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Question 5 of 7 · Parliament
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The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the:

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Answer: Option C — Lok Sabha

Detailed Solution

Article 75(3) of the Constitution states that "the Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People" (the Lok Sabha). This is the core principle of the parliamentary system of government, which India adopted from the British model.

Collective responsibility means that the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister, works as a team, and all ministers are jointly responsible for all the decisions and policies of the government. Its key features are:

The government remains in office only as long as it enjoys the confidence (support of a majority) of the Lok Sabha.

If the Lok Sabha passes a no-confidence motion against the Council of Ministers, all the ministers, including those who are members of the Rajya Sabha, must resign together. The government falls as a whole.

Cabinet decisions bind all ministers, even if a minister disagreed in private Cabinet meetings. A minister who cannot support a decision publicly is expected to resign.

The Rajya Sabha cannot remove the government through a no-confidence motion, because the Council of Ministers is responsible only to the Lok Sabha. This is because the Lok Sabha is directly elected by the people.

In addition to collective responsibility, Article 75(2) states that ministers hold office during the pleasure of the President. This is known as individual responsibility: the President, on the advice of the Prime Minister, can remove an individual minister.

The first no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha was moved by Acharya J.B. Kripalani in 1963 against the Nehru government. Governments that fell after losing confidence votes include those of V.P. Singh (1990), H.D. Deve Gowda (1997) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1999, by one vote).

The number of ministers, including the Prime Minister, cannot exceed 15% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha (91st Amendment, 2003).

Why not the other options?

  • ✗The Rajya Sabha cannot bring down the government.
  • ✗The President appoints ministers, but ministers are collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.
  • ✗Parliament as a whole is not correct, because responsibility is only to the Lok Sabha.

Quick tip

Remember: Collective responsibility = Article 75(3), to the Lok Sabha; individual responsibility = Article 75(2), to the President; first no-confidence motion = J.B. Kripalani (1963); Vajpayee lost by one vote (1999).

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Parliament — Preparation

This question tests your understanding of Parliament, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.

This topic covers the Parliament of India: the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, their composition, powers and officers, sessions, the law-making process, money bills, joint sittings, parliamentary committees, and devices such as question hour, zero hour and the various motions. Typical questions ask about the maximum strength of each house, the minimum age for members, who certifies a money bill (the Speaker), who presides over a joint sitting, and which committee is chaired by a member of the opposition (the Public Accounts Committee, by convention). Note the special powers of the Rajya Sabha under Articles 249 and 312. Practise the Parliament questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.

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