India has a parliamentary form of government. The Parliament or the legislature performs the law-making function, the executive executes or implements the laws made by the Parliament. The functioning of the government is based on the cooperation and coordination between the legislature and executive.
The executive derives its authority from the legislative branch of the government which is headed by the Parliament. The executive is answerable to the legislature for its actions and its authority is also limited by the checks and balances of the Parliament.
The Constitution of India equips the Parliament with specific tools to check and control the powers of the executive in every sphere of its action to prevent arbitrariness. The control exercised in the various forms is as follows-
A. Legislative control over the executive
When a law is enacted in the Parliament, the government is bound to respond to all the queries of the Members of the Parliament. The Parliament can question the executive by:
- Deliberation and discussion: The members can deliberate on the policy decisions made by the Parliament.
- Question Hour: This is the most effective tool at the discretion of the Parliament where the Parliament can keep a close vigil on the executive. During this hour the MP’s question the executive regarding the laws enacted by them.
- Zero Hour: During this hour the MP’s can ask a question to the executive regarding any administrative decision made without any prior notice.
The Parliament checks the actions of the executive by the exercise of various motions, they are as follows:
- Censure Motion: It can be initiated against an individual minister or a group of ministers by the Lok Sabha to censure the council of ministers for a specific policy or action.
- Adjournment Motion: It is moved in the Lok Sabha to draw the attention of the House on an urgent matter of public importance, it involves censure against the government.
- Privilege motion: A privilege motion can be initiated against any member if he/she commits a breach of privilege.
- Calling attention motion: A call attention motion can be initiated by the Parliament and the executive can be held accountable in matters requiring urgent public importance.
- No confidence motion: This is the most important tool at the disposal of the Parliament, by which the Parliament can pass a no-confidence vote against the ruling government, post which they are bound to resign. This is mostly used as a last resort.
Any law enacted by the executive has to be approved by both the Houses of the Parliament and a debate on the intent of the law is also carried out which prevents the passing of inconsiderate laws.
The Chairman of Rajya Sabha has also advocated the Legislative Impact Assessment this will enquire into the impact of the law formulated on the society over a period of time.
These are the tools at the disposal of the Parliament by which it exercises legislative control over the executive.
B. Financial control over the executive
- The Annual Financial Statement and the financial bills proposed by the government must be approved by both the Houses of Parliament.
- The Parliament may also initiate a Cut Motion to oppose any specific allocation of funds demanded by the government in a Financial Bill. A cut Motion is equivalent to a No-Confidence Motion.
- The government cannot withdraw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India without Parliamentary approval.
- The Parliamentary Committees like the Public Accounts Committee, The Estimates Committee keep a check on the control of finances. The reports made by these committees and the CAG are presented before the President of India to check the misuse of finances.
C. Representative Control over the executive
- As the MP’s are the representatives of the people, when they inquire into the actions of executives, they in turn, protect the interests of the people whom they are representing.
D. Accountability of the Executive over the Legislature
- Every minister is personally accountable for any action to the Lok Sabha. Article 75 of the Indian Constitution mentions the principle of individual responsibility, according to which every minister holds office during the pleasure of the President. The President has the authority to remove a minister from their position while the rest of the Council continues to operate.
- The entire Council of Ministers is also responsible to the Lok Sabha by the principle of collective responsibility (Article 75), here the whole cabinet may have to resign if the Parliament does not approve the acts of any minister.
The Legislature in India exercises a substantial amount of control over the executive by various mechanisms available at its disposal. It is necessary to control the executive to ensure its accountability to the elected legislature. The various mechanisms also ensure that the executive is controlled by the people’s representatives to maintain transparency and impartiality. This control also ensures that the executive abides by the laws and prevents any kind of deviation from the established laws. The control over the executive prevents the domination by a personality cult and provides a check on the concentration of power into a single source. This control over the executive by the legislature makes the executive more responsible and accountable to the interests of the people which are the true essence of democracy.