Union and State Government: Legislature, Executive and Judiciary
The three-organs domain tests the composition and powers of the President, Governors, Parliament, State legislatures and the higher courts, and the procedural rules that decide case-based questions.
Executive
- President: indirectly elected by an electoral college of elected MPs and elected MLAs (including Delhi and Puducherry); impeachment under Article 61; pardoning power under Article 72 includes death sentences; ordinance power under Article 123.
- Prime Minister and Council of Ministers: Article 74; collective responsibility to the Lok Sabha under 75(3); Attorney General under Article 76.
- Governor: Articles 153-162; discretionary powers; Article 161 pardon (no death sentence); Article 200 assent and reservation of Bills.
Parliament
- Lok Sabha: 543 elected members (maximum 550); Rajya Sabha: 245 (maximum 250), 12 nominated.
- Money Bill, Article 110: introduced only in the Lok Sabha; Rajya Sabha has 14 days and no power of amendment; the Speaker certifies.
- Joint sitting under Article 108 does not apply to money bills or constitutional amendment bills.
- Anti-defection: Tenth Schedule, 52nd Amendment 1985; the 91st Amendment 2003 deleted the one-third split exemption.
Judiciary
Supreme Court under Article 124, High Courts under Article 214; judicial review; collegium; the NJAC (99th Amendment) was struck down in 2015.
Worked example: a constitutional amendment Bill passed by both Houses but not ratified by the States is invalid if it changes the election of the President, the distribution of legislative powers, the representation of States or Article 368 itself - these are the federal provisions in the proviso to Article 368(2).
Traps: an ordinance must be approved within six weeks of Parliament reassembling; a Governor cannot pardon a death sentence; the Rajya Sabha can only recommend changes to a money bill.