The Parliament MCQ Questions and Answers

The Parliamentary system is known as the ‘Westminster’ model of government or responsible government or cabinet government. The parliamentary system is based on the principle of cooperation and coordination between the legislative and executive organs while the presidential system is based on the doctrine of separation of powers between the two organs.

In Westminster system a head of state who is the nominal or theoretical source of executive power, holds numerous reserve powers, but in practice is a ceremonial fi gurehead. Such examples include the British Sovereign or the President of India.

Statement 1 is correct. President can dissolve the Lok Sabha that is lower house before the expiry of its term and hold fresh elections on the advice of the Prime Minister. This means that the executive enjoys the right to get the legislature dissolved in a parliamentary system.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Parliamentary system establishes a responsible government. The ministers are responsible to the Parliament (and not President) for all their acts of omission and commission. The Parliament exercises control over the ministers through various devices like question hour, discussions, adjournment motion, no confi dence motion, etc.

Statement 3 is correct. In case the ruling party loses its majority, the Head of the State can invite the opposition party to form the government. This means an alternative government can be formed without fresh elections. Hence, the leader of the opposition is oft en said to be the alternative prime minister.

Option a is incorrect. The Rajya Sabha represents the states of Indian Federation, while the Lok Sabha represents the people of India as a whole.

Option b is incorrect. The Constitution divided the powers between the Centre and the states in terms of the Union List, State List and Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule. The Parliament is empowered to legislate on any subject of the State List if Rajya Sabha passes a resolution to that eff ect in the national interest.

Option c is correct. The Indian Constitution has established an integrated judicial system with the Supreme Court at the top and the state high courts below it. This single system of courts enforces both the Central laws as well as the state laws.

Option d is incorrect. The governor is empowered
to reserve certain types of bills passed by the state
legislature for the consideration of the President.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The ministers operate on the principle of secrecy of procedure and cannot divulge information about their proceedings, policies and decisions. The oath of secrecy to ministers is administered by the President (and not speaker of Lok Sabha).

Statement 2 is incorrect. The lower house of the parliament is dissolved by the President on the recommendations of Prime Minister.

Statement 3 is incorrect. Double membership is a feature of Indian Parliamentary system which means that the ministers are the members of both the legislature and executive (and not member of both houses).

Nomination paper for election to the Lok Sabha can be fi led by any citizen of India whose name appears in the electoral roll of a constituency. For contesting an election as a candidate, a person must be registered as a voter.

Sec 4 (d) of Representation People Act, 1951 precludes a person from contesting elections for a Lok Sabha seat unless he is an elector in any parliamentary constituency. Section 5 (c) of R. P. Act, 1951 has a similar provision for Assembly Constituencies.

Option a is incorrect. Periodical election is a feature of democracy and not of the parliamentary system. Democracy means a rule a responsible form of government which is elected by the masses.

Option b is incorrect. In India, the President is the head of the state. This status to him is granted by the republican system of India (and not by the collective responsibility of parliamentary system).

Option c is correct. Collective responsibility means that ministers are responsible to the Parliament in general and to the Lok Sabha in particular as per Article 75. This principle implies that ministers can be removed from the office by passing a vote of no confi dence.

Statement 1 is correct. In the Parliamentary system as existing in India, members of the cabinet have to be the members of the Parliament. If they are not members of the Parliament at the time of appointment as cabinet ministers, then they have to become a member within 6 months.

Statement 2 is correct. According to Article 75 (3) of the constitution, the ministers shall be collectively responsible to the house of people i.e., Lok Sabha. If a vote of no confi dence is passed in parliament, the entire government resigns due to the collective responsibility of the ministers.

Statement 3 is incorrect. In Parliamentary government like India, the cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister who is the head of the Government. The Head of the State is the President.

The parliamentary system of government in India is largely based on the British parliamentary system. However, it never became a replica of the British system and diff ers in the following respects:

Statement 1 is incorrect. The British system is based on the doctrine of the sovereignty of Parliament, while the Parliament is not supreme in India and enjoys limited and restricted powers due to a written Constitution, federal system, judicial review, and fundamental rights.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Britain has the system of legal responsibility of the ministers while India has no such system. Unlike in Britain, the ministers in India are not required to countersign the offi cial acts of the Head of the State.

Statement 3 is correct. In Britain, the prime minister should be a member of the Lower House (House of Commons) of the Parliament. In India, the prime minister may be a member of any of the two Houses of Parliament.

Statement 1 is correct. The Constitution of India provides for a parliamentary form of government, both at the Centre and in the states. Articles 74 and 75 deal with the parliamentary system at the Centre and Articles 163 and 164 in the states.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The parliamentary government is known as cabinet government or responsible government or Westminster model of government and is prevalent in Britain, Japan, Canada, India among others. The presidential government, on the other hand, is known as non-responsible or non-parliamentary or fixed executive system of government and is prevalent in USA, Brazil, Russia, Sri Lanka among others.

Statement 1 is correct. The parliamentary system does not provide a stable government. There is no guarantee that a government can survive its tenure. Presidential system on the other hand establishes a stable executive which does not depend upon the fluctuating will of the legislature. Presidential system is more stable than parliamentary system as coalition governments in latter can collapse as seen in Indian experience.

Statement 2 is correct. The elected members of the legislature can become a part of the cabinet in a Parliamentary system. On the other hand, the members of the cabinet in Presidential system serve at the pleasure of the president. They are appointed independently by the president and are not the members of the legislature. E.g., in the United States, the members of the President’s cabinet cannot be members of the legislative branch.

Democracy is better than any other form of government in responding to the needs of the people. It is not the majority rule, but views of all the representatives are taken into consideration.

The rule by the majority is not a democracy. It can be confused with the rule of the majority community. When that happens, democracy ceases to exist. Hence, it is not a fundamental element of democracy.

Democracy is a type of government in which supreme power is invested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through representation.

1. A democratic government is a better government because it is a more accountable form of government.

2. Enhances the dignity of the individual;

3. The fundamental feature of democracy is that the citizens have the right to choose their representatives through free and fair elections which are conducted regularly

4. In a democracy, there is equal treatment before the law. Rule of law prevails which means no one is above law.

Statement a is incorrect. Elections (whether direct or indirect) alone does not guarantee democratic government. Sometimes autocratic leaders like Hitler also gets elected through ballot voting. Elections should be based on universal adult franchise as it is based on equality which is a basic principle of democracy. Elections should be free and fair which should provide equal opportunity to contest and get elected.

Statement b is incorrect. A Republic is where the head of state is elected by the people. It is not necessarily to be democratic. For ex – China is a republic but not democratic whereas United Kingdom is a monarch but still a democratic.

Statement c is correct. A democratic government must be responsible and answerable to the people. It should necessarily explain the policies, provide information to the public and give freedom to criticize the actions through free speech. This best describes the democratic government.

Statement d is incorrect. A democratic government need not necessarily have a written set of rules. Countries like New Zealand and Britain have unwritten constitution, but they qualify to be the democratic countries due to features like freedom of speech and expression whereas Countries like Myanmar has a written constitution but not democracy.

In a parliamentary system, the prime minister is the head of government. Most parliamentary systems have a president or a monarch who is the nominal Head of state. In such a system, the role of president or monarch is primarily ceremonial and prime minister along with the cabinet wields eff ective power. The parliamentary executive derives its authority from parliament. The Council of Ministers is dependent on the support of the majority in the legislature. This also means that the Council of Ministers may be removed at any time and a new Council of Ministers will have to be put in place.

The ministers are members of both the legislature and the executive. This means that a person cannot be a minister without being a member of the Parliament. The Constitution stipulates that a minister who is not a member of the Parliament for a period of six consecutive months ceases to be a minister.

Option a is incorrect. Double jeopardy: Person can be prosecuted and punished for the same off ence more than once. The protection against double jeopardy is available only in proceedings before a court of law or a judicial tribunal under Article 20. In other words, it is not available in proceedings before departmental or administrative authorities as they are not of judicial nature.

Option c is incorrect. A Minister, not all members have the right to speak in and take part in the proceedings of Rajya Sabha but has no right to vote in Rajya Sabha and vice-versa. Not all members have the right to speak in and take part in the proceedings of the house in which they are not a mmber.

Option d is incorrect. The Indian Constitution has established an integrated judicial system with the Supreme Court at the top and the state high courts below it. This single system of courts enforces both the Central laws as well as the state laws. In US, on the other hand, there is a double system of courts whereby the federal laws are enforced by the federal judiciary and the state laws by the state judiciary.

The parliamentary system of government is the one in which the executive is responsible to the legislature for its policies and acts. The Constitution of India provides for a parliamentary form of government, both at the Centre and in the states. Articles 74 and 75 deal with the parliamentary system at the Centre and Articles 163 and 164 in the states.

Statement 1, 3 and 4 are correct. Demerits of Parliamentary form of Government:

Government by Amateurs: The parliamentary system is not conducive to administrative effi ciency as the ministers are not experts in their fields. The Prime Minister has a limited choice in the selection of ministers; his choice is restricted to the members of Parliament alone and does not extend to external talent.

Against Separation of Powers: In the parliamentary system, the legislature and the executive are together and inseparable. The cabinet acts as the leader of legislature as well as the executive. As Bagehot points out, ‘the cabinet is a hyphen that joins the buckle that binds the executive and legislative departments together.’ Hence, the whole system of government goes against the letter and spirit of the theory of separation of powers. In fact, there is a fusion of powers.

Dictatorship of the Cabinet: When the ruling party enjoys absolute majority in the Parliament, the cabinet becomes autocratic and exercises nearly unlimited powers. H.J. Laski says that the parliamentary system gives the executive an opportunity for tyranny. Ramsay Muir, the former British Prime Minister, also complained of the ‘dictatorship of the cabinet’. This phenomenon was witnessed during the era of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Emergency rule in 1975, showed that even a parliamentary system can be distorted to permit autocratic rule through the Dictatorship of the Cabinet.

Unstable Government: Th e parliamentary system does not provide a stable government. There is no guarantee that a government can survive its tenure. The ministers depend on the mercy of the majority legislators for their continuity and survival in office. A no-confi dence motion or political defection or evils of multiparty coalition can make the government unstable.

No Continuity of Policies: The parliamentary system is not conductive for the formulation and implementation of long-term policies. This is due to the uncertainty of the tenure of the government. A change in the ruling party is usually followed by changes in the policies of the government. For example, the Janata Government headed by Morarji Desai in 1977 reversed a large number of policies of the previous Congress Government.

Statement 2 is incorrect. One of the merits of Parliamentary form of government is responsible government. The ministers are responsible to the Parliament for all their acts of omission and commission. The Parliament exercises control over the ministers through various devices like question hour, discussions, adjournment motion, no confi dence motion, etc.

A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state offi cials, typically consisting of the executive branch’s top leaders. Members of a cabinet are usually called cabinet ministers or secretaries.

Statement 1 is incorrect: Kitchen cabinet” is a reference to a President’s or Prime Minister’s informal circle of advisers, as opposed to the offi cial members of his cabinet. This informal body consists of the Prime Minister and two to four infl uential colleagues in whom he has faith and with whom he can discuss every problem. It advises the prime minister on important political and administrative issues and assists him in making crucial decisions. It is composed of not only cabinet ministers but also outsiders like friends and family members of the prime minister. ‘Shadow Cabinet’ is formed by the Opposition party to balance the ruling cabinet and to prepare its members for future ministerial offi ces.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The phenomenon of ‘kitchen cabinet’ (where decisions are cooked and placed before the cabinet for formal approval) is not unique to Britain. It also exists in USA (Presidential Form of Government) and India and is quite powerful in infl uencing government decisions there. During the era of Indira Gandhi, the ‘Inner Cabinet’ which came to be called the ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ was particularly powerful.

Unlike the American Constitution, the Indian Constitution provides for the Parliamentary form of government. The parliamentary system of government is the one in which the executive is responsible to the legislature for its policies and acts.

Statement 2 and 3 are correct: A plea was made in favour of US presidential system of government in the Constituent Assembly. But the founding fathers preferred the British parliamentary system due to the following reasons:

Familiarity with the System: The Constitution-makers were somewhat familiar with the parliamentary system as it had been in operation in India during the British rule. K.M. Munshi argued that, ‘For the last thirty or forty years, some kind of responsibility has been introduced in the governance of this country. Our constitutional traditions have become Parliamentary. Aft er this experience, why should we go back and buy a novel experience.

Need to Avoid Legislative–Executive Confl icts: The framers of the Constitution wanted to avoid the confl icts between the legislature and the executive which are bound to occur in the presidential system prevalent in USA. They thought that an infant democracy could not aff ord to take the risk of a perpetual cleavage, feud or confl ict or threatened conflict between these two organs of the government. They wanted a form of government that would be conductive to the manifold development of the country.

Statement 1 and 4 are incorrect: India is one of the most heterogeneous States (not homogeneous state) and most complex plural societies in the world. Hence, the Constitution-makers adopted the parliamentary system as it off ers greater scope for giving representation to various section, interests and regions in the government. This promotes a national spirit among the people and builds a united India.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar pointed out in the Constituent Assembly that ‘a democratic executive must satisfy two conditions: stability and responsibility. The British system gives more responsibility but less stability. The Draft Constitution in recommending the parliamentary system of Executive has preferred more responsibility to more stability