MPSC 2021 Prelims Paper-I · Question 78 of 100

Correct — option (2), statements (a), (b) and (d). Look at the option set before anything else and a useful fact appears: statement (c) is present in all three of the other choices and absent only from the keyed one, so the whole question turns on whether the candidate can see that (c) is false. Take the statements in order. Statement (a) is correct. Article 148(1) provides that there shall be a Comptroller and Auditor-General of India who shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal — the same solemn form used for the appointment of judges of the superior courts, which is itself a signal of the standing the office was meant to have. Statement (b) is correct as well. Article 148(3) provides that the salary and other conditions of service of the Comptroller and Auditor-General shall be such as may be determined by Parliament by law and, until they are so determined, as specified in the Second Schedule; the statute now in force is the Comptroller and Auditor-General (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971. The same article adds a protection: neither the salary nor the rights in respect of leave of absence, pension or age of retirement may be varied to his disadvantage after his appointment. Statement (d) is correct in the terms in which the standard texts describe the office. The Comptroller and Auditor-General's reports on the accounts of the Union are submitted to the President under Article 151 and laid before each House of Parliament, where they are examined by the Public Accounts Committee, and because that Committee's scrutiny of the executive's spending depends almost entirely on his audit, he is habitually described as a guide, friend and philosopher of the Public Accounts Committee. Statement (c) is the false one, and it is false in a way that matters. The Comptroller and Auditor-General cannot be removed by the Prime Minister at all, still less at any time. Article 148(1) provides that he may be removed from office only in like manner and on the like grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court — that is, by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament, supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting, on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. That security of tenure is the entire foundation of the office, because the officer whose duty is to audit the government's spending must not hold his post at the pleasure of the government he audits. The same purpose is served by the other safeguards: his salary and administrative expenses are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India and are therefore not subject to a vote of Parliament, and he is disqualified from any further office under the Government of India or of any State after he has ceased to hold office. Note the printing of the stem, which reads 'regarding with Comptroller and Auditor General of India', with both 'regarding' and 'with'.

• (1)(a), (b) and (c) — This keeps the two true statements about appointment and service conditions but adds the false statement (c), that the Prime Minister may remove the Comptroller and Auditor-General at any time. He may not. Removal is possible only by the President, only after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a special majority, and only on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity — the identical procedure prescribed for a judge of the Supreme Court. It is worth seeing why an option like this is dangerous rather than merely wrong. It contains two statements the candidate can verify immediately, which creates confidence, and then relies on the third being waved through. In a list of four statements where three options share a common member, that shared member is where the examiner has placed the test, and it deserves the most careful reading of all.
• (3)(b), (c) and (d) — This drops the true statement (a) about appointment by the President and retains the false statement (c) about removal by the Prime Minister, so it gets both halves of the tenure question wrong at once. The two halves belong together and are worth learning as a pair: the Comptroller and Auditor-General is appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal, and can be removed only by the President on an address of both Houses passed by a special majority. He holds office for six years or until he attains the age of sixty-five years, whichever is earlier, and he may resign by writing addressed to the President. After demitting office he is not eligible for any further office under the Government of India or under the government of any State — a bar designed to ensure that no expectation of future employment can influence his audit while he holds the post.
• (4)(a), (c) and (d) — This retains the false statement (c) and drops the true statement (b) about service conditions being determined by Parliament. Statement (b) is worth defending in its own right, because it illustrates the constitutional technique used to protect this office. Article 148(3) leaves the salary and conditions of service to be determined by Parliament by law, with the Second Schedule applying until Parliament acts, and then forbids any variation to his disadvantage after appointment; the salary itself and the administrative expenses of his office, including the salaries and pensions of his staff, are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India, which means they are not submitted to the vote of Parliament and cannot be reduced as a means of pressure. The same combination of a parliamentary law fixing conditions and a charge on the Consolidated Fund protects the judges of the superior courts, the Chairman and members of the Union Public Service Commission and the Chief Election Commissioner.

The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India is the constitutional authority created by Article 148 to audit the accounts of the Union and the States, and Dr Ambedkar described the office as the most important under the Constitution. He is appointed by the President by warrant under hand and seal, holds office for six years or until the age of sixty-five, whichever is earlier, and can be removed only in the same manner and on the same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court, on an address of both Houses supported by a special majority for proved misbehaviour or incapacity. His salary and conditions of service are determined by Parliament by law — the Comptroller and Auditor-General (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971 — and cannot be varied to his disadvantage after appointment; his salary and the administrative expenses of his office are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India; and he is barred from further office under the Union or any State after retirement. Article 149 provides for his duties and powers, Article 150 for the form in which the accounts of the Union and the States are kept, and Article 151 for the submission of his reports, those relating to the Union going to the President and being laid before each House of Parliament and those relating to a State going to the Governor and being laid before the State legislature. He audits all expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India and of each State, from the Contingency Fund and the Public Account, and the accounts of government companies and of bodies substantially financed from public revenues. Since 1976 the compilation of the Union's accounts has been separated from audit and handed to the ministries themselves, so the Union role is now audit alone, though he still compiles the accounts of most States. His reports are examined by the Public Accounts Committee, a committee of twenty-two members whose chairman has by convention been drawn from the opposition since 1967.

The constitutional and statutory bodies are a fixed portion of the MPSC polity syllabus, and the Comptroller and Auditor-General is asked more often than most of them because his office joins polity to public finance and to current affairs, since audit reports regularly make news. The Commission's standard construction is the one used here — a list of statements about appointment, tenure, removal, salary and functions, with one of them altered. The alteration is almost always at the removal stage, and it is almost always in the direction of making removal easier: a statement giving the power to the Prime Minister, or to the President acting alone, or allowing removal at pleasure. A candidate who knows that the officers whose independence the Constitution protects — judges of the superior courts, the Comptroller and Auditor-General, the Chief Election Commissioner — all share the same removal procedure will detect the alteration immediately, whichever of them the question happens to name. It is also worth being able to state the safeguards as a group, since the same combination recurs: appointment by the President, a fixed tenure, removal only by special-majority address, conditions of service fixed by Parliament and unalterable to disadvantage, salary charged on the Consolidated Fund, and a bar on further office afterwards.

• Article 148: the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India is appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal, and may be removed only in like manner and on the like grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court.
• Removal therefore requires an order of the President made after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting, on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity — no minister has any power to remove him.
• Article 148(3): his salary and other conditions of service are determined by Parliament by law, and until so determined by the Second Schedule; they cannot be varied to his disadvantage after appointment, and his salary and the administrative expenses of his office are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India.
• He holds office for six years or until the age of sixty-five years, whichever is earlier, and after ceasing to hold office he is not eligible for any further office under the Government of India or of any State.
• Under Article 151 his reports on the accounts of the Union go to the President and are laid before each House of Parliament, where they are examined by the Public Accounts Committee — which is why he is described as a guide, friend and philosopher of that Committee.

• Accepting a statement that any minister, including the Prime Minister, can remove a constitutional functionary, when removal of the Comptroller and Auditor-General follows the same special-majority procedure as that of a Supreme Court judge
• Waving through the statement that three of the four options have in common, when that shared statement is usually where the examiner has placed the test
• Confusing the term of six years or age sixty-five for the Comptroller and Auditor-General with the different terms and retirement ages fixed for other constitutional functionaries
• Forgetting that his salary and the expenses of his office are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India and are therefore not subject to the vote of Parliament

MPSC asks the Comptroller and Auditor-General as statement lists of this kind, as single-line questions on who appoints him or how he may be removed, as questions on his term, and as questions on which committee examines his reports. The Commission also asks the office comparatively, pairing it with the Election Commission, the Union Public Service Commission and the judiciary, since all of them enjoy the same pattern of safeguards; and it asks the accounting framework alongside, so the Consolidated Fund, the Contingency Fund, the Public Account and the difference between charged and voted expenditure belong to the same preparation. Audit reports on State finances give the topic a current-affairs edge as well. The most economical preparation is a single line of safeguards learnt once and applied to each constitutional body in turn — who appoints, for how long, how removed, who fixes the salary, where it is charged, and what happens after demitting office.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India can be removed from office

  • (a)by the President at any time on the advice of the Prime Minister
  • (b)by the President in the same manner and on the same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court
  • (c)by a simple majority resolution of the Lok Sabha
  • (d)by the Public Accounts Committee on a report of proved misbehaviour

  Answer(b) By the President in the same manner and on the same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court — Article 148(1) applies the judicial removal procedure to this office, so an order of the President must follow an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of the House and by not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting, on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. No minister and no committee can remove him, and a simple majority of one House is not enough; the whole purpose of the provision is to make the auditor secure against the government he audits.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The reports of the Comptroller and Auditor-General relating to the accounts of the Union are examined in Parliament by

  • (a)the Estimates Committee
  • (b)the Public Accounts Committee
  • (c)the Committee on Public Undertakings
  • (d)the Business Advisory Committee

  Answer(b) The Public Accounts Committee — under Article 151 the reports are submitted to the President, who causes them to be laid before each House, and it is the Public Accounts Committee that scrutinises them and reports on the government's use of the money Parliament has granted. The Committee has twenty-two members, fifteen from the Lok Sabha and seven from the Rajya Sabha, ministers cannot be members, and by a convention followed since 1967 its chairman is drawn from the opposition. The Estimates Committee examines the estimates and suggests economies, the Committee on Public Undertakings examines the working of public sector enterprises, and the Business Advisory Committee allots time for government business.