CDS (I) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 76 of 120

UPSC dropped this question from the paper. No option is keyed and no candidate gained or lost a mark on it, and the reason is worth more than an answer would have been: the stem asks which statement is not a correct description of the Union Cabinet, and two of the four are wrong, so the item cannot be keyed to one letter. Take them in turn. The Cabinet is not part of the Parliament — it is the political executive, drawn from members of Parliament and answerable to them, but constitutionally a separate organ; ministers sit in the House because they are members of it, not because the Cabinet is a limb of it. And a person from outside Parliament certainly can be appointed to the Cabinet: Article 75(5) says that a Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of either House shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister, which is a rule that only makes sense if such an appointment is permitted in the first place, provided the Minister enters one of the Houses within six months. Either statement, read plainly, is an incorrect description, and an item with two defensible answers has to go.

• (a)It is part of the Parliament. — An incorrect description, and therefore a defensible answer. The Cabinet is the executive; Parliament is the legislature. Ministers must be members of one House or become members within six months, which links the two organs without merging them.
• (b)It is responsible to the Parliament. — A correct description, so not the answer — with one refinement worth carrying. Article 75(3) makes the Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the House of the People, not to both Houses, so responsibility to Parliament is true in the loose sense in which the paper uses it.
• (c)It remains in power till it enjoys the confidence of the Parliament. — Also a correct description. A government stays in office while it commands the confidence of the House of the People; a motion of no confidence carried there brings the whole Council of Ministers down.
• (d)A person from outside the Parliament can never be appointed a member of the Cabinet. — The other incorrect description, and the reason the item is unkeyable alongside statement (a). Article 75(5) allows a non-member to be appointed and gives him six months to enter Parliament — the route by which several Prime Ministers and Ministers have taken office before winning a seat.

The Union executive is built on two ideas that the Constitution states briefly and the conventions fill out. Article 74 requires the President to act on the aid and advice of a Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister. Article 75 supplies the machinery: the Prime Minister is appointed by the President and the other Ministers on his advice, the total number of Ministers may not exceed fifteen per cent of the strength of the House of the People, Ministers hold office during the pleasure of the President, the Council is collectively responsible to the House of the People, and a Minister who is not a member of either House for six consecutive months ceases to hold office. The word Cabinet itself does not appear in the original text; it entered the Constitution only through Article 352 as amended in 1978.

For a candidate the value of this item lies in the two propositions it tangles together. Fusion of powers in a parliamentary system means the executive is drawn from the legislature and stays only while the legislature tolerates it, but it does not mean the executive is a part of the legislature — that is the distinction statement (a) gets wrong. And the six-month window in Article 75(5) is the standard answer to any never or always claim about ministers and membership. Read the statements against the text rather than against a general sense of how the system feels, and both errors show up. UPSC's own decision to cancel is the strongest confirmation that neither statement can be defended.

• Article 75(5) provides that a Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of either House of Parliament ceases to be a Minister at the end of that period.
• Article 75(3) makes the Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the House of the People alone.
• Article 75(1A), inserted by the 91st Amendment in 2003, caps the Council of Ministers including the Prime Minister at fifteen per cent of the strength of the House of the People.
• Article 74 requires the President to act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister.
• The word Cabinet appears in the Constitution only in Article 352, inserted by the 44th Amendment in 1978, which requires the written advice of the Cabinet before a Proclamation of Emergency.

• Reading fusion of powers as identity — the executive comes out of the legislature but is not a part of it.
• Believing that a Minister must already be a member of Parliament on the day of appointment; six months are allowed.
• Treating Cabinet and Council of Ministers as interchangeable; the Council is the whole body, the Cabinet its senior core.

As a not-a-correct-description item on the Union executive, or as a statements question on Article 75 and the six-month rule.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  A Minister of the Union who is not a member of either House of Parliament ceases to hold office at the end of which period?

  • (a)Three months
  • (b)Six months
  • (c)One year
  • (d)The remainder of the term of the House

  Answer(b) Six months — Article 75(5), which is why a person from outside Parliament may be appointed to the Cabinet in the first place.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Constitution of India, the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to

  • (a)the President
  • (b)both Houses of Parliament
  • (c)the House of the People
  • (d)the Council of States

  Answer(c) the House of the People — Article 75(3); the Rajya Sabha cannot bring a government down.