes bias decisions towards central policies.
• Zonal Councils provides a forum where irritants between Centre and States and amongst States can be resolved through free and frank discussions and consultations.
• The National Integration Council (NIC) in India that looks for ways to address the problems of communalism, casteism and regionalism.
• Rise of regional parties in different parts of Indian Territory have always tried to draw more and more benefits from the centre, instead of understanding and accepting proportionality.
• Central Government tries to give positive biasness to the regional power where its own party or ally has formed Governments. On the other hand, the states which have governments of a political party different for or opposite to the central Governmental party have to bear bias policies of the centre.
• The states have to depend for more financial assistance upon the centre. Here also political affinity plays a role.

All these are the factors responsible which influence the working of federal Policy in India. Thus we can say that many factors other than conventions, constitutional articles have had their effects on federal nature of governments.

Answer : The 42nd Amendment Act introduced Article 51A, in the Constitution and incorporated a set of Fundamental Duties of citizens in a separate part added to chapter IV. This prescribed for the first time, ten Fundamental Duties, to be followed by the Indian citizens. They are as follows.

• To abide by the constitution and respect the National Flag and the National Anthem.
• To cherish and follow the noble ideas which inspired our national struggle for freedom.
• To uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
• To defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so.
• To promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities, to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of the women.
• To value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture.
• To protect and improve the natural environment including to rests, lakes, rivers and wild life and to have compassion for living creatures.
• To develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.
• To safeguard public property and abjure violence.
• To strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.

Answer : India opted for federal structure of the government, after independence. This federalism has bought about political unity but emotional unity is yet to be achieved. India is a country of multidimensional culture with distinct socio-cultural aspect. In every region there is atmosphere of imbalances in economic growth of all part or regions. The intense regional inequalities are reflected by the differences in per capita incomes of various states.

People in different states are realizing their backwardness because of being neglected in matters of education and job opportunities in carrying on development activities in their region in the allocation of central funds and grants. The bifurcation and creation of states on the basis of language has added much strength to regionalistic tendencies. With the rise of regional political parties in different states the situation has changed. After 1967 we can see in most of the states different parties are coming up. In centre also there is coalition government formed. Regional parties have demanded more and more autonomy for states.

Some areas where the central can control states are:

• Dependence of the states on the centre for financial assistance apart from these direct constitutional controls.
• Appoint of Governors.
• Residuary power with centre.
• Power to make laws with respect to state lists.
• Provision of Planning Commission.
• Provision of UPSC.

But the demands of more and more autonomy have resulted into conflicts and frictions between the centre and states. Sarkaria Commission has suggested some measures to normalize centre-state relations. Recently appointed M.M Punchhi commission is also constituted to report on this aspect.

In this situation we can say that if there is a demand for greater state autonomy, creates instability in the government and developmental works will be affected. However genuine autonomy to states with necessary centralization factor is the way for political progress.

Answer : Under Article 315 of the Indian Constitution Union Public Service Commission to be constituted for the recruitment of the civil services at the union level.

The number of members of the Union Public Service Commission is determined by the President. Nearly half of the members of the Commission have administrative experience, while the other half should come from liberal professions like law, academics etc.

The functions of the UPSC are:

• To conduct examinations for appointment to the services of the Union and conduct interviews for direct recruitment.
• To advise on any matter referred to them and on any matter which the president may refer to the appropriate commission;
• To exercise such additional functions as may be provided for by an Act of Parliament regarding the services of the Union and also with respect to the services of any local authority constituted by law; and
• It shall be the duty of the Union Public Service Commission if requested by any two or more states, to assist those States in framing and operating schemes of joint recruitment for any service.

Further, UPSC shall be consulted:

• On all matters relating to methods of recruitment to civil service and for Civil Posts.
• On the principle to be followed in making promotions and transfers form one service to another
• On all disciplinary matters affecting a person serving under the Government of India in a civil capacity including petitions relating to such matters.
• On any claim for the award of pension in respect of injuries sustained by a person while serving under the government of India in a civil capacity and on any question as to the amount of any such award.

Answer : Need for constitutional review has always been a topic of raging debate across the country. The founding fathers of the Indian constitution who granted more rights to the people without balancing them with their duties, perhaps did not force the emergence of present political environment, wherein the political players of various segments in the country are more interested in fulfilling their individual aspirations than the aspirations of the people.

In some respects, the constitution, though it is impressive, has failed to translate noble principles into tangible, practical instruments. The constitution of India, despite its evocative Preamble and lofty Directive Principles of State Policy, has essentially depended upon the old Government of India Act of 1935, with other ideas borrowed from the Irish, Australia, Canada and other Constitutions.

Securing to all citizens justice-social, economic and political is one of the avowed goals of the constitutions. However, there is a glaring failure to translate them into practical action. In judicial system, unnecessary litigation, needless appeals, dilatory procedures have actually denied justice to the people.

Over the 60 years, several distortions have crept into our state structure. As the domination of a single party has become a thing of the past, the working of the bicameral parliament has been distorted. A Rajya Sabha is a permanent body with members indirectly elected by state legislature, ceased to reflect the will of the people at any point of time. At present India’s socio-economic, political conditions have changed. In international level also India’s position has changed. Therefore, India has to go with the situation.

As we are having Directive Principles, they should be backed up with implementing mechanism. A special Article is also needed to control the population. The state should promote inter-religious harmony and inter-faith value.

A Judicial Council is requirement of the day at both Apex level and State level Agricultural and other traditional occupational people are suffering from droughts, cyclones and earthquakes. A national convention is required to protect them from such adverse affect.

From all these, it is seen that there is a requirement of the whole review of the Constitutions of India to make it applicable for the present day world.

Answer : Till 1967, in India there was a single party rule. Even in States also there was a domination of Congress party. But, the scenario changed after 1967. Other parties started coming to power in the states.

There will be different party in the centre and in the states. Regional parties started entering Indian political system. From 1980’s we can see the coalition government in the centre.

Congress last its domination and regional parties started participating in the national government. Therefore, coalition government started coming up in central. Many regional parties like TDP, DMK, Akali Dal, and AIADMK started playing their influential role. They started participating in government decision making.

Earlier, developmental work will go to those states which are ruled by Congress only. Since congress was dominating in the Centre. Now, the regional parties made developmental works come to their states. So they are also participating in the government planning process.

Whenever, central government is making policies it has to consider, the interest of the regional parties. Government planning and finance allocation is also influenced by regional parties.

Presence of regional parties in national government sometime creates instability. Sometimes legislature is dissolved and fresh elections are held before the five year terms.

Regional parties are playing a major role in the Indian politics. Now, there influence is not only with respect to particular region but considered in national politics also.

Answer : Generally Constitution is a legally-satisfied document, consisting of the basic governing principles of the state. The powers and duties of the state organisation are described in the Constitution. That means the source of all people and organisations’ powers, duties and rights is the constitution. If the constitution is federal, then it suggests a clear division between the centre and the states. No state law can be above the centre's law. The constitution is made under the democratic system having all the citizens' support and undoubtedly any action against the constitution is illegal.

The main source of the Indian Constitution is the “Government of India Act, 1935”. Almost 200 sections of this act were fully or with partial modification had been included in the Indian Constitution.

The system of fundamental rights, independent judiciary, Judicial Review has been adopted from the Constitution of USA. From UK we have adopted parliamentary system; from France we have taken the idea of republic, from Canada the federation with a strong centre. Constitutional Amendments have been included in Indian Constitution from South African Constitution. The concurrent list and the provisions regarding trade, commerce and intercourse have been taken from the Australian Constitution. The Directive Principles, Method of election of the President and nomination of members of the Rajya Sabha by the President are similar to Irish Constitution. From Germany’s Weimar Constitution, the Emergency and its effect on the Fundamental Rights were added to the Constitution of India. Fundamental duties were taken from the Japanese Constitution.

Answer : The Directive Principles of the state policy and the Fundamental Rights are not mutually excluded from each other; rather they are complementary to each other. Still there are certain differences between the DPSPs and the Fundamental Rights. They are:

1. By providing the Fundamental Rights to the citizens, the democratic political system has been established, whereas by the implementation of the DPSPs the economic welfare of the state is established.
2. Fundamental Rights are subjected to court of law at any point of time if anybody feels that his Fundamental Rights are being violated, and then, he can take the help of court. On the other hand DPSPs are not subjected to the court of law.
3. During emergency except the rights mentioned in Article 20, Article 22, all other fundamental rights can be suspended, whereas Directive Principles can never be suspended under any condition.
4. Fundamental Rights are assumed negatively sometimes because in some cases they restrict the activities of the states. On the other hand, DPSPs are always affirmative because they direct the states for the definite activity.
5. The scope of DPSPs is more, comparatively to Fundamental Rights. In DPSPs, the political, administrative, and economic and subjects like international peace are also included.

Till now, lots of activities have been done for the implementation of the DPSPs by both the centre and the states. The main purpose of the addition of the 9th schedule is the equal distribution of wealth. By the 25th amendment of the constitution, the maintenance of the conclusions, mentioned in Art. 39(3) have been made. Likewise by the 73rd amendment of the Constitution, the Panchayati Raj system has been implemented and the DPSPs were implemented. Compulsory education for children between the age group of 6-14 was made sure with the 86th amendment of the Constitution. In the state level in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan etc. child education and Panchayati Raj systems are the noticeable works done.

Answer : The people living in a certain state naturally have a negative feeling for the people of the other state. Along with this people of every state have their own universal consciousness and they have a fellow feeling for the other people of the same state. When we talk about regionalism we mean these feelings. Thus, regionalism is that feeling which accepts that the benefits of one’s own state are supreme and the benefits of the other states of the same country can be ignored. Regionalism talks of the supremacy of the state concerned. In this context we can say that Regionalism is that movement which tries to give a political form of the existing situation just to benefit the state concerned.

After India’s freedom, the Congress was the only party which had full faith of the people. The feeling of regionalism was originated in South India. People protested massively in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh etc., against Hindi language and were inclined to be concerned only about their own states’ benefits. Later in fact, these same feelings influenced Uttar Pradesh, Bihar etc. As a result with time, the states started having their regional political parties, and gradually they became strong. In today's context, neither of the two main political parties, i.e., the Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party is able to form a government on its own strength, either in the centre or in the states. As a result, the system of coalition government has started in India. But the biggest demerit of this system is that political blackmailing has started and to satisfy one state, or one party's own needs, other supporting parties have started pressurising the party in power badly. It is the gift of regionalism and the regional parties that in 1990s we experienced a restless polity in India. In recent times, the incidents that took place in Assam and Maharashtra, i.e., the killing of the people residing in the states who belong to other states is nothing but a move for political benefit. However we should point out that because of the regionalism the various states have gotten benefits and a safeguard of the rights is also confirmed.

Answer : There are certain exceptions when the President of India is not bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. In such cases, the President can work using his own discretionary powers. These exceptional situations are mentioned below:

1. According to Article 74 and Article 111, President can seek reconsideration of an issue from the Council of Ministers.
2. The President on his own decision can ask for information about the workings of the government from the Prime Minister according to Article 78.
3. If we combine Article 74 and Article 75, then it becomes clear that the Council of Ministers is answerable to the Lok Sabha. If any government loses support of the Lok Sabha then it is supposed that President is not compelled to work according to the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers of the government concerned.
4. If after the Lok Sabha election, majority is not obtained by any party, then the President uses his discretionary power to choose the Prime Minister. In 1996 majority was not clear so the President used his discretionary power. There is another option available, that even in the situation when majority is not clearly determined and somebody has been made the Prime Minister then the President can ask to prove his majority within a limited time period.

Answer : Pro-tem speaker is mainly an operating and temporary speaker. To conduct the works in the centre or in state legislatives, pro-tem speaker is appointed for a limited time period. Generally in such a condition when the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies have been elected, but the vote for the speaker and deputy speaker has not taken place, the pro-tem speaker is chosen. Pro-tem speaker is chosen with the agreement of the members of the Lok Sabha and legislative assembly, so that he can carry on the activities till the permanent speaker is chosen. In many a situations, both the speaker and the deputy speaker posts in the House may lie vacant, (death, resignation etc.) then the tasks in the House are undertaken under the pro-tem speaker. The powers regarding the pro-tem speaker are not clarified. But this much is clear that pro-tem speaker does not have as much power as the permanent speaker has. Pro-tem speaker's duty is to conduct the works in the House properly keeping certain aims before for a limited period of time till the permanent speaker is chosen.

Answer : In certain conditions Parliament can legislate on State subjects. There are discussed below:

1. According to Article 249 of the Constitution, if the Rajya Sabha passes any of the subjects of the state list with 2/3 majority of the present and eligible voters of the House, declaring the subjects to have national importance, on that subject Parliament acquires the power to legislate i.e. to make laws. This can be implemented for one year. If Rajya Sabha wants, the term of one year can be increased to one more year.
2. According to the 7th Schedule of the Constitution, Parliament makes law. If in any way states are related to this law or any state has implemented laws on the same subject, then the law by the Parliament will be implemented.
3. According to Article 353 of the Constitution, if in the whole country or in any part of it, emergency is declared, (Art. 352(1)) then Parliament acquires the power to make laws regarding the subjects mentioned in all the lists including state lists for the whole of the country or a part of it. The same arrangements are implemented when emergency is declared under Article 356.

Answer : Under Article 21 of the constitution, that deals with the protection of life and personal liberty. This fundamental right comes within the purview of the right of freedom. It guarantees that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. This right is available to the citizens as well as non-citizens.

In the famous Gopalan case, the Supreme Court opined that ‘personal liberty’ was held to mean only liberty relating to or concerning the person or body of the individual. Also, it covered protection only against arbitrary executive action. But, later on its ambit was widened to include protection against legislative action also and to cover within itself all the varieties of rights, which go to make up the personal liberty of man, other than those provided in Art.19(1).as far as Art.19(1) is concerned, it deals with the freedom of profession and trade. In Meneka Gandhi vs. Union of India case expressing the view that the attempt of the Court should be to expand the reach and ambit of the Fundamental Rights rather than to attenuate their meaning and context by a process of judicial construction.

In Menaka Gandhi case, the apex court held that the right to ‘live’ is not merely confined to physical existence but it includes within its ambit the right to live with human dignity. Elaborating this view in Francis Coralie vs. Union Territory of Delhi, the court said that the right to live is not restricted to mere animal existence. The court further held that non-payment of minimum wages to the workers amounted to denial of their right to live with basic human dignity violated Art 21.

Recently, a Supreme Court Bench of Justice Ajit Pasayat and Justice S.H. Kapadia has remarked that rape is a crime against basic human rights and is violative of the victim’s most cherished fundamental right, namely right to live contained in art. 21. This is not only a crime against of a woman; it is a crime against entire society. The Supreme Court has asked the High Courts and the Subordinate courts across the country to deal firmly with the accused in case relation to rape. It said that the punishment awarded should be proportionate to the nature of the offence. In fact rape is a violation of the victim right to live, which is a crime against entire society. It pushes the victim into deep emotional crisis. Where the victim is a helpless innocent child or a minor, it leaves behind a traumatic experience. Rape is a crime against basic human rights, which destroys the entire psychology of women.

Answer : A nation-wide debate is going on over the controversy of disqualification of MP’s and MLA’s on the ground of holding office of profit. It began with the disqualification of Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan from Rajya Sabha on March 17, 2006 with retrospective effect from July 14, 2004. Very soon the controversy took a constitutional crisis and different state governments rushed to save their pillars of power.

There are separate provisions of disqualification for the Members of Parliament and the Members of state legislature. Our constitution clearly mentions that the Parliament has the power to make a law in respect to the issue of qualification and disqualification of the membership in case:

1. He holds any office of profit under the Government of India or of any state, other than an office declared by a law of Parliament not to disqualify its holder,
2. He is of unsound mind and stand so declared by a competent court,
3. He is an undischarged insolvent,
4. He is not citizen of India or has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign state, or is under any acknowledgement or allegiance or adherence to a foreign state, and
5. If he is so disqualified by or under any law of Parliament. It applies to the case of ‘defection’ as prescribed in Tenth Schedule.

Article 103 lays down that any dispute about the disqualification of a member of Parliament shall be referred to the president, who will take a decision on the advice of the Election Commission and decision shall be final. In case of disqualification on grounds of defection, the matter will be decided by speaker or chairman or Rajya Sabha as the case may be.

The representation of People Act, 1951 also lays down certain conditions for disqualification of MPs and MLAs:

1. He must not have been found guilty by a court or on election tribunal of certain election offences or corrupt practices in the elections.
2. He must not have been convicted by a court of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for a period of more than two years.
3. He must not have failed to lodge his election expenses within the time and in a manner prescribed by law.
4. He must not have been dismissed for corruption or disloyalty from government services.
5. He must not be a director or a managing agent nor hold an office of profit under any corporation in which the government has any financial interest.
6. He must not have any interest in government Contracts, execution of government work or services.

Answer : A Bill other than Money Bill and Financial Bill may be introduced in either house of the Parliament Article 107(i), and required passage in both the Houses before it can be presented for President’s assent. A Bill may be introduced either by a minister or by a private member. A Money Bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha and only on the recommendation of the President; there is no provision of joint sitting of both the Houses as provided in article 108, in the case of Money Bills.

A Bill seeking to amend the constitution can be initiated only by the introduction of a Bill in either House of Parliament so that the initiative in the matters of constitutional amendment has been exclusively reserved for Parliament. The constitution provides for three types of procedure for Amendment – Amendment by simple majority, Amendment by Special majority and ratification by state.

Constitution Amendment Bills may be initiated in either House and may be amended like other ordinary Bills, subject to the majority required by Art.368. But for the special majority, they must be passed by both the Houses like any other Bill. The previous sanction of the president is not required for introducing any Bill in Parliament for amendment of the constitution. The requirement is relating to ratification by the state legislatures is more liberal. Under our constitution, ratification requires only not less than one-half of the state.

Answer : The president is empowered to establish an Inter-state Council, if at any time if appears to him that public interest would be served by it – Article 263. The functions envisaged by the constitution for such a council are: to inquire into and advise upon disputes which may have arisen between states, investigate and discuss subjects of common interest between the union and states or between two or more states.

The president’s power to establish an Inter-state Council can be used both for advising upon disputes as well as to investigate and discuss subjects of common interest. In exercise of this power, The Central Council for health, The Central Council of Indian Medicine, The Central Council of Homeopathy, The Central Council of Local Self-Government have already been constituted by president.

On the basis of Sarkaria Commission’s recommendations, a permanent Inter-state Council has been created in April, 1990, consisting of 6 Union Cabinet Ministers and the Chief Ministers of the states. The functions of this council are to inquire into and advice upon disputes which may have arisen between states, investigate and discuss subjects of common interest between the union and states or between two or more states. The prime minister is the president of this council. The first meeting of this council was in October, 1990. In its 8th meeting in 2003, the imposition of president’s rule (Art. 356) have been largely discussed.

Answer : The Writ Jurisdiction of High Court is provided under Article 226 of the Constitution. The constitutional writs such as Habeas Corpus, Mandamus, Prohibition, Quo Warranto or Certiorari are tools for enforcement of Fundamental Rights and for any other purpose.

• “Any other purpose” [under Article 226(1)] includes any ordinary legal right of a citizen. So High Court can issue writs to any person, authority and government for enforcement of an ordinary right of a citizen. This power to issue writ is not limited to state where seat of High Court resides but can extend to other state or territory if cause of action arises in its territorial jurisdiction.
• The aggrieved party in relation to matters of Fundamental Rights (FRs) can directly approach to either High Court or Supreme Court. So High Court has wider writ jurisdiction in relation to Supreme Court where Supreme Court can issue writ only for enforcement of FRs and not for any ordinary legal right as of High court).
• In Chandra Kumar Case (1997), SC held that Writ Jurisdiction of Supreme Court and High Court constitutes a basic structure of the constitution and can’t be taken away even by an amendment to the constitution.

Answer : India being a federation powers are distributed between the Centre and the States. Like other powers financial powers are also distributed between them.

The sources of income of the Union Government are those mentioned in the Union List and some of these sources includes income tax other the agricultural income, customs and excise duties. On the other hand State draws its income from the sources mentioned in the State List which includes land revenue, taxes on vehicles, sales tax etc. There are certain taxes which are levied by the Union but are collected and appropriated by the States. These taxes are stamp duties and duties of excise on medicinal and toilet preparation.

To monitor the financial relations, there are provisions, for the establishment of the Finance Commission under Article 280 of the Constitution. The functions of the Finance Commission under 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments which makes it the duty of the commission to suggest the measures needed to augment the Consolidated Fund of a State to supplement the resources of the Panchayats and Municipalities in the States.

Under Article 360, during the proclamation of financial emergency the President can give Financial Directives to the States. Besides distribution of tax revenues, Union Government supplements the financial resources of the States by two other means i.e., Grants-in-aid given to the States and advancement of loans to the States.

As far as financial relations between the Centre and the States and concerned, it simply proves that the Constitution has established a strong Union Government. In the post 1991 era of liberalization, it has got new dimension with the development of means of communication the role of the Union Government has increased for the balanced and rapid economic development.

Answer : One of the essential features of our constitution is division of powers between different institutions, namely the three main wings of the State; the Parliament and the State Legislatures, the Executive and the Judiciary. The legislative powers of the Union and the States have been defined in the constitution, 7th schedule.

Moreover, our constitution has guaranteed certain fundamental rights in Part III of the constitution and has expressly provided that any law or executive action which abridges any fundamental rights is void. Thus, fundamental rights constitute a limitation on the power of Parliament and State Legislatures and the Executive.

Therefore, under our constitution the judiciary is assigned the task of interpreting the constitution in order to determine what is the power conferred on each branch of government, what are its limit and whether the action of any branch transgresses such limits. It is for the judiciary to uphold constitutional values and to enforce constitutional limitations. It is known as Judicial Review.

Judicial Activism is the extent and the vigour and the readiness with which courts exercise their power of judicial review.

So, there is a marked difference between both of them. In the recent years courts have activiely performed an interventionist role and that we have witnessed the phenomenon of judicial activism.

The liberalised doctrine of locus stand; led to the development of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which enabled the underprivileged and the downtrodden to secure access to courts through the agency of a public spirited person or an organisation.

Another factor which contributed to the Judicial activism was the expansive judicial interpretation placed on the expression life in Article 21.

Answer : In 1993 Panchayat Raj system came into existence. Under Article 40 to organise village panchayats as the root level institutions is a Directive Principle (DPSP). The governance of the country improved with the implementation of the Panchayat Raj System. It provides to constitute Gram Sabhas at village level and have started to work as units of democratic set up of our country.

By the provision of 73rd and 74th amendment Act, they hold elections for electing their village representatives, administer themselves by way of collecting and regulating financial systems of their own, make policies and implement them at the root level and thus train the people for the political system of the nation.

Compared to the first forty three years of our freedom, reservations of seats even for women in regular elections have really created a great awareness. We couldn’t have taken the cooperation of villages and grass root level people in the governance except by the Panchayat Raj Systems. Yet there are some rigid problems which lie at the base of this system too, but these problems have not been able to cover the real-change brought about by the Panchayat Raj.

Panchayats have been given power to levy, collect and appropriate such taxes, duties, tolls and fees in accordance with the provisions made by the state government. The Panchayats have been given power and responsibility, to prepare and implement the plans for economic development and social justice in relation to the matters listed in the 11th schedule. It gave way to a common people participation in real polity rather than being a mere observer of the system after voting in the elections.

Answer : The Indian Constitution embodies the positive concept of secularism i.e., placing all religions in the same status and accessible to the equal support from the state, through the provisions contained in Articles 25-28 in Part III of the Constitution.

• Article 25 says that all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice and propagate religion. Article 26 says that every religious denomination or any of its section.
• Article 27 ensures that no persons shall be compelled to pay any taxes for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.
• Article 28 says that no religious instruction shall be provided in an educational institution wholly maintained out of state funds.

Through these constitutional values India refutes any form of theocratic culture as it is repugnant to the democratic spirit. In Indian secularism has emerged in our struggle for freedom as a complementary value to democracy and nationalism, here all religious groups and communities have equal opportunities in all spheres and all are on equal footing and plinth without any discrimination on part of the state.

In post independence years, it has become part of the new identify of multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual state. Citizens of India in law and by the Constitution are members of a common unified polity where people belonging to multi-religion co-exist. But there shall be no ‘state religion’ in India. The state will neither establish a religion of its own nor confer any special patronage upon any particular religion.

Answer : All the constitutional authorities, such as the Union and the States and other local on statutory authorities may impose restrictions upon such freedoms, provided such restrictions are reasonable and are relatable to any of the grounds of public interests as specified in clause (2)-6 of Art. 19. Though every citizen shall have the right to move freely throughout the territory of India or to reside and settle in any part of the country, this right shall be subject to restrictions imposed by the state in the interests of the general public or for the protection of any Scheduled Tribe.

Answer : Both the protection and improvement of environment and development are in tandem in India and that development work should not in any way done at the cost of environment.

India is among the few countries of the world which is very sincere in environmental issues. India has participated in all international convention and summit since Stockholm Declaration (1972).

After Stockholm Dec. (1972), India's step towards environmental protection

In 1972-Indian Parliament passed 'Water Pollution Act'; in 1976-'Jhoom Farming Prevention Act; in 1972- 'Wild Life Act'; in 1981-'Air Pollution Act'; and in 1986- 'Environment Protection Act' which gives power to the central govt. to take necessary measures to protect the environment.

Answer : When the dates to elections to a particular state or states are announced and an ordinance concerning it is issued, it becomes the paramount duty of Election Commission to monitor all the activities. The Election Commission issues a code of conduct to be observed by all parties and people at the time of elections.

When this process is on, dealing with all the matters concerning elections comes under the purview of the Election Commission and that the Union Executive remains immune out of it. If a State govt. wants to put off assembly elections, appropriate constitutional measures could be taken on part of the EC.

Answer : By Preamble is meant a preliminary or introductory statement in speech or writing. The preamble of a statute which generally follows the long title and precedes the purview is a perfunctory explanation or statement in general terms stating the reason or occasion for making the statute and the object or policy which it is designed to achieve. The Preamble like the long title is a part of statute and is an admissible aid to its construction. The preamble, however, is of not that importance as the Preview or enacting words of a statute. So the preamble expresses the political, moral, economic and religious values which a constitution is committed to promote. If there is a doubt as to the meaning of the enacting words, the Preamble by showing the object or purpose of the act helps in the selection of the true meaning.

The ideals embodied in the constitution of India are faithfully reflected in the Preamble. The judiciously chosen words in the Preamble are of immense value and importance.

The constitution gives the power of governance to the people of the country. India is free from foreign rule and is declared by the Preamble as a socialist, secular, democratic republic.

‘Socialism’ here means the state’s commitment to socio-economic justice. And ‘secularism’ means that the state will protect every religion but it will not have any religious foundation.

Democratic Republic’ means more than political democracy. With democracy in political process it envisages a democratic society, too. The democratic polity and society will be infused with the spirit of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. ‘Republic’ implies that the head of the Indian state shall neither be hereditary nor a dictator.

Justice, social, economic and political are included in the Preamble and thereby ensured in the constitution through different provisions. Two phrases, ‘dignity of the individual’ and ‘unity and integrity of the nation’ also find place in the Preamble.

Answer : It is a duty of the Union to ensure that the government of every state is carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution (Article 355). So, the President is empowered to make a proclamation, when he is satisfied that the Government of a state can’t be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the constitution, either on the report of the Governor of the state or otherwise [Article 356(1)]. Such proclamation may also be made by the President where any state has failed to comply with, or to give effect to, any directions given by the Union, in the exercise of its executive power to the state (Article 365).

By such proclamation, the President may (a) assume to himself all or any of the functions of the Executive of the State or of any other authority save the High Court; and (b) declare that the powers of the Legislature of the State shall be exercisable by or under the authority of Parliament. In short, by such proclamation, the Union would assume control over all functions in the state administrations.

It is clear that the power to declare a proclamation of failure of constitutional machinery in a state has nothing to do with any external aggression or armed rebellion; it is an extraordinary power of the union to meet a political breakdown in any of the units of the federation (or the failure by such unit to comply with the federal directives (Article 365), which might affect the national strength. It is one of the coercive powers in the hands of the union to maintain the democratic form of government, and to prevent factional strife’s from paralysing the governmental machinery, in the states.

Answer : The constitution maintains the independence of the Public Service Commission in several ways:

1. The Chairman or a member of the Commission can be removed from office in the same manner as the judges of the Supreme Court.
2. The conditions of Service of a member of the Public Service Commission shall not be varied to his disadvantage during his tenure;
3. The expenses of the Commission are charged on the Consolidated Fund or India or of the state
4. Certain disabilities are imposed upon the Chairman and members of the Commission with respect to future employment under the Government. Thus, on ceasing to hold office:

• The chairman of the Union Public Service Commission shall be in eligible for further employment either under the Government of India or under the Government of a state.
• The chairman of a State Public Service Commission shall be eligible for appointment as the chairman or any other member of the Union Public Service Commission or as the Chairman of any other State Public Service Commission, but for any other employment either under the Government of India or under the Government of a State.
• A member other than the Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission shall be eligible for appointment as the chairman of the State Public Service Commission, but not for any other employment either under the Government of India or under the Government of a state.
• A member other than the Chairman of a State Public Service Commission shall be eligible for appointment as the Chairman or any other member of the Union Public Service Commission or as the Chairman of that or any other State Public Service Commission, but not for any other employment either under the Government of India or under the Government of a state.

Answer : Article 110 defines a Money Bill as a bill which contains only provisions regarding taxes, borrowings, custody of the Consolidated and Contingency Funds, appropriation, declaring of any expenditure as charged on the Consolidated Fund, receipt and custody of money on the Consolidated Fund audit of the accounts of the union (or of a state) or any other incidental matters.

The following is the procedure for the passing of Money Bills in Parliament:

A Money Bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha and only on the recommendation of the President. After it is passed by the Lok Sabha and transmitted to Rajya Sabha, the latter may make its recommendations if any, within a period of 14 days and the Lok Sabha may accept or reject all or any of the recommendation. The Bill is deemed to be passed by both the Houses with the amendments accepted by Lok Sabha. If no amendment recommended by Rajya Sabha is acceptable to Lok Sabha or if the Bill is not returned by the Rajya Sabha within 14 days, it is deemed to have been passed by both the Houses in the form in which it was passed by the Lok Sabha (Article 109).

Answer : An instrument which the Constitution has evolved for the purpose of distributing financial resources between centre and states is the Finance Commission. According to Article 280 of the Constitution it is to be constituted by the President once every five years consisting of a chairman and four other members appointed by the President.

Within one year from 25th April 1993, i.e. the date on which the constitution 73rd Amendment came into force and afterwards every 5 years the State Government shall appoint a Finance Commission to review the financial position of the Panchayats and to make recommendations as to:

1. the distribution between the State and the Panchayats of the net proceeds of taxes, duties, tolls and fees leviable by the State which may be divided between them and how allocation would be made among various levels of Panchayats;
2. What taxes, duties, tolls and fees may be assigned to the Panchayats;
3. Grant-in-aid to the Panchayats

The report of the Commission, together with a memorandum of action taken on it, shall be laid before the State Legislature. These provisions are modeled in Article 280 which contains provisions regarding appointment of a Finance Commission for distribution of finances between the Union and the States.

Answer : The role of IT is changing from support functions to that of an ‘efficiency driver’. Information is made instantly available, which improves the functional efficiency and cut down the expenditure of the department. The manual system of working system is a long process involving documentation, Back office support system, a large bureaucracy and staff.

e-Governance has made a big change in India. With the computerised land records, now farmers can get the land record certificate for a more Rs. 15 from the land record booth. E-Chaupals give farmers best inputs. It teaches them crop management processes, gives advance market price and purchase products from farmers. EG cut short the time Andhra’s E-seva is providing consumer-friendly services to citizens. It is saving citizens botheration of running around various departments. computerisation of land records ensures easy maintenance and updating. It helps towards creatingtemper-proof land records, database to reduce litigation and social tensions and helps the government to guard against encroachment.

Answer : Article 72 of the Constitution gives the President the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remission of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence in all case where the law provides for a death sentence. The President has exclusive power to grant pardon in case where the sentence is a death sentence.

While considering the process of the power of pardon, there are four facts about it — facts that are so important and foundational that they acquire the status of what may be called ‘truths’. The four may be summarised as:

1. Clemency is not a door which the President may open to let misplaced mercy through; but it is one he may cause to be opened to see if fairness has been blocked at its threshold.
2. Pardon is not a gift the President may lavish on the criminal; but it is a power that the people of India have conferred on him to use when narrow codes hold a larger justice hostage.
3. Mercy, when prayed for by one sentenced to death, is not just about an individual’s scream for life against its judicial extinction, but part of humanity’s journey towards a higher condition under law.
4. Article 72 is not about the law, it is about the sovereign’s overview of the human situation involved in capital crime, that sees in itwhich the law cannot see or evaluate, only the nation’s anointed guardian can and then again, not to saturate the law’s appetites, but the thirsts of society’s human sensibilities.

The power to pardon as given under Article 72 is a ‘given’ formulation of so many words which each copy of the Constitution of India must reproduce in exactly the same language. The Head of the State, however, is a human being, not a printed text. From predecessors distinct and from successors distinguishable, each Head of State is thinking, reflecting human being, with views, memories, conditionings, predispositions.

Supreme Court views on President Clemency: The Supreme Court over the years has made notable changes to this power of the President. In the Bachan Singh Case (1983) the court concluded that the award of death penalty did not violate Articles 14 or 21 of the Constitution but should be awarded in the ‘rarest of rare’ cases.

• In the Kehar Singh Case (1989) the court said it was open to the President to exercise the power vested in him by Article 72 to scrutinize the evidence on record and decide on the sentence. The President is entitled to go into the merits of the case not withstanding that it has been judicially concluded by the consideration given to it by the Supreme Court.
• The court held in this case that the President had the discretion even to hear the convict orally. However, the Supreme Court’s decision in 2001, on the question of the Presidential Clemency said that undue considerations of caste, religion, and political loyalty are prohibited from being grounds for grants of clemency.
• However in 2006 Supreme Court held that the power of Presidential and Gubernatorial Pardon is subject to judicial review and it cannot be dispensed incomplete.

Answer : The governor is a constitutional head of the state. Though in most matters he has to act on the advice of the council of ministers, he can exercise discretion in some cases. The Constitution does not specify these matters but the matters in which he can act without the advice of the council of ministers are : selection of Chief Minister if no political party has a clear-cut majority or does not have an acknowledged leader; dismissal of a ministry if he is convinced that it has lost majority support; dissolving the legislative assembly; reservation of certain bills for the consideration of the president; submission of report to the president regarding failure of Constitutional machinery of the state. It is for the governor to decide whether a particular matter falls within his discretion or not, and the Constitution stipulates that the courts cannot call in the question the matters in which the governor chooses to use his discretion.

Thus, it is quite clear that the governor ordinarily has to act as a constitutional head but then, extraordinary situation may give him opportunities to exercise his powers according to Article 163.

There is also a lot of controversy regarding the discretionary powers of the governors. There are some commentators who observe that the governor has not discretionary powers excepting that of the governor of Nagaland, who has to act at his discretion without consulting his council of ministers. But there are others who feel that the governor does possess some discretionary powers. It is the governor himself who decides, at his discretion, as to in which sphere he shall act at his discretion and in which field he shall act on the advice of the council of ministers. Thus, the governor has a wide scope to determine his discretionary powers.

Answer : The legislative authority of the union is vested in the Parliament of India. The Parliament consists of the President and the two Houses, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People).

The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha is empowered to pass a vote of censure against the ministry. Whenever such a motion is passed, the ministry has to resign.

Both the houses exercise control over the executive through asking questions, discussing matters of urgent public importance, moving call-attention notices and adjournment motions, and also by appointing various committees such as public accounts committee, estimates committee, committee on public undertakings, committee on government assurances, the committee on privileges, the committee on subordinate legislation etc. All these activities keep the executive alert.

As far as financial control is concerned, the executive has the right to formulate the budget. But Parliament must authorise by law the levy or modification of taxes. If any tax is imposed without legislative authority, the affected person can approach the courts for relief. In addition to it, the executive cannot spend public revenue without the sanction of Parliament. Parliament has also been provided with the means of ensuring economy in the amount of government expenditure.

The Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) help Parliament in ensuring that the executive has spent the expenditure sanctioned by Parliament in terms of law. The CAG audits that accounts of the union to see that no money has been spent without parliamentary sanction.

While these controls are theoretically important, in reality today, Parliament hardly wields any substantial authority over the executive. The government generally controls Parliament through its majority in the Lok Sabha.

Answer : Many political thinkers and observers believe that without social and economic prerequisites, the smooth functioning of parliamentary democracy in India cannot be achieved. They suggest that before a society or state decides to be governed democratically, it is essential for it to have a minimum level of social and economic development. Many others, however, believe that democracy itself provides a better and successful means for attainment of social and economic development. The framers of Indian Constitution were fully committed to this view.

However, Indian democracy is flawed in many respects. India has not been able to acquire a stable national unity and the political system has not been able to fulfill the aspirations of all groups, sections and classes. A vast majority of the Indian people are caught in the situation of object poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment. More than 60 per cent of the Indian population does not have access to basic sanitation. There is almost a collapse of public health. The population has increased more than three times since independence. Of course, the Gross National Products (GNP) has increased fourfold and in the last decade alone per capita GDP has doubled. But in view of increase in population and concentration of benefits in few hands this increase remains insufficient. Result is about 50 per cent of all children below 5 years of age are under weight and malnourished.

Another obstacle of parliamentary democracy has been the practice of discrimination based on exploitation. Politicians wanting their votes have played up this feeling but have taken no concrete caution to see that the weaker sections were given a participatory and effective role in the socio-economic development of the country. Consequently, people are getting alienated from the system and losing faith in the electoral system. To keep them in the game of elections, ambitious individuals have started counting on caste base, communal, linguistic and regional loyalties. Elections, as such, have become ends in themselves, instruments of the status quo and of self promotion rather than change. With this another serious factor has emerged; it is politicisation of crime and criminalisation of politics. During the last 58 years of India’s independence, India has witnessed failures in running the democratic processes.

Answer : The Forty-Fourth Amendment (1978) sought to remove some of the irritants of the 42nd Amendment. It made changes in the Emergency provisions to ensure that these powers were not misused by the executive in future. It restored to the courts the power to decide whether an office was an ‘office of profit’ or not (a power of which they were deprived by the 42nd Amendment); it provided constitutional protection to publication of proceedings of Parliament and state legislatures; authorised the President to refer back a matter to the council of ministers for reconsideration, but made it binding on him to act on the advice tendered after such consideration; it removed the right to property from the list of Fundamental Rights and made it an ordinary right; it restored to the Courts the power to decide disputes regarding election of Prime Minister and speaker, etc.

Answer : The constitution outlines the fundamental duties of the Indian citizens, which were incorporated in the constitution by the 42nd Amendment Act in 1976. The major fundamental duties have been specified in Article 51A and include the following:

1. To abide by the constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem.
2. To cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom.
3. To uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
4. To defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so.
5. To promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women.
6. To value and preserve the rich heritages of our composite culture.
7. To protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life and to have compassion for living creatures.
8. To develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.
9. To safeguard public property and abjure violence.
10. To strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.

Answer : Rajya Sabha is the upper House of the Parliament. The relevance and importance of Rajya Sabha in the Indian parliamentary system may be outlined in the following points:

1. In all kinds of bills, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have equal powers. Article 108 states that deadlocks are resolved by joint meetings of the two Houses.
2. The Rajya Sabha is not only a House of second thoughts but also a guardian of the rights of the states. Article 249 of the Constitution empowers parliament to legislate with respect to a matter in the state list if the council of states has declared by a resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting.
3. In theory the pattern of voting on a resolution moved in the Rajya Sabha under Article 249 is supposed to reflect the broad viewpoint or consent of the state assemblies and their governments.

In fact, the Rajya Sabha by its Rules of Procedure may provide for setting up of a special committee reflecting a true cross-section of the House.

Answer : The central idea of civil society is as a mediating agency between individuals and the state; civil society is associated with a set of institutions that mediate between the individual and the state. Civil society and state are integral parts of a process of realising formal democracy. The relation between state and civil society is posited as harmonious and complementary. The objective of formal democracy is realised by state and civil society as part of a mutually reinforcing process.

The preconditions for the growth of Civil Society are associated with knowledge, awareness, educational development, gender equality, high standard of living, religious tolerance, equality and economic growth which forms the base for the growth of Civil Society.

Education gives wide range of knowledge and access to various sources of information which leads to awareness about person’s rights and duties. Society should function on egalitarian basis or else there would be rise of civil society because of discrimination produced on the grounds of caste, creed and colour.

Gender equality should persist in Social structure otherwise because of inequality feminist movement would rise and question the gender inequality through civil society medium. In the same way there should be socio-economic justice, if there is any injustice done to the masses by the state actors then there would be a civil society movement questioning the ruling elite.

In India, these preconditions are not up to a standard level though they are present but have disparity and are not easily available. So, it is not conducive to Indian democracy fully. Up to some point favourable but we are marching towards it to achieve in near future.

Answer : Constitution of India provides for a Parliamentary form of government. While doing so it follows the British model of government. In fact, the type of government that functioned in India before 1947 was very much similar to the British model of parliamentary government. Therefore, the members of the Constituent Assembly decided to adopt this form of government for independent India. The Constitution of India provides for the constitution of parliamentary government both at the centre and the states.

Though Presidential form of government has certain advantages like stability of the government, decisions can be taken speedily and implemented effectively, the executive is free from the evils of party influence in his daily administration as compared with parliamentary form of government but it has certain drawbacks like the President in presidential form of government being not responsible or answerable to anybody except the voters can be a precarious proposition in a democratic form of government and separation of powers between executive and legislature in presidential form of government sometimes creates conflicts and deadlocks.

India as a nation is deeply divided into several groups with conflicting interests. In this situation switching to presidential form of government can be counter-productive. True, parliamentary form of government makes decision making process a lengthy one in India but it manages to keep the political integrity intact. At least, it doesn’t curtail the freedom of people. In presidential form of government, the president can start behaving like an autocrat by imposing his decisions on masses. Moreover, the nation is in no mood for any new experiment which could pose any danger to its unity.

India is very much used to the parliamentary form of government since British Raj. Switching to presidential form of government will add only confusion. At least all the varied groups are getting representation in parliamentary form of government. Therefore, India should continue with the parliamentary form of government.

Answer : Our constitution specifically provides different forms of oath for different functionaries of our political system. This has been done in keeping with the different designations, their functions, and the nature of power they enjoy and the dignity of the post.

For the oath of office for a minister for the union he vows to bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution. Here he acts as the constitutional functionary. When he takes the oath for secrecy he vows not to communicate directly or indirectly or reveal to any person.

A judge is required to be honest to his post thus he swears to perform the duty without fear or favour, affection or ill will.

A minister vows to discharge his function and his duties. Thus he vows by that.

Thus based on the nature of function and power, dignity and integrity of the post the different functionaries take their oath differently.

Answer : In order to maintain the supremacy of the constitution, there must be an independent and impartial authority to adjudicate on the disputes between the centre and the states or between the states. Supreme Court of India rests at the apex of the judiciary system in India. It is the final interpreter and Guardian of the constitution. It is also the highest and final interpreter of the general law of the country. It plays the role of guardian of social revolution and protects the rights and imposes duties. Moreover it is the highest court of appeal in civil and criminal matters. The Supreme Court has been described as a continuous constitutional convention as it continues to expand the scope of the constitution in conformity with the growing demands of the Indian society.

It is primarily through the power of judicial review that the court has been helping in the growth of the constitution. The most fundamental contribution in this regard is the emphasis that in India, it is the constitution which is supreme. Whenever there was a parliamentary threat to the constitution the court succeeded in protecting it through various decisions, culminating in the doctrine of “Basic structure” as propounded in the Keshwanand Bharti case.

By providing a liberal interpretation of the constitution specially Art.19 & 21 it has expanded the scope of fundamental rights and concept of the due process of law under part-III of the constitution. It has also succeeded in maintaining the harmony between two important parts of the constitution III & IV as is clear from the decision in Minerva Mills case. It has also expanded the scope of judicial review to crucial Article like 352 & 356.

And finally through judicial activism it has protected the essence and dreams of our constitution which are not in written.

Answer : The nature of Amendments in Constitution of India has incorporate the features of two political systems i.e. Parliamentary Sovereignty of the British type & Constitutional Supremacy of US. Indian has a flexible system. The federal principle brings rigid procedure. Thus, the Indian constitution is a fine balance of the rigid-flexible type.

For amending Indian Constitution there exist three sets of procedure like Certain sections can be amended by a Simple Majority (Article 3), Certain cases regarding a Special majority (Article 13), Special Majority is required for amending federal structure i.e. Ratification of 50% of State Legislatures.(Article54).

The issue of Amendment procedure and scope of the amending power of Parliament has been a matter of debate in the Indian context. The controversies of procedure and Power of Amendment are:

• From angle of Centre-State relations, it is said that the procedure of amendment initiate amendment. The large part of constitution can be amended even without ratification by States
• The territorial integrity of State is not secured
• The Union Parliament can change the territories of Status by a simple majority
• The original Constitution only talks of the procedure of Amendment, not power
• The constitution creates the scope of judicial review under Article 13 gives Judicial the power to review the legacy enactments in context of FR
• Article 131, (Original Jurisdiction of SC) also gives power to interpret scope of legacy authority of Union Parliament & State legacy

The above provision show that in Indian context the principle of Parliament Sovereignty does not exist. Indian constitution also does not mention clear cut judiciary but only talks about the procedure establish by law. Courts can enquire legacy acts based on procedure. The concept of due process of laws was not found in Indian Constitution. Under Article 21 of Constitution, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure establish by law”.

The above provision created the complicated situation andresulted into conflict between two branches of government. The major cases in constitutional amendment have bought issues regarding the power of Parliament and nature of Judiciary review was:

• In Shankari Prasad case, SC, held that the turn, “law” used in article 13(2) does not include the Amendments. Hence by amending the constitution the Parliament can bring the necessary changes to bring effect to Directive Principles.
• In A.K. Gopalan case, it was held that the procedure established by law is the principle. Judiciary cannot question the policy aspect Directive Principles of Law is not the feature of Indian Constitution.
• Judiciary has changed its opinion in 1967 in the Golak Nath Case, Parliament does not have unlimited power, the term “Law” under article 13 (2) covers “Amendments”, The Amending Power of Parliament does not come from Article 368, Article 368 only tells about the procedure of Amendment so the amending power emerge from the same set of provision meant for ordinary set of legacy e.g. Article 245, 246, 248.
• Government responded by passing 24th & 25th amendment Acts. In Keshavanand Bharti Case, thus judiciary has established that the amending power of Parliament could amend any part of the Constitution so long as it did not alter or amend “the basic structure or essential features of the Constitution.”
• Verdict of KB Case was reaffirmed in the Minerva Mills Case. With respect to issue of the procedure establish by law (PEL) and due process of law (DPL), the Judiciary has changed its opinion in Menka Gandhi vs. Union of India case, 1978, according to this judgement, the concept of DPL is implicit in PEL and law has to confirm both the principles. From this case, the concept of Natural Justice came to be establishing in Indian Context. The DPL also limits the powers of parliament. The DPL principle was further reaffirmed in Sunial Batra vs Delhi Administration (1978).

Amendments are necessary to overcome challenges that keep emerging in any polity systems. If amendment is not allowed, people will take extra constitution means, the Amendment procedure must be a fine balance between flexibility and rigidity. If too rigid, there’s a danger of revolution, but if too easy, it becomes a plaything in hands of ruling party and questions the sanctity of constitution.

Answer : Art. 31(C) envisages that certain directive principles can hold sway over the fundamental rights and are binding upon the state. It says not withstanding anything contained in Article 13 no law giving effect to the policy of the state towards securing certain directives shall be deemed to be void on the ground that it is inconsistent with or takes away or abridges any of the rights conferred.

Now directives which the Parliament considers imperative to be implemented can be imposed like the right to education has been brought from directive to the fundamental rights and thus has become binding on the state.

Answer : Delimitation is the redrawing of the boundaries of parliamentary/assembly constituencies to remove the disparities in the size of various electoral constituencies throughout the country. Delimitation Bill 2002 seeks to set up a delimitation commission.

Such delimitation is chiefly based on the population size. The Delimitation Bill has sought the other criteria like the development indicator, the size of the constituencies and its geographical location and population density.

The boundaries of the present constituencies have not been distorted or changed as the present criteria rely on population and the backward and populous states like Bihar and UP will have the undue advantage. Also the developed state like Maharashtra and Kerala will suffer.

Answer : It is a 22 member committee which belongs to the Lok Sabha, to avoid any prejudice or bias. The speaker, by convention, appoints a member of opposition to chair the committee from the selected 15 members of Lok Sabha. The main role of this committee is

• To examine the accounts showing the appropriation granted by the Parliament to meet the expenditure of the government of India.
• To examine the Annual Finance Accounts of the government of India and other accounts lay before the House.
• To examine the reports of comptroller and Auditor General of India on revenue receipts.
• This committee is primarily meant to relieve the Parliament from complex and enormous load of work on financial matter.

Answer : The provisions related to the election of the President are provided in Article 54 and 55 and the President Elections Act 1952, amended in 1974. The President is elected by an electoral college which consists of the elected members of the state legislature (the MLA) and those of the Parliament through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Members of legislature councils in states have no right to vote. Also the members of the legislature assemblies of the union territories, so far, have not participated in the Electoral College.

Art. 55 lays down that as far as it is practicable there should be uniformity in the scale of representation of the different states. The value of vote of an MLA and MP is such that a true federal character of the office of the president is maintained by striking a balance between the states and the centre.

Value of vote of an MLA: This means that the value of votes of an MLA differs from one state to another in accordance with the population size. This is done to give equality of representation in terms of population.

Value of vote of an MP : To be declared elected to the office of the President more than 50% of the voted votes are required by a Presidential candidate. In the year 2000 the union cabinet decided to extend the freeze on undertaking the fresh delimitation of parliamentary and assembly constituencies up to 2026.

If in the first counting no candidate obtains the requisite quota, the process of transfer of votes is set in motion. The candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated and his second preferences are added to the first preference votes of other candidates. This process continues until a candidate with requisite quota emerges. This procedure ensures that president-elect has an absolute majority behind him.

Answer : Chapter II of Part XI of the constitution is concerned with the “Administrative Relations” between centre and states. In this administrative field also the union has been given a dominant position.

Recent events have brought to light a number of contentious issues which effects centre state relations. The approach paper of the tenth plan and events in Tamil Nadu have reopened the Pandora’s Box. The misuse of articles 355 or 356, role of governor and partiality in distribution of taxes etc have once again raised the question of greater autonomy of states.

The question of arrest of two central ministers, the recall of Governor Fatima Beevi and the question of misuse of article 355 and 356 once again resurfaced during the Tamil Nadu episode. What constitutes a breakdown of law and order or what is the scope of Art 163 (governor’s discretion) created an unpleasant situation between the centre and the state.

There is little doubt that the constitution, for whatever reasons, makes the centre stronger than the states. Besides the Legislative, administrative and financial weightage given to the centre, the constitution empowers the centre with power to dismiss a state ministry to impose president’s rule. The dependence has become stronger with the adoption of planning in India. The problems of Indian Federalism have been discussed by not less than four committees which have reported since the inauguration of the Constitution. The nuances of this relationship are ultimately political and may not immediately be derived from the constitution.

Answer : Our founding Fathers had adopted a parliamentary system of governance based on the pattern of the British parliamentary system. In India, it has been operating for more than 50 years now. But our socio-political set up has been increasingly witnessing a deterioration that the parliamentary system with all its advantage has failed to check.

Our country is an amalgamation of heterogeneous elements relating to various socio-cultural denominations such as religion, language, caste etc. However, many divisive forces of different nature have come to the fore in recent years and these have flourished in the parliamentary setup to further undermine its growth.

Criminalisation of politics has been a result of growing corruption, black money, use of muscle power in politics. This is reflected in the entry of criminals into politics and the Parliament.

The mushrooming of political parties has resulted in a large scale erosion of political values owing to growth in electoral malpractices, etc. A multiparty system has also witnessed the emergence of minority governments based on coalition. The result is political instability and decay of democracy.

Increasing unaccountability of the executive to the legislature has been reflected in shorter parliamentary sessions, rampant use (or misuse) of the practice of issuing Ordinances, keeping the president in the dark on many matters, and the passage of the commission of enquiry amendment Act, 1986 that empowers the government to with-hold the report of an Enquiry commission from being placed in Parliament. Absence of proper or coded parliamentary conventions that they have been often ignored and flouted resulting in arbitrary dismissal of ministries ruling with popular support etc.

A basic aspect of the parliamentary system is the principle of collective responsibility which has been ignored time and again where ministries ought to resign with respect to policy matters, often one of its ministers resign and the ministry concerned thus escapes the crisis.

The politics of defection has worked against the principle and spirit of parliamentary democracy in our country. There is an urgent need to alter the state of affairs brought about by the working of the above mentioned factors in Indian polity.

Answer : Part IV of the Constitution (Article 36-51) contains the Directive Principle of State Policy. These Directives are in nature, directions for the legislative and executive wings of government that are to be observed while formulating laws and policies. Most of them aim at the establishment of economic and social democracy that has been pledged for in the preamble. Article 36 and 37 define the term ‘state’ and lay down that the provisions in the part IV shall not be enforceable by courts; however, the principles are fundamental in the governance of the country. Thus, directive principles are not enforceable in a court of law, but as article 37 declares these are fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the state to apply the principles while making laws.

During the first sixteen years of the operation of the constitution, the directive principles were considered subordinate to the Fundamental rights: the court struck down a number of laws enacted to implement directive principles on the ground that they violated the fundamental rights. The conflict has its roots in the fact that the fundamental rights are enforceable by the courts while the directive principles are not. However the government tried to overcome the problem by amending the constitution. In 1971 the 24th amendment gave Parliament the right to amend Fundamental rights. In the same year the 25th amendment inserted Article 31C ensuring that certain laws meant to implement directives in clauses 39(b) and 39(c) will prevail even if these laws violate Article 14 and 19. An attempt to enhance the scope of Article 31C was made by the 42nd amendment which gave primacy to any or all the directive principles and deprived the courts of the right to look in to such cases. This attempt was failed by the Supreme Court majority judgement in the Minerva Mills case-1980 which asserted that such total exclusion of judicial review would offend the basic structure of constitution. Widening of Article 31C to include any or all of the directives was struck down. So, at present Art 31C is restored to its pre-1976 position in that a law would be protected by this article only if it has been made to implement any directive in Article 39(b)-(c) and not any of the other directive principles in part IV.

On the whole-however, the conflict between these two features of the constitution is meaningless, as they are in reality, complementary to each other. The courts have increasingly based their judgements on a harmonious reading of Part II and Part IV of the constitution.

Answer : All legislative proposals are initiated in the Parliament in the form of Bills. A Bill is a draft of legislative proposals. It can be initiated by the government or by any private member in either House of Parliament. All Bills which are not Constitution Amendment Bills and Money Bills are ordinary Bills, i.e. draft proposals for ordinary legislation.

An ordinary Bill can be introduced in either House of Parliament. The constitution provides that an ordinary Bill must be passed by both Houses-Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. A Bill passes through certain stages in each House before being presented to the president for his assent. In case of a deadlock due to disagreement between the two Houses on a Bill, an extraordinary situation arises which is resolved by both the Houses sitting together. The constitution empowers the president to summon a “Joint sitting” of both Houses for the purpose of deliberation and voting on the Bill. In joint session, Lok Sabha, due to its numerical superiority may have a decisive advantage.

The procedure for amendment of the constitution of India has been laid down in Article 368. An amendment of the constitution may be initiated in either House of Parliament. Certain other provisions of constitution can be amended only if they are (a) passed by a majority of total membership of each House of Parliament and by a majority of not less than two thirds of the members present and voting in each House; and (b) ratified by the legislatures of one-half of the states. The amendment of the remaining provisions of the constitution required to be passed by a majority of the total membership of each House and a majority of not less than two thirds of the members present and voting in each House.

The main differences between the passage of a constitution Amendment Bill and an Ordinary Bill are as follows-

1. The constitution does not empower the state legislatures to initiate constitutional amendments.
2. There is no provision of joint setting in case of a deadlock in the matter of an Amendment Bill.
3. The president cannot with hold his assent to amendments or return such bills to Parliament for reconsideration.

Answer : The most important power of the president is perhaps to promulgate ordinances under Art 123. The promulgation of an ordinance is not necessarily connected with an ‘emergency’ but issued by the president in case he is convinced that it is not possible to have the Parliament enact on same subject immediately and the circumstance render it necessary for him to take “immediate action” [Art 123(1)]. However such an ordinance must receive parliamentary approval within six weeks of the next session of the Parliament, otherwise it shall become invalid. Since the ordinance-making power is to be exercised by the president on the ‘aid and advise’ of the council of ministers [Art 74], the power is often misused.

The constitution provides two parliamentary checks vis-a-vis the promulgation of ordinance [Art 123(2) (a)]:

1. The power of Parliament to pass resolutions disapproving the provisions of the ordinance; and
2. The automatic expiry of the ordinance within six weeks of the reassembly of the Houses of the Parliament unless passed by the Parliament; this gives a chance for the Parliament to debate on the ordinance and review it accordingly

Answer : The cabinet secretary is the successor of the secretariat of the Executive Council of viceroy. The efficiency of the cabinet depends to a large extent on the cabinet secretariat whose duty is to prepare in a meaningful way the agenda of the cabinet meeting, to provide information and material necessary for its deliberations, and to draw up records of the discussions and decisions both of the cabinet and its committee. It keeps the president, the vice president and all the ministers informed of the major activities of the government.

Prime Minister’s secretariat came in to being on 15 Aug 1947. Since June 1977 it is known as the PMO. It occupies the status of a department of the government of India under the allocation of Business Rule 1961 and has no attached subordinate officer under it. It is an extra constitutional institution that has no mention in the constitution. The main task of it is to help the prime minister in the performance of his functions as the head of government. This office is not responsible for the prime minister functioning as head of the cabinet, but is responsible for his functioning as chairman of the planning commission. Owing to its function both the secretariat are important to run the country.

Answer : There are many provisions in the constitution that are directly or indirectly related to the protection and development of children.

1. Article 15- prohibits discrimination by the state on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. However this does not prevent the state from making any special provision for women and children.
2. Article 24- prohibition of employment of children in Hazardous jobs: No child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any factory or mining or engaged in any other hazardous employment.
   This provision is in the interest of public health and safety of the lives of children. In M.C. Mehta vs. state of Tamil Nadu case, the Supreme Court held that the state authorities should protect economic social and humanitarian rights of millions of children, working illegally in public and private sector.
3. Article 23-This prohibits traffic in human being and forced labour. It is an open fact that many children work as forced labour in different sectors.
4. Art 39(c)tells that health and strength of workers and the tender age of children must not be abused.
5. Art 45- provision for free and compulsory education for children up to the age of 14 years.

Answer : The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government announced on February 15, 2000 the National Population Policy with the long term objectives of achieving population stabilization by 2045, at a level consistent with the requirement of sustainable economic growth, social development and environmental protection. Significantly the cabinet approval for the policy came after it was decided to extend the freeze on the number of Lok Sabha seats for 25 more years from 2001 to 2026 on the basis of the 1971 census in order to enable state governments to pursue family planning measures as also to protect those states that have implemented the population stabilisation agenda successfully. The immediate objective of the policy, the documents states, is “to address the unmet needs to contraception, health infrastructure, and to provide integrated service delivery for basic reproductive and child health care”. The medium term objective is to bring the total fertility rates to replacement level by 2010. In pursuance of objectives the government spelt out 14 socio demographic goals, to be achieved by 2010. The National Commission on population that envisaged implementing and reviewing the long-term and medium term objectives of the policy, is to be chaired by the PM. Similar state commissions will be headed by the respective chief ministers.

The incentive package to promote the small family norms includes strengthening facilities of safe abortion, rewards for panchayats and zilla parishads for exemplary performance in universalizing the small family norms, achieving reductions in infant mortality and promoting literacy with completion of primary schooling and award of Rs. 500 by the department of women and child at the birth of a girl child and promotion of care and survival of the girl child up to two children. The department of Rural Development has instituted a maternity benefit scheme and many other measures. Couples below the poverty line who undergo sterilisation with not more than two living children, will be eligible for a health insurance plan, involving a sum not exceeding Rs. 5000 (For the children and the couple) besides a personal accident insurance cover for the spouse who undergoes sterilisation.

Answer : Union executive is part of Parliament, and later controls the former through in several ways like through financial control, administrative control, legislative control, collective and individual responsibility, representative control, control through inform control by suggestions.

• Financial Control: The Government is required to pass budget and financial bill in both the Houses. Parliament does not allow the Government to expense unnecessarily. The Government cannot withdraw any amount of money from consolidates the fund without parliamentary authority.
• Administrative Control: Generally, Parliament does not interfere in Administrative matters but if any policy is formed in wrong way, Parliament may ask for explanations.
• Legislative Control: While enacting any law in Parliament, the government needs to explain its all provisions and answer questions asked by the members of a Parliament. Thus, it does not allow the executive to enact any arbitrary acts.
• Collective and Individual Respon-sibility: The whole council of ministers is answerable to Lok Sabha for any step taken by any of the minister of the council of ministers. Even the minister is answerable individually to the Lok Sabha for steps taken by his officials of his department if Lok Sabha does not approve the act of the minister. The whole cabinet has to resign, because of collective responsibility.
• Representative Control: Members of Parliament represents different sections of people. They ask questions to the executive as repres-entatives.
• Control through Information – People and through them, members of Parliaments have unlimited right to seek information regarding any policy formed or steps taken by the executives. They ask information and keep control over any irresponsible acts.
• Control by Suggestions – Parliament makes some useful suggestions during the discussion of any policy. Members do not allow the executive to make defective policies.

A strong and ideal opposition is much required to effectively control the union executive. In India, our Parliament never gets such a stronger opposition. Small and regional parties in opposition, which do not have uniform ideologies cannot effectively control the union executive, however, sometimes they can cause obstacles. Moreover, corrupt political practices and selfish political motives of the parliamentary have lost the effectiveness of parliamentary control.

Answer : Supreme Court has come out of ‘basic features’ of the constitution since its observation beginning with Golak Nath case and culminating with Keshwannada. Since then Supreme Court has been repeating the doctrine of basic features which is immune from the power of amendment conferred by Article 368, which according to the court, was subject to implied limitations.

The question, what is the limit of Parliament regarding the amendment of the constitution under Article 368 was finally decided by the Supreme Court in the case of Keshvanand Bharti – 1973, in which it was held that the Parliament can amend the constitution but it has no power to destroy the basic structure or framework. Some features of the constitution are too vital to be amendable. In this case, the theory of basic features was, for the first time laid down.

However, the court did not finally declare what constitutes the basic features of the constitution, but it enlisted some categories as the basic feature in this list. At and thus they save the interest of their people through representation.

Present some of the basic features of the constitution of:

• Rule of Law
• Judicial Review
• Harmony and balance between fundamental rights and directive principles.
• Fundamental rights in certain cases.
• Democracy: free and fair elections.
• Jurisdiction of the supreme court under Article – 32.
• Limited power of Parliament to amend the constitution.
• Independence of Judiciary
• Secularism
• Separation of power
• Sovereignty and integrity of the State.

All these, besides some others constitute the basic features of the constitution, which cannot be amended. If the amendment aims to destroy any of the basic features of the constitution, it shall be held ultra virus and unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Answer : The Indian Constitution is the longest in the world constitutions and also contains selected provisions of the world constitutions. Indian constitutions were drafted, keeping in view all available constitutions of the world. At the time of its adoption and after half a century now there is a radical change in the situation of the national and international, political, economical and social scenario.

The world has not stand where it was at that time. Now situations and policies have taken place of the old ones. Indian political, Social and educational positions have changed drastically along with economical situations in broad head.

Nordic – The last and recent racial group which emerged in Indian territory from western side of India was Nordic also, known as Aryan based on their ‘Linguistic Characteristics’. They occupied the area like Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh.

Answer : Indian Constitution divides the power of governance between union and state which is more or less based on federal structure of the government. This division of power is more inclined towards union government seeing the tradition of the Indian political history.

Today, states in one or other context demand for greater autonomy. The centre is strong in Indian political system. The centre has been given monopoly on almost all the subjects except few, on which states has reserved say due to some local importance. The centre has, yet, power to give directions to the states in certain matters. The states have to depend upon the centre for financial assistance.

Such provisions and practices make the states dependent upon the centre in certain circumstances. If the states are given autonomy, though not according to their demands, but after initiating some studies in this field, it will prove to be very effective in the development at the states and thus, of the country.

States, do not get proportional share in financial assistance, if the ruling government this period of time.

Experts have been suggesting some changes in the constitution. Though constitutional amendments have reached to the score of a century, the constitution sometimes kick provisions and effective machineries to handle critical situations.

• Two party politics can be introduced as a constitutional measure, at least at the centre, to ensure stable governments.
• Change in provisions related to misuse of centre government’s control over state and misuse and ineffectiveness of the office of Governor can be removed.
• Unbalanced growth of different states is due to some policy defects. Provisions can be introduced to effective planning of states and centre through a non-political, independent body.
• More decentralization, more and more participation of people, social development, prevention and prohibition of criminalization and commercialization of politics are other areas that pose a need for review of the India constitution.

A part from this long list of major and minor improvements can be prepared, though the present constitution is a flexible success, to govern the nation. As the centre is opposed to it. Sometimes, the states are not given enough facilities and grants, if the state is not politically important for the central Government.

These may hinder the development of the states, if the centre is not pleased to do so. Sometimes only because of political reasons, some states are left behind in the race of development or cannot develop according to their resources and potentials.

These policies are frequently being used in the practices and so the aggrieved states have raised their voice against this injustice for greater autonomy.

If states' dependency on centre can be reduced the state’s development activities can be taken much ahead from where it stands now. This will also lead to harmonious and smooth functioning of the Indian polity.

Answer : In Parliamentary Democracy, elections play a fundamental role for the functioning of political system. There are many deficiencies and drawbacks that are self-evident in our elections.

For only a free and fair election can give the country, a suitable government, it is necessary to made some electoral reforms so that a free and fair elections, really can be held.

The criminalization of politics is the major factor to be removed and so the politicians must be kept under strict control of forces and the electoral booth should be strictly protected.

• Criminal records of the candidate must be published before the election.
• The wealth and property of the candidate must be publicity disclosed.
• Awareness should be raised among the voters about their values of votes.
• Before elections, awareness among voters through education must be made.
• Some hard criminals must be held ineligible for the elections.

All these reforms can lead to free and fair elections, which have been the need of the time, for the Indian political system.

Answer : The Estimates Committee is one of the three financial committees. The members of this are drawn solely from Lok Sabha.

This committee works as the “continuous economy committee”. It examines the annual budget estimates in detail, in order to suggest some remedial economic measures, administrative reforms etc. This committee is required to functions like:

1. Suggest any alternative policies to bring economy in country’s financial functioning.
2. To examine whether the money spent was appropriate or not, and also the channel through which it was spent correct or not.
3. Suggest form of the presentation of estimates in the Parliament.

The estimates committee examines the working of the policy. It criticizes if the policy does not work properly and efficiently and leads to waste. It also suggests some alternative or curative measures. It is the duty of the estimates committee to bring to the notice of the Parliament, the ineffectiveness of the policy and need for changes in policy.

Answer : Indian political system is not fully federal in character rather it is quasi-federal. A part from a few constitutional factors like financial power, emergency power etc. given by constitution to the union, which makes centre powers dominates over the state, some other extra-constitutional factors also exist there.

• Rise of regional parties in different parts of Indian territory have always tried to draw more and more benefits from the centre, instead of understanding and accepting proportionality.
• Central government tries to give positive biasness to the regional power where its own party or ally has formed governments. On the other hand, the states which have governments of a political party different for or opposite to the central Governmental party have to bear bias policies of the centre.
• The Planning Commission is responsible for the national planning. It is an extra constitutional body but leaning much towards the centre. Its Planning are to be passed by NDC, which also sometimes takes bias decisions towards central policies.
• The states have to depend for more financial assistance upon the centre. Here also political affinity plays a role.

All these are the factors responsible which influence the working of federal Policy in India.

Answer : The concept of Public Interest Litigation in India was propounded by the Supreme Court in an important Judgement in the Judge’s transfer’s case. Since then, it has become one of the important weapons in the hands of higher judiciary to enforce the legal and constitutional obligation of executive and legislature towards the interest of the public at large.

The concept of PIL has emanated from the power of judicial review enjoyed by the higher courts in India.

A PIL can be filed by any publicly spirited individual or organization on behalf of the aggrieved and afflicted persons. Even a post card can be treated as a writ petition.

This PIL is basically for group interest and not for the individual interest. Thus Supreme Court or High Court can reject if it is intended to mean for individual.

Again if on hearing the petition, the court finds that no right of the person of the group of persons is violated, it can reject the public interest Litigation.

Answer : This bill was passed by the U.P. State Legislature in January, 2000 but the Governor of U.P. reserved the bill for the consideration of the president under Article 201 of the constitution.

Main Provision of these Bills is:

1. It made mandatory for the consideration of any “Public Religions Building” – The permission of state Government through district office.
2. Mainly it was aimed to restrict terrorist activities in the 1100 km long U.P. – Nepal Border.
3. If Public order, morality, health or law is violated, the collect orate can stay the construction.
4. There is also a provision of imprisonment up to one year or fine up to five thousand or both.

Answer : India's modern independent political history is of recent development and is full caste, religion and region based. This is not ideal politics, for socio-economic development.

Lok Sabha being the popular house of parliament is directly elected through universal franchise, has become a platforms of political games.

In such a situation, Rajya Sabha being a permanent body, comprising of senior citizen having good academic and knowledgeable background are supposed to be less politicised unlike Lok Sabha.

It has a great significance in a Federal Country and even in situations of today, it has achieved more significance.

When the Lok Sabha passes any act, Rajya Sabha acts as a revising body. It considers various provisions of the act, peacefully and do not allow changes in law in heat of a momentary passion, by reconsideration.

It can, empower the Lok Sabha to enact, in national interest on any matter enumerated in the state list under Article 249.

It discusses questions of some importance which is left over by Lok Sabha due to paucity of time and thus it draws the attention of the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha though has no power to alter money bill but it can draw attention of the Lok Sabha. Opinions of respected members of Rajya Sabha are given great importance in practice, by politicians also.

Thus in today's fast going politics, Rajya Sabha acts to balance and direct politics towards national importance.

Answer : Indian constitution under Article 15 pledges to prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion race, caste sex or place of birth or any of them.

However, this prohibition of discrimination is qualified by 'Special Provision'- (I) for women and children under clause 3 and (II) for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the scheduled caste and the scheduled tribes under clause 4.

However, exceptions are being provided by constitution for positive discrimination by making special provision for those belonging to falling under clause (3) and (4). Moreover, what is prohibited is not discrimination but discrimination on any of the specified grounds in Article-15

(i)Only on any other grounds, not mentioned here, discrimination can be made.

The provisions of Article-15 is available to the citizen only. However, its scope is much wider, as it is enforceable not only against the state but also against individuals.

Article 46 of the directive principles of state policy enjoins the state to promote with special care, the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people.

In requires making provisions particularly for the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes. Along with Article 16, 29 and 340 of the constitution this article efforts for upliftment of backward classes of the society. Reserving seats in educational institutions under Article 15(3) and seat in public employment under Article 16(4) are held to be constitutional by the Supreme Court.

Insertion of the clause 4 in Article 15 for special provisions for SCs and STs and other backward classes by 1st Amendment Act 1951 have been made under these articles and the benefits educational, social, economical and political fields are given to them is also constitutional and valid provision.

Answer : Constitution of India is well known for its volumian were as a socio-economic document, which tells not only about fundamentals rights to the citizen, but it also guide direct, and specify the way of socio-economic change and development to the state and government thyco the mean of directive people of state policy. DPSP is scattered Hytho the Articles 36-51 in the part 10th of constitution. DPSP widely informed about the protection of women class, weaker section, buys, environment. It also suggested the government about law making to the environmental conservation, Gandhian Value, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj andDecentralisation of power at gross and lane, to small scale industry, principles of socialisation, land reform, internal peace coexistence, and separation of power, uniform civil code, etcall the matters which are essential for making a law of "Welfare State" is discussed in broader sense in the directive principle of state policy.

Indira Gandhi things the 24th amendment of the constitution has positioned some articles like 39 (b) (c) at a primary importance to over the fundamental right amending the 13th article ofcurtailthere Articles are related with 'Socialism' and Laborer's' payment (equal pay for equal work) and working class (protected) rights protection, materialisation, Indian rural economy has overshadowed over the fundamental rights things they article so, we may say in some extent that DPSP, although Non Justiciable in a definite situation have got primacy over the fundamental rights.

Answer : The Union Government constituted a three-tier National Security Council in November, 1998 with six members including the Prime Minister of India. The Prime Minister, as the chairman of this council will have support of Defence Minister, Home Minister, Finance Minister, Foreign Minister, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, as other member of this council.

The three tier composition include National Security Policy Group, a International Committee and a National Security Advisory Board as its components.

The council will be responsible for providing recommendation and suggestions in the matters of national security, international strategic policies and other specilised matters.

This council will consist of experts in external security, strategic matters, defence personnels, science and technological, economy and politics.

Main aim of the constitution of this council is to formulate effective policies in matters of national security with the help of experts advise for the nation.

Answer : In the Regime of Indira Gandhi, the unjusticiable Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) has seen its importance due to over sharing of Fundamental Rights with 29th Amendment of constitution.

29th Amendment in the Article 13(A+B) adding new clause 13 (c) which speaks about nothing in the fundamental right which violet the protection made thyco the article 39 (b) (c) can be recommended.

So, this amendment of 24th gives a special power over the fundamental rights. In the section 34 (b) (c) there is the essence of socialist pattern of society. Labour Protection Equal pay for equal work, Right to created sections, Land Reforms, and eradcation of feudal News are mentioned.

So, the Amendment widen the right of Poor Section, Labour Section, Agricultural Section of Society and this amendment established the notion of welfare state in broaden perspectives. Justification and putative of these provision may be held on theschedule of judiciary.

But this amendment create a wider academic discussion among the constitutional experts and debate of the level of importance between directiveof state policy and Fundamental Right sectors especially freedom of awing property and professional etc. about intervened of working communities, in the decision process, and management are also being pointed out after this amendment.

Answer : The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) oldest finance committee, consists of 22 members.

It examines mainly the accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by the house for the expenditure of the Government of India in order to ascertain whether the money has been spent as authorised by the parliament and for the purpose for which it was granted.

If any money has been spent on any service during a financial year in excess of the amount granted by the House for that purpose, the granted by the House for the Purpose, the committee examines the circumstances leading to such excess and makes such recommendation as it may deem fit. Such excess are required to be brought up before the House by government for regularisation.

The committee is interested not merely in discovering technical irregularities but also in bringing out any evidence of waste, corruption, inefficiency or operational deficiency in the conduct of nation's financial affairs.

The basic material from which the committee draws its subjects for examination are the audit reports of the comptroller and Auditor General of India relating to the accounts of the Union which are laid before each House of the Parliament.

Answer : Speaker of the Lok Sabha and in his absence any such person as may be determined by rules of procedure prescribed, shall preside over the joint-session of the two houses.

Answer : There is no provision for the impeachment of the Governor of State. He holds his office during the pleasure of the president.

Answer : By an electoral college consisting of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, through a system of proportional representation and means of single transferable vote, by secrete ballot is adopted.

Answer : Right to property was the part of fundamental rights before 44th Amendment 1976. Now it is legal right under article 300 A.

Answer : Less than six months.

Answer : The enumeration of the Directive Principles of state policy under part IV of the Constitution Covering Articles 36 to 51 forms a unique features of the Indian Constitution.

They are a unique blend of socialistic, Liberal Democratic and Gandhi an Principles.

As the Constitutional Provisions reveal the Fundamental Rights enumerated under part III in a court of Law, while the Directive Principles under Part IV are not Justiciable.

But however through successive amendments and greater emphasis being laid on Directive Principles its significance has increased over a period of time.

In 1971, Parliament passed the 25th Amendment Act. It introduced new article 31 (c) Stating if the state exacts any law giving effect to two Directive Principles, namely equitable distribution of wealth Art. 39 (b) and prevention of Concentration of wealth in fewer hands Art. 39 (c) and in that Process if the law Violates the fundamental rights enumerated in Art 14, 19 and 31 , it cannot be held void nearly on this ground. Art. 31 (c) further states that such a law giving effect to Art. 39 (b) and (c) cannot be questioned in a court of law.

The 42nd Amendment Act 1976, Further amended Art 31-c, and widened its scope, and gave precedence for all the Directive principles over Art. 14, 19 and 31. Art. 31-c as amended by the 42nd Amendment Act 1976, empowered the state to make laws giving effect to all the Directive principles and in doing so the law can override Art. 14,19 and 31. Thus the laws made to this effect were made immune from judicial Review.

Hence the present position is that only Article31 (b) and 31 (c) can be given Precedence over Art 14 and 19 and not all Directive principles.

To sum up, the Directive principles importance vis-a-vis to Fundamental Rights, to quote Nehru, "Point out the way we have got to travel". These principle represent remarkable and fundamental blue print of a liberal welfare state

Answer : In the Parliamentary form of Government in India, there are generally three types of elections through which the members of legislature are elected.

General Elections: It is held when the legislature completes its term of five years. All the members of legislature are elected through this election. As it is widely spread it, costs a huge amount and a serious notice is taken all over the nation.

Mid-term Election: If the Government falls due to Lok of Confidence in the Lok Sabha or the state Assembly before completion of its full-term and no alternative government is possible, mid-term elections are held. Such elections have been frequent recently due to lack of absolutely majority to a single duty. Due to defections and with drawl of Support by members, such election becomes necessary, causing undesired burden of expense over public.

By Election: It is held in case of vacation of any seat during the term of legislature. It may be by death, region cancellation of election commission or such other reasons.

(a) When the New Lok Sabha come to seat, and yet the speaker is not selected, the president appoints a proton speaker to preside over the Lok Sabha, till the new speaker is elected for that newly elected Lok Sabha.

(b) Central Vigilance Commission along with three other vigilance commissioners keeps watch and vigilance over any corrupt practices by higher officers and executives of centre. It observes CBI's finding.

(c) Article 21 of the Constitution is a fundamental right tendered to Right to life and Personal liberty. It has wide scope which includes rights to privacy, education, water, pollution free environment and right against bondage labour, against any exploitation.

(d) The President can divide, after the consultation with the Election Commission under Article 102 (i) if member is -

(i)Not a Citizen

(ii)Undischarged insolvement

(iii) declared of unsolved mind by Court.

(iv) Holding any office of Profit

(e) Parliamentary Secretary holds the Rank of Minister who helps minister in their acts. A Lok Sabha Secretary helps the speaker of Lok Sabha in Proceedings and acts of Lok Sabha.

(f)Ifany member of the House hide or keep secret from the house any information or present it wrongly, other member can pass this motion.

Answer : Election of the President: Article 54-The president is elected by an electoral college. It consists members of:

(i)The elected members of both the House of Parliament

(ii)The elected members of legislative assemblies of states including Delhi and Pondicherry But nominated members are not included.

Article 55- The election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote by secret ballot. At Article 55 describes manner of the president's election. It clears how numbers of votes are to be counted. It attempts to secure uniformity among state inter be. It also secure parity between the states as a whole and the union in number of votes.

Election of the vice-president: Article-66-By members of an electoral college consisting of the members of both houses of parliament.

System of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote by secret ballot.

Apart from these constitutional provisions. Parliament has passed the presidential and vice-presidential elections (Amendment) Act 1997, which provides manners and methods in detail regarding such elections.

Constitutional issues involved:

Disputes regarding the election - Article 71 provides that all dobts an disputes arising regarding the election of the president or the vice-president shall be inquired into and decided by the supreme court. Its decision will be final.

Vacancy in Electoral College: In the case of B.N.B. khare vs Election commissioner of India-1958, the petitioner challenged the election on the ground of vacancy in electoral college due to dissolution of certain legislative assembly. It was held and now, Article - 71 (4) provides that the election. Of the president or Vice-President cannot be challenged on the ground of vacancy in a particular electoral collage.

Fine of election: In re, presidential elections - 1974, the supreme court held that the election to the office of the president must be held before the expiration of the term of the president even it, if there is a vacancy in electoral college.

Answer : Article - 3 in the Constitution deals with the formation of new states. Under this Provision Parliament can initiate formation of new states but with the Prior recommendation of the Parliament. If the bills affects the area, boundaries or change of name of the state, it is to be referred to the concerned state legislature by the president for eliciting its views. However the views so given by the state is not boundful on President. The legislature has to express his views within the time specified. For any of this act, Parliament needs to pass the Act by simple majority and it shall not be considered as an amendment to the Constitution under Article 368.

Demand of Separate states like Jharkhand, Telangena, Uttarakhand etc are not considered by the Government recently because formation these states was not in their agenda. The demands of states like Uttaranchal, Jharkhand etc. was considered according to the agend of the Government.

This separation of state also depends on the existing government desireness to go for the same. While the Andhara Pradesh and Maharashtra government are not ready for creation of new states out of parent state.

Answer : The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 has added a new Part IX Consisting of 16 Article and the eleventh Schedule to the Constitution. The 73rd Amendment Act envisages the Gram Sabha as the foundation of the Panchayat Raj System to perform functions and Powers entrusted to it by the state legislatures. The amendment provide for a three tier Panchayat Raj System at village, intermediate and district levels.

The Act provides that the Panchayat bodies will have an assured direction of five years-with elections mandatory after this period.

However, one thing is to be noted that under the amendment Act the establishment of Panchayats and the devolution of powers and authority on the Panchayati Raj institutions are vested in the state Governments.

Without honest intention, these institutions would be misused by rural rich and the poor and illiterate masses will remain a mute supporters as it is happening in Parliamentary and state assemblies elections in the country.

Answer : Indian Constitution grants for Bicameral Parliamentary System in the Centre. The States can also have second house if they so desire, which is known as legislative council. In India only five states have bicameral state legislature viz. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir.

However Significance of second house is much debatable topic, it can be justified on following grounds.

1. This house consist of senior and qualified personalities on concerned field. So their presence in state legislature brings merit in politics.
2. Its members are relatively much legs politicised and not much biased. So they are leas Partial.
3. This second house is permanent house. This brings stability in present day much dynamic politics.
4. I Can consider various aspects of the policy, which may not find time to discuss in popular house due to paucity of time.

'Article 169 of the' India Constitution deals with the abolition or creation of the legislative council. Parliament may create or abolish depending upon the wish of the legislative assembly concerned. To pass such resolution, majority of the total membership of the Assembly and the majority of not less than two-third of the members present and voting is necessary.

Answer : The preamble is the soul of constitution. It dadases India as the sovereign, social, secular, democratic, Republic nation. Socialism means, in context to India, equal distribution of wealth and resources, Secularism in positive meaning embodies principles and provisions for the development of all religions. India's a democracy with no perpetual hereditary king to let it be a republic state. Preamble embodies provisions of justice, liberty. Equality and fraternity. Through various articles they are dealt with in detail.

Answer : Social justice means an equal and fair opportunity for everyone to live in just conditions of the society. It envisages rights regarding social, economic and political matters for the all over development of a person to live a healthy social life.

Only legal justice saves a person from arbitrariness of course, but it is not enough for positive and creative role in welfare of human being. For these ends. Even courts strive to provide social justice to the needy classes.

Reservation of seats for women in parliament is a much hotly debated question for quite a long time- whether it will really serve any purpose or not-if reservation is given to women will they be able to perform the responsible duty of a legislator or will they occupy those honorable limited seats and intelligent and deserving candidates have to remain out of parliament? Moreover, will they be able to perform their duties independently or work just as "rubber-stamps" in the hands lf their relatives?

All these questions being discussed hotly whenever the topic is raised. But, today, internationally, women are getting prestigious positions. They are achieving amazing successes in various fields which were hardly expected from woman. They have performed as well as men almost all fields now-a-days. These suggest that if they are provided. With enough opportunities, they will perform well even in parliament.

Some reasons given in favour are:

• They are ambitious enough to do well.
• They are less politicised and so much neutral to the reality.
• They are more honest.
• They are caring and kind by nature and this can make them work sensitively to solve the problems in society
• They are hard working and responsible.

All these, besides many more, are the reasons why woman reservation in parliament will prove a good step.

However, their condition in today's society is not satisfactory. Literacy, awareness and social activity is not been among then in enough proportion But, reservation will bring out potential leader in them and will make them aware of their rights and powers. This will read to the upliftment of women and through them families, villages, towns and the nation at last.

Answer : Under part III of the constitution, Article 29 provides for the right to conserve language, script or culture to the linguistic minority as a fundamental right. In the same apart, Article 30 provides right of establishment and administration of educational institutions of their choice. Apart from these fundamental rights, Article 350 requires the president to appoint a specialized officer for protection of interest of the linguistic minorities& report to the president recommendations required for that. This report is presented to parliament all these provisions aim at upliftment & protection of their interest.

Answer : In India there are three All India services at present Indian Administration service (IAS), Indian Police service (IPS) and Indian Forest service (IFS). Having concerned with the efficiency and ability of these services, It is agued that all India judicial service should be created on the some outings.

In Indian, the supreme court is the highest judicial body states have the High Courts at the highest judicial position, working with courts subordinate to it. If an All India Judicial Services is crated, the judges of the subordinate courts can be appointed by this service.

Points of arguments are raised for and against this suggestion

• It will provide services of intelligent and efficient officers to all over the country.
• It will create cadres of states and this will help the disposal of cases and fair justice by efferent officers.
• If necessary the services of officers can be available for a some other part of nation
• It will maintain a uniform level of service Against
• Officers appointed may not be well aware of the customers, culture and socio-economic life of the place of appointment and so it may lead to ignorance in delivery of judgments
• The directive principle of separation of judiciary from the executive will be dated.
• The hold of executives over the judiciary cannot be defined. Transfer of judges promoters. Etc. May politicise even judiciary. It may be concluded that though judiciary should not fall in the lands of the executives and yet to create All India judicial service will be desirable and so selection and appointments at national level can be suggested.

Answer : Regionalism is favoring a particular region due to personal likeness or allotment with it. Due to regionalism, a person forgets the unity or the nation and starts to plead for his favorite region. This feeling of regionalism disturbs the balance among various parts of the nation. In India it has grown due to the following factors.

• The historical factors: The history has divided India into two perfect parts and theme differenced as the "Aryans" and the: "Dravidors".
• The geographical factors:- Indian geography has divided the country in many parts. The resources Industries, soil irrigating etc. are not similar and therefore they also cause differentes among the people.
• The political. Factors: For some selfish surpasses many regional parties have been sparing out andthey have paved obstacles in national interest.
• The economical factors- uneven economic development of various parts of the country has also plaged a role in regionalism.
• Language culture, customs etc - these factors have played major role in creating the feelings of regionalism, especially among illiterates or less educated people.
• Such regionalism has disturb harmony and smooth relationship among various states and with the centre and as the result, has led to obstacles in the developments.

Answer : The constitutional procedure regarding financial matters ensures the supremacy of Lok Sabha. The constitution provides that no taxshall be decideor collected except by authority of parliament. Parliamentary authority here means that it will be discussed by both theHouses of Parliament.

The Annual financial statement popularly known at the; Budget' Containing estimate of all receipts and expenditures are laid down before each House by the President. It is discussed in both Houses, however, Rajya Shaba has no right to amend it , but it is open for discussion. The Lok Sabha has to section the Budget in advanced of every year. The money to be charged upon the consolidated fund is also put to discussion however, the expenditure "charged on" the consolidated fund by the constitution is not open for vote, but other expenditure proposed to be made from the fund is open to vote.

The amount thus sought from the consolidated fund is to vote. The amount thus sought from the consolidated fund is to be passed as "Demands for Grants" in Lok Sabha. Money can be withdrawn only by the Appropriation bill, to be passed by the Lok Sabha having power to control the expenditure. The Railway Budget is also passed through the voting procedure in parliament.

All these Demands for grants are in the nature of a request by the minister, to the Lok Sabha to grant authority for expenditure mentioned there in these demands, in any form are budget to "cut motions". In three ways.

1. Disapproval of Policy cut. It reduces the demands to Rs. 1 disapproving the policy.
2. Economy cut, It reduces the demand to economize the expenditure.
3. Joken cut: It cuts the demand by Rs. 100. These are control parliament exercises in the financial system in India.

Answer : Rule 193 signifies that contempt motions are different from non-confident motion. Rule 193 signifies that the speaker or the chairperson can allow a short time for discussion on a matter of importance.

Answer : It is a foreign policy doctrine propounded by Mr. J. K. Giyral, India's former Prime Minister. It emphasizes relations of India with neighboring countries in trade and political co-operation. It respects sovereignty, equality and privacy of matters for every motion.

Answer : It includes all important aspects of polices. Of every party. With emphasis on socialistic pattern, eradication of poverty and unemployment, development of agriculture and villages, prevention of misuse of Article 365 etc.

Answer : Four fundamental duties prescribed in the constitution of India are:

1. To uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
2. To defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so.
3. To value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture.
4. To safeguard public property and to abjure violence.

Answer : Article-24 provides that children below the age of fourteen years shall not be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.

Answer : Article-356 relates to failure of constitutional machinery in states. It empowers the president. To assume the functions of the governmental of state to himself. It is popularly called "Presidential Rule in the state".

Answer : Meaning of Rule of Law: The term ‘Rule of Law’ is taken from England. It means that no man is above the law and that every person is subject to the jurisdiction of ordinary courts of law, irrespective of his rank and position. ‘Rule of Law’ requires that no person should be subjected to harsh, uncivilised or arbitrary treatment.

Rule of Law under Indian Constitution: The constitution of India guarantees equality before the law, as an aspect of the rule of law, under Article-14.

Under Article 32, the Supreme Court has power to issue writes in the nature of Habeas Corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari. It is also given power of judicial review to prevent any ultra vires law, to preserve ‘Rule of Law’ Article 15 and 16 of right to equality and Article 19, 20 and 21 in form of right to life and liberty are provisions of our constitution to this affect.

In India, no one has very arbitrary power, except the powers given by the law. The constitution is the Supreme Court law of the land and even the government derives its authority from it. This effectuates the supremacy of law.

Everyone, in India are subject to same laws, without any discrimination, court takes into account no rank or condition.

However, the president and the governors (under Article 361) are given special exemptions. Armed forces personnels are treated by armed laws, officials are given same immunities etc. But these provision do not negate the effectiveness of the rule of law in India, because their provisions are also made by laws, under various provisions of the constitution.

From a poor person to the president, be it a police constable or a collector, are treated by law.

Thus, the Indian constitution effectively applies the rule of law. The Supreme Court in the case of India Nehru, Gandhiji vs. Raj Narain - 1975 held that the rule of law embodied in Article 14 is the ‘basic structure’ of the Indian constitution and hence it cannot be destroyed even by an amendment of the constitution under Article 368 of the constitution.

Answer : Functions and responsible responsibilities of the president, the Ministers, the Legislators and the members of the judiciary are specific and different from each other.

Our constitution requires any person to take an oath or affirmation before entering into office or taking over the responsibility. Oath or affirmation binds the person to do his duties well and to be faithful to it. Different authorities need to perform different functions or responsibilities and so, the forms of oath are also different accordingly. However, all these are commonly obliged to bear to true faith and allegiance to the constitution and to uphold sovereignty and integrity of India, on oath.

Thepresident is the head of the state and all functions of the country are performed in his name. Moreover, being a part of Parliament and having ordinance making powers he also plays he role of a legislator. Par doing power in the field of judiciary and supreme command of the Armed Forces in his hands, requires him to be faithful to the constitution.

Article-60 provides the form of oath or affirmation of the President. It requires him to preserve, protect and defend the constitution and law at his best ability. Also, he is required to devote himself to the service and well-being of the people of India.

On the other hand, a minister belongs to political parties. In political ups and downs he performs his duties. Therefore he is required, on an oath or affirmation, to discharge his duties without fear or favour, affection or ill-will. In the meadst of political activities, he is very much required to keep secrecy of official matters.

The legislators are to make laws and solve the problems of national or local importance arising day to day. They need to discharge this duty faithfully on oath. Functions of the judicial members are to uphold the constitution and law of the country. They take oath to this affect and accept duties to perform them with best ability, knowledge and judgement. They are expected by oath to discharge these duties without any fear or favour affection or ill-will.

So, for these reasons of speciality of functions and duties, our constitution contains different forms of oath for them.

Answer : Judicial Activism means taking matters into consideration by the judiciary to order the executives or bureaucrats to perform their duties, constitutional and public. This power and process of judicial Activism has been emanated from judicial Review.

It can reduce corruption by forcing the implementation of public duties without delay and for the enforcement of public rights. This can be attracted for any constitutional provision to be enforced and to follow the manners of policy in proper way by executives. Non Activism of bureaucracy due to non-constitutional reasons can be removed by judicial Activism. For example, the Supreme Court orderedof many chemical industries near urban areas which polluted river waters, otherwise not done by executives.

Answer : Measures!

• Human Rights Acts should be implemented with strict provisions. As the Human Rights are matters of world concern, related protocols and agreements, declarations and treaties should be given effect by all countries as legal provisions.
• Separate, effective, efficient and independent authority or system should be constituted to examine in the cases of Human Rights violations and their measures at international, national, regional and local levels.
• People, Governments, administration and officers should be made aware of Human Rights, Voluntary organisations and institutions should be promoted for the protection of Human Rights.

Answer : Significance of Supreme Court judgement on the Income Tax Returns of political parties:

• The judgement compelling political parties to file their income tax return in time would have effect of checking the flow of black money for power, money and muscles politics.
• It will also curb uncontrolled use of money through party funds for election propaganda.
• Industrialists and businessmen, distributing black money to political parties for influencing their decision will also be controlled by such returns.

Answer : The ministers have to made “Demands for Grants” in the Lok Sabha. Generally, each minister asks for these demands separately. It is put to discussion. It is open to members to disapprove a policy, or members can suggest some economical measures, or they can draw attention of the ministry to any specific local grievances.

The members can do so by moving a subsidiary motion. This subsidiary motions to the main motion for grants are called “cut Motion”.

There are three types of “Cut Motion”:

1. Disapproval of policy: This is the most drastic motion. It is in the nature of disapproving the whole policy and the member says that the “demand reduced to Re. 1”.
2. Economy cut: This motion attempts to economize the expenditure and the member seeks to reduce the amount originally demanded by some specific amount.
3. Token cut: It is most prevalent motion. It seeks to reduce the demand by Rs. 100. It is to voice a particular grievance to be drawn to the attention of the ministry. However, these motions are just for formality ways of starting discussion. They are not passed, generally, because of the governments majority. It can be passed only if the government loses confidence in the Lok Sabha.

Answer : Meaning: Delegated or subordinate legislation means rules of law made under the authority of an Act of Parliament.

Although law making is the function of legislature, it may, by a statute, delegate its power to other bodies or persons. The statute which delegates such power is known as Enabling Act. By Enabling Act the legislature, lays down be broad guidelines and detailed rules are enacted by the delegated authority.

Delegated legislation is permitted by the Indian Constitution. It exists in form of bye rules, regulations, orders, bye laws etc.

Tactors responsible for its increase:

• Busy Legislature: Parliament and State Legislature are too busy to deal with the increasing mass of legislations, which are necessary to regulate daily affairs.
• Technicality and knowledge: Modern legislation requires technicality and expertise knowledge of problems of various fields, our legislators, who are politicians are not expected to have such knowledge.
• Experiments opportunities: Subordinate legislations are more flexible, quickly and easily amendable and revocable than ordinary legislation, in case of failure or defect in its application.
• Contingencies: When contingencies arise which were not forceable at the time of making it, subordinate legislation can pass an act quickly to handle them.
• Emergency Powers: Quick, effective and confidential decisions are not possible in body of legislatives. So, executives are delegated with power to make rules to deal with such situations.

These are the main factors, besides many others, for the fast increase in delegated legislation today.

Answer : Article-266 of the Constitution of India makes a provision to create. “The consolidate fund of India”.

The consolidated fund of India is made of the money received by the Government of India from

• revenues;
• issue of treasury bill;
• repayment of loans and advances made by it.

The part of state from taxes and duties are paid to them before depositing the revenue in this fund.

Money can be appropriated from this fund only in accordance with law and for only those purposes which are provided in the constitution.

The contingency fund may be established by Parliament by law under Article 267 of the constitution. It is in the nature of an imprest. Such law shall determine sums to be paid in this fund from time to time.

This fund is placed at the disposal of the president of India. He may make advances out of this fund. It is to be used for the purpose of meeting unforeseen expenditures. The expenditure requires authorisation of Parliament by law under Article 115 or 116.

Answer : This committee on Election Reforms recommended constitution of a multi-member Election Commission, preparatin of voters, identity cards and prevention of criminalisation of elections.

Answer : Under Article-262, Parliament is empowered to adjudicate any disputes regarding use, distribution or control of the waters of, or in any inter-state river valley.

Answer : Mandamus cannot be issued against a private individual or organisation; judges of the court when working in the capacity of the judge, the governor of a state or the president of India.

Answer : Comptroller and Auditor General's salaries etc. are charged on the consolidated fund of India and cannot be varied to his disadvantage. He can be removed only by a special procedure. He is not eligible for any other office after retirement.

Answer : A Money Bill is related to any one or more of the provisions of Article-110. A Financial Bill may relate to any other provisions also. All Money Bills are Financial Bills, but not vice-versa.

Answer : For protection of Human Rights, the commission recommends measures:

• to make laws, implement treaties.
• to aware people about Human Rights.
• to investigate violation of Human Rights and
• to promote acts fortaking such measures.