MPSC 2024 Prelims Paper-I · Question 72 of 100

Correct — option (1), 'Article 148'. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is provided for in Part V of the Constitution, in a short chapter of four articles devoted entirely to the office. Article 148 is the founding provision: it declares that there shall be a Comptroller and Auditor General of India, that he shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal, and that he may be removed from office only in the manner and on the grounds on which a judge of the Supreme Court is removed. The same article makes his salary and conditions of service such as Parliament may determine, forbids any variation to his disadvantage after appointment, bars him from further office under the Government of India or of any State once he has ceased to hold the post, and charges his salary and the administrative expenses of his office on the Consolidated Fund of India so that they are not subject to the annual vote of Parliament. The three articles that follow complete the scheme: Article 149 sets out his duties and powers, Article 150 provides for the form in which the accounts of the Union and the States are to be kept, and Article 151 requires his reports to be laid before Parliament and the State legislatures. The protections in Article 148 exist because the office is meant to audit the executive that appoints it, and the security of tenure given to it is the same as that given to the higher judiciary — the reason Dr Ambedkar described the Comptroller and Auditor General in the Constituent Assembly as probably the most important officer under the Constitution.

• (2)Article 343 — Article 343 is in Part XVII and deals with the official language of the Union, providing that it shall be Hindi in the Devanagari script and that the form of numerals to be used shall be the international form of Indian numerals, with English continuing for official purposes for fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution and thereafter as Parliament may provide. It has nothing to do with audit or with any constitutional office. The number is offered because it sits in the same three-hundreds range that candidates associate with a scatter of well-known articles, and because language provisions are themselves frequently examined.
• (3)Article 266 — Article 266 provides for the Consolidated Fund and the public account of India and of the States, declaring that all revenues received by the Government of India, all loans raised by it and all moneys received in repayment of loans shall form one consolidated fund, and that no money may be appropriated from it except in accordance with law. This is the closest of the wrong answers in subject matter, because the Consolidated Fund is precisely what the Comptroller and Auditor General audits, and his own salary is charged upon it under Article 148. But providing for the fund is not the same as providing for the office, and the two articles sit in different Parts of the Constitution.
• (4)Article 248 — Article 248 confers the residuary power of legislation, giving Parliament exclusive power to make any law with respect to a matter not enumerated in the Concurrent List or the State List, including the power to impose a tax not mentioned in either. It belongs to the chapter on legislative relations between the Union and the States, an entirely different subject. It appears here as a plausible-looking number rather than as a substantive alternative, and a candidate who has fixed the article numbers of the financial and audit provisions will discard it at once.

The Comptroller and Auditor General is the head of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department and the guardian of the public purse at both the Union and the State levels. Appointed by the President under Article 148, he holds office for six years or until the age of sixty-five, whichever comes earlier, and can be removed only on a motion passed by both Houses of Parliament with the special majority required for the removal of a Supreme Court judge, on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. He audits all expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India and of each State, from the Contingency Fund and from the public accounts, and audits the accounts of government companies and of bodies substantially financed from government revenues. His reports on the accounts of the Union go to the President, who causes them to be laid before each House of Parliament, and his State reports go to the Governor for the State legislature; those reports are then examined by the Public Accounts Committee, which makes the audit effective by turning it into a parliamentary interrogation of the executive. The office is styled Comptroller and Auditor General, but the Indian holder is in practice an auditor rather than a comptroller in the British sense: he audits expenditure after it has been incurred and has no control over the issue of money from the Consolidated Fund, which is exercised by the executive.

Article numbers are a staple of MPSC's polity section, and the questions are answered by memory alone, so the numbers of the offices and institutions must be learnt as a block rather than encountered singly. The financial and audit cluster is worth holding together: Article 148 for the Comptroller and Auditor General, 149 for his duties, 150 for the form of accounts, 151 for his reports, 266 for the Consolidated Fund and public account, 267 for the Contingency Fund, 280 for the Finance Commission and 112 for the annual financial statement. The distractors in questions of this kind are usually taken from other well-known articles rather than invented, which is a small help: a candidate who recognises 343 as the language article and 248 as the residuary-powers article has narrowed the field before considering the answer itself. Note that this same paper asks about the Contingency Fund a few questions later, so the financial cluster is being tested more than once.

• Article 148 provides for the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, his appointment by the President by warrant under hand and seal, and his removal in the manner prescribed for a judge of the Supreme Court.
• Articles 149 to 151 complete the scheme, dealing respectively with his duties and powers, the form of the accounts of the Union and the States, and the laying of his audit reports before the legislatures.
• His salary and the administrative expenses of his office are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India and are therefore not subject to the vote of Parliament.
• He holds office for six years or until the age of sixty-five, whichever is earlier, and is barred from any further office under the Government of India or of any State thereafter.
• Article 343 concerns the official language of the Union, Article 266 the Consolidated Fund and public account, and Article 248 the residuary power of legislation.

• Confusing Article 148, which creates the office, with Article 266, which creates the fund that the office audits
• Mixing up the audit articles with the language articles of Part XVII, which occupy a similar range in memory but not on the page
• Assuming the Comptroller and Auditor General controls the issue of money from the Consolidated Fund; in India the audit is after the event
• Forgetting that his salary is charged on the Consolidated Fund rather than voted, which is one of the guarantees of his independence

MPSC asks article numbers directly — which article provides for a named office, fund or right — and also asks the reverse, what a stated article contains. The reliable preparation is to memorise the numbers in clusters by subject rather than in a single long list, since the Commission's distractors are drawn from other famous articles and a candidate who can place those will often reach the answer by elimination. The Comptroller and Auditor General attracts a second family of questions on independence, tenure and removal, and a third on the relationship with the Public Accounts Committee, so the office is worth preparing beyond its article number.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Comptroller and Auditor General of India can be removed from office in the same manner as :

  • (a)A judge of the Supreme Court
  • (b)The Attorney General of India
  • (c)A Governor of a State
  • (d)The Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission

  Answer(a) A judge of the Supreme Court — Article 148 provides that the Comptroller and Auditor General may be removed only in the manner and on the grounds laid down for a judge of the Supreme Court, that is by an address of both Houses of Parliament supported by a special majority on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. The Attorney General holds office during the pleasure of the President, and a Governor at the pleasure of the President as well.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which article of the Constitution requires the audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General relating to the accounts of the Union to be laid before each House of Parliament ?

  • (a)Article 148
  • (b)Article 149
  • (c)Article 150
  • (d)Article 151

  Answer(d) Article 151 — it provides that the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General relating to the accounts of the Union shall be submitted to the President, who shall cause them to be laid before each House of Parliament, with the corresponding provision for the States. Article 148 creates the office, Article 149 sets out his duties and powers, and Article 150 concerns the form in which accounts are kept.