Indian Polity & Governance

1Organs and the Seventh Schedule

The Constitution sets up a parliamentary Union: an executive headed by the President (Articles 52–78), a bicameral Parliament (Articles 79–122), and an independent judiciary. Separation is functional rather than a hard American wall — the Council of Ministers sits in and is responsible to the Lok Sabha.

Federal substance lives in the Seventh Schedule. Subjects are split across the Union List, the State List and the Concurrent List. Residuary powers — anything not enumerated — rest with the Union under Article 248, which is one of the clearest unitary tilts in the design.

Figure. Legislative subjects sit in three Seventh Schedule buckets — Union, State and Concurrent — beside the three organs (executive, legislature, judiciary). List boxes are the teaching surface.

2President and Council of Ministers

Article 74 requires a Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister, to aid and advise the President. The 42nd Amendment made that advice binding; the 44th Amendment restored a single return for reconsideration — after which the President must act on the advice reaffirmed.

The President is therefore the constitutional head of the executive, not a parallel decision-maker in ordinary business. Discretionary pockets exist at the margin (for example, inviting a government after a hung House), but day-to-day Union executive power runs through the Council.

Figure. Article 74: the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister aids and advises the President; after the 42nd/44th Amendments that advice is binding in ordinary course.

How aid-and-advice works after the 44th Amendment

1. Advice tenderedThe Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister, advises the President on a matter of Union executive business.
2. One return allowedThe President may once request the Council to reconsider that advice (44th Amendment safeguard).
3. Advice bindsIf the Council reaffirms the advice, the President must act on it — the binding rule cemented by the 42nd Amendment remains.

3Money Bill under Article 110

Article 110 defines a Money Bill — taxation, borrowing, the Consolidated Fund, and closely related money matters. Only the Lok Sabha may introduce one, and only on the President's recommendation. The Speaker's certificate that a Bill is a Money Bill is decisive under Article 110(3).

The Rajya Sabha cannot reject or amend it. It may only recommend changes within fourteen days; the Lok Sabha may accept or reject those recommendations. That trio — Lok Sabha only, Speaker certifies, Rajya Sabha recommendatory — settles most Prelims traps that confuse Money Bills with ordinary or financial Bills.

Figure. Money Bill path under Article 110: Lok Sabha introduction, Speaker certification, a fourteen-day recommendatory window in the Rajya Sabha, then Lok Sabha decision and Presidential assent.

Path of a Money Bill

1. Introduce in Lok SabhaOn the President's recommendation, the Bill is introduced only in the Lok Sabha.
2. Speaker certifiesThe Speaker certifies it as a Money Bill under Article 110(3); that certification is final.
3. Rajya Sabha windowThe Rajya Sabha may recommend changes within fourteen days; it cannot reject or amend on its own authority.
4. Lok Sabha decidesThe Lok Sabha accepts or rejects the recommendations and the Bill proceeds to the President for assent.

4Amendment under Article 368

Article 368 is the formal amendment power. Not every constitutional change uses the same majority. Some provisions need only a simple majority of Parliament; the general Article 368 route needs a special majority; federal provisions need that special majority plus ratification by at least half the States.

Special majority means a majority of the total membership of each House and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting. Federal matters that trigger State ratification include the election of the President, the distribution of legislative powers, and the Seventh Schedule itself.

Figure. Article 368 is not one majority: some changes use simple majority, the core track needs special majority, and federal provisions add State ratification.

5Basic structure limit on Article 368

Kesavananda Bharati (1973) held that Article 368 does not empower Parliament to destroy the Constitution's basic structure. Later cases have treated federalism, secularism, judicial review, free and fair elections, and the rule of law as among the features that cannot be amended away.

The doctrine is the judicial answer to unlimited formal amendment power. When you meet a question about whether an amendment is valid, ask first whether it hollows out one of those unamendable pillars — not merely whether the special-majority numbers were met.

Figure. Kesavananda Bharati (1973): Article 368 amends but cannot destroy the Constitution's basic structure — a legal ceiling on amendment power.

6Emergency provisions

Part XVIII creates three emergencies. Article 352 covers war, external aggression or armed rebellion (national emergency). Article 356 covers failure of constitutional machinery in a State (President's Rule). Article 360 covers financial emergency and has never been invoked.

The 44th Amendment (1978) tightened safeguards after the 1975 Emergency — including harder grounds and parliamentary controls — precisely because emergency power had been shown to hollow out ordinary constitutional government.

Figure. Part XVIII creates three emergencies: national (352), state/President's rule (356) and financial (360) — distinguished by ground and effect.

7Anti-defection and key bodies

The Tenth Schedule, added by the 52nd Amendment (1985), disqualifies legislators who defect from the party on whose ticket they were elected, subject to the Schedule's own exceptions and the Speaker's/Chairman's adjudicatory role.

Alongside party discipline sit independent constitutional bodies that are meant to check the political executive: the Election Commission (Article 324), the Comptroller and Auditor-General (Article 148), the Union Public Service Commission (Article 315), and the Finance Commission (Article 280).

Figure. Anti-defection (Tenth Schedule) sits beside independent constitutional bodies — Election Commission, CAG, UPSC — that Prelims pairs with article and function.

8Judiciary, Governor, and federal friction

Judicial appointments remain with the collegium. The 99th Amendment's National Judicial Appointments Commission was struck down in the Fourth Judges Case (2015) as violating judicial independence — a basic-structure adjacent holding with direct Prelims bite.

At the State end, the Governor acts with the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers (Article 163) but retains pockets of discretion, including assent to and reservation of Bills (Article 200). Nabam Rebia (2016) curtailed arbitrary use of that discretion. Together with Bommai on Article 356, these cases are the standard answers when a question asks how courts police Centre–State and Governor power.

Figure. Federal friction nodes: collegium appointments (NJAC struck in the Fourth Judges case) and Governor–State tussles that reach the Supreme Court.