Executive, Judiciary, Ministries and Pressure Groups

What the official syllabus says

Main Examination, Paper III: General Studies II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations):

• Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary—Ministries and Departments of the Government; pressure groups and formal/informal associations and their role in the Polity.

Topics in detail

Union and state executive

• President: election (Articles 54 and 55), impeachment (Article 61); executive, legislative, financial, judicial (pardoning, Article 72), diplomatic, military and emergency powers
• Position of the President: aid and advice of the Council of Ministers (Article 74) after the 42nd and 44th Amendments; discretion
• Vice-President (Articles 63 to 71)
• Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (Article 75): appointment, collective responsibility, size (91st Amendment)
• Attorney General (Article 76)
• Governor (Articles 153 to 162), Chief Minister and State Council of Ministers (Articles 163 and 164), Advocate General (Article 165)
• Court rulings on the executive: Shamsher Singh (1974) on acting on ministerial advice; Kehar Singh (1989) and Epuru Sudhakar (2006) on review of pardons; Nabam Rebia (2016) on the Governor’s discretion
• Coalition governments, hung legislatures and the head of state’s choice of Prime Minister or Chief Minister; floor tests

Ministries and Departments of the Government

• Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 and (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961
• Cabinet, cabinet committees, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Cabinet Secretary; the Prime Minister’s Office
• Structure of a ministry: department, secretariat, attached and subordinate offices; hierarchy from Secretary to Under Secretary
• State secretariat and directorates; district administration and the Collector
• Issues: proliferation of ministries, inter-ministerial coordination, merging of departments

Judiciary

• Integrated judicial system: Supreme Court (Articles 124 to 147), High Courts (Articles 214 to 231), subordinate courts (Articles 233 to 237)
• Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court: original, writ, appellate, advisory; review (Article 137) and curative petitions; ad hoc and retired judges (Articles 127 and 128)
• Appointment of judges: the three Judges cases (1981, 1993, 1998), the collegium system, the NJAC judgment (2015), Memorandum of Procedure
• High Courts: writ jurisdiction (Article 226), superintendence over subordinate courts (Article 227), transfer of judges (Article 222); additional and acting judges (Article 224) and retired judges sitting again (Article 224A)
• Removal of judges (Article 124(4)) and the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968; contempt powers (Articles 129 and 215)
• Independence of the judiciary: security of tenure, salaries charged on the Consolidated Fund, post-retirement assignments
• Pendency of cases, vacancies, judicial infrastructure, the e-Courts project, the proposed All India Judicial Service (Article 312)
• Judicial accountability and transparency; judicial activism and public interest litigation

Pressure groups and formal/informal associations

• Pressure groups: meaning, difference from political parties and interest groups
• Types: business, trade unions, farmers’, professional, students’, caste and religious, tribal, ideological and single-issue groups
• Examples by type: chambers of commerce and industry associations (such as FICCI and CII), central trade unions (such as AITUC), farmers’ unions, professional bodies (such as the Indian Medical Association and Bar Councils)
• Methods: lobbying, representations, petitions, public campaigns, protests, strategic litigation
• Role in the polity: articulating interests, feedback to policy, checks on government; concerns over narrow interests and undue influence
• Formal and informal associations: civil society organisations, social movements, caste and community associations, residents’ welfare associations
• Political parties as formal associations: recognition as national or state parties by the Election Commission; the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968