Consider the following statements regarding with Comptroller and Auditor General of India :
(a) He is appointed by the President of India.
(b) His salary and other service conditions are determined by

Question

Consider the following statements regarding with Comptroller and Auditor General of India :
(a) He is appointed by the President of India.
(b) His salary and other service conditions are determined by Parliament.
(c) He can be removed by Prime Minister any time.
(d) He acts as a guide, friend and philosopher of the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament.
Which of the statement/s given above is/are correct ?

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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'.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) 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.  (c) 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.  (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.

Concept: 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.

State PCS 2021 Q78 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2021 Q78 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer