Consider the following statements with reference to Uttarakhand and choose the correct answer: 1. The executive of Uttarakhand includes the Governor as the head of the State. 2. It also includes the Chief Minister and his/her Council of Ministers.
- (a)Only 1 is correct
- (b)Both 1 and 2 are correct
- (c)Only 2 is correct
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2 is correct
Correct — B, Both 1 and 2 are correct.
Uttarakhand's executive rests on the Part VI scheme the Constitution lays down for the States. Article 153 provides that there shall be a Governor for each State, and Article 154 vests the executive power of the State in the Governor. Statement 1 tracks that vesting.
Article 163 provides a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor. Article 164 has the Governor appoint the Chief Minister and, on the Chief Minister's advice, the other Ministers. Statement 2 tracks that.
Both limbs the stem names therefore sit inside the State executive, which is why the key marks Both 1 and 2 are correct.
The idea to carry away: the Governor is the constitutional head in whom the State's executive power is vested, while the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers are the limb that actually exercises it.
- (a)Only 1 is correct — This works only if the second statement described something outside the executive branch. It does not: Article 163 places the Council of Ministers, headed by the Chief Minister, inside the State executive, and Article 164 provides for its appointment.
Option (a) is the right answer to a stem whose second limb named the Legislative Assembly or the High Court — organs that belong to the State's legislature and judiciary.
- (c)Only 2 is correct — This requires the first statement to fail. Article 154 vests the State's executive power in the Governor, who holds the position of constitutional head even though that power is exercised on ministerial advice under Article 163.
Option (c) is the right answer to a stem whose first limb misnamed the head — saying, for instance, that the President heads the executive of Uttarakhand, when Article 53 vests the Union's executive power in the President.
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2 is correct — Rejecting both means rejecting text: Articles 153 and 154 for the Governor, Articles 163 and 164 for the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers. Each statement reproduces one of those provisions.
Option (d) is the right answer to a stem in which both limbs misassign the organ — placing the State's executive power in the Speaker, say, and the Council of Ministers within the judiciary.
A State executive under Part VI of the Constitution has two layers. Article 154 vests the executive power of the State in the Governor, who is its formal head and exercises that power directly or through officers subordinate to him.
Article 163 then supplies a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor, so the political executive that runs the government is the Chief Minister and the Ministers.
Chapter II of Part VI, headed 'The Executive', also provides for an Advocate-General for the State under Article 165.
Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh and came into being on 9 November 2000, so its institutions are recent. Its executive design is not special to it: the executive Articles of Part VI apply to it in the same terms as to the older States.
That is why a question about 'the executive of Uttarakhand' is settled from Articles 153 to 167 rather than from any State-specific instrument. What does vary State by State is arithmetic — Assembly strength, and the cap on ministry size that follows from it.
- Article 153 provides that there shall be a Governor for each State.
- Article 154 vests the executive power of the State in the Governor, exercised by him directly or through officers subordinate to him.
- Article 163 provides a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor.
- Article 164(1) has the Governor appoint the Chief Minister, and the other Ministers on the Chief Minister's advice.
- Article 164(2) makes the Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly of the State.
- Article 164(4) removes a Minister who is not a member of the State Legislature for six consecutive months.
- Article 164(1A), inserted by the 91st Amendment Act, 2003, caps a State ministry at 15 per cent of Assembly strength, with a floor of twelve including the Chief Minister.
- Uttarakhand's Legislative Assembly has 70 elected seats; fifteen per cent of 70 is 10.5, so the proviso's floor of twelve raises Uttarakhand's permissible maximum ministry to twelve.
- Article 165 provides for an Advocate-General for each State, appointed by the Governor.
- Uttarakhand came into existence on 9 November 2000 under the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000, and carried the name Uttaranchal until 1 January 2007.
Statement 1 names the highlighted Governor row, statement 2 the highlighted Chief Minister row; both belong to the right-hand column, the State executive.
- Reading statement 1 as a claim that the Governor personally runs the government. Article 154 does vest executive power in the Governor; Article 163 governs how that power is exercised. The statement as written stays accurate.
- Rejecting statement 1 because the Governor looks ceremonial. Constitutional headship of the State executive and day-to-day control of it are two different things, and only the first is asserted.
- Shifting the Council of Ministers into the legislature because Ministers sit in the House. Article 164(4) imposes a six-month time limit on a non-legislator Minister, not a branch assignment.
- Assuming a State created in 2000 has a bespoke executive design and looking for a special provision. The executive Articles of Part VI apply to Uttarakhand in their ordinary terms.
- Answering a two-statement item by testing one limb and inferring the other. Each limb rests on its own Articles — 153 and 154 for the first, 163 and 164 for the second.
The material reaches you as two-statement checks like this one, where each limb names an organ and the work is deciding whether it belongs to the State executive.
It also reaches you as article matching — 153, 154, 163, 164 and 165 set against the Governor, executive power, the Council of Ministers, appointment, and the Advocate-General.
A third is numerical, built on the 15 per cent ceiling and the twelve-Minister floor in Article 164(1A).
UPSC_2001_GS1_Q512001The same provisions approached from the other side: that item pairs Articles 54, 75, 155 and 164 with contents including the appointment of the Governor and of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers, while this one asks whether those offices make up the State executive. What differs is the device and the span — a matching grid running across Union and State articles, against a two-statement check on one State.
UPPSC_2020_PRE_GSI_Q1182020Same Article 164 material, moved from composition to arithmetic: it asks for the minimum strength of a State Council of Ministers including the Chief Minister, the floor set by Article 164(1A). What differs is that it wants a number rather than a judgement about which organs sit in the executive, and it is framed for States in general rather than for one named State.
MPPSC_2022_PRE_PaperI_Q192022The same body — a State Council of Ministers — but a different question about it: who presides over its meeting when the Chief Minister is absent, in Madhya Pradesh. This item asks whether the Governor and the Council belong to the State executive at all; that one turns on the Council's internal working.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In which Article is the executive power of a State vested in the Governor?
- (a)Article 153
- (b)Article 154
- (c)Article 163
- (d)Article 164
Answerb — Article 154 vests the executive power of the State in the Governor, to be exercised by him directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with the Constitution.Article 153 only provides that there shall be a Governor for each State. Article 163 creates the Council of Ministers to aid and advise the Governor. Article 164 deals with the appointment of the Chief Minister and the other Ministers.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under Article 164(1A), the total number of Ministers including the Chief Minister in a State shall not be less than:
- (a)10
- (b)12
- (c)15
- (d)20
Answerb — the proviso to Article 164(1A), inserted by the 91st Amendment Act, 2003, fixes a floor of twelve Ministers including the Chief Minister, alongside a ceiling of 15 per cent of the Assembly's strength.The two numbers the provision carries are twelve, the floor, and fifteen, the percentage in the ceiling. Fifteen is therefore a proportion of Assembly strength rather than a count of Ministers, and ten and twenty are neither figure.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Consider the following statements about the executive of a State: 1. The Advocate-General for a State is appointed by the Governor. 2. A Minister who is not a member of the State Legislature for six consecutive months ceases to be a Minister. Which of the above is/are correct?
- (a)Only 1 is correct
- (b)Both 1 and 2 are correct
- (c)Only 2 is correct
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2 is correct
Answerb — Article 165(1) has the Governor of each State appoint a person qualified to be a High Court Judge as Advocate-General for the State, so statement 1 holds.Article 164(4) provides that a Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the State Legislature ceases at the end of that period to be a Minister, so statement 2 holds.
Options (a), (c) and (d) each require at least one of these two provisions to read otherwise than it does.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Ministers other than the Chief Minister in a State are appointed by the Governor on the advice of:
- (a)the President
- (b)the Chief Minister
- (c)the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly
- (d)the Council of Ministers acting as a body
Answerb — Article 164(1) provides that the Chief Minister shall be appointed by the Governor and the other Ministers shall be appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister.The Article names the Chief Minister as the source of that advice. The Speaker's office, under Article 178, belongs to the conduct of the Assembly's business, and the Council cannot advise on its own composition before its members are appointed.