working of political institutions

2. Pranab
Mukherjee
 The President of India is the formal head of
the executive, legislature and judiciary of India
and is the commander-in-chief of the Indian
Armed Forces.The current president is Pranab
Mukherjee.
 Election of the President
 The President of India is elected by an electoral
college consisting of:
 elected members of the two Houses of Parliament
and Legislative Assemblies of the States - Article
54
 It includes the national capital territory of Delhi
and the Union territory of Pondicherry
 The President’s election is held in accordance
with a system of proportional representation by
means of a single transferable vote
 there shall be uniformity in the scale of
representation of the different states at the
election of the President - Article 55
Barrack Obama
(US President)

3.  Duties
 The primary duty of the President is to preserve, protect and defend
the constitution and the law of India as made part of his oath (Article
60 of Indian constitution).
 He is liable for impeachment for violation of the constitution (Article
61). President is the common head of all independent constitutional
entities.
 All his actions, recommendations (Article 3, Article 111, etc.) and
supervisory powers (Article 78 c, Article 108, Article 111, etc.) on the
executive and legislative entities of India shall be in accordance to
uphold the constitution.[ There is no bar on the actions of the
President to contest in the court of law.
 Military powers
 The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence forces of
India. The President can declare war or conclude peace, subject to
the approval of the parliament and the advice of the Prime
Minister ,Council of the Chiefs of Staffs of the Armed
Forces, Military Secretary and President's Officer (Deputy Military
Secretary). All important treaties and contracts are made in the
President's name. He also appoints the chiefs of the service
branches of the armed forces.

4.  The Prime Minister of India, as addressed to in the
Constitution of India, is the chief of government, chief
adviser to the President of India, head of the Council of
Ministers and theleader of the majority party in the
parliament. The prime minister leads the executive branch of
the Government of India. The PM is directly elected by
citizens.
 Eligibility
 A prime minister must:
 be a citizen of India.
 be a member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha. If the
person chosen as the prime minister is neither a member
of the Lok Sabha nor the Rajya Sabha at the time of
selection, he or she must become a member of either of
the houses within six months.
 be above 25 years of age if he or she is a member of Lok
Sabha or above 30 years of age if he is a member of the
Rajya Sabha.
 not hold any office of profit under the Government of
India or the Government of any State or under any local
or other authority subject to the control of any of the said
Governments.
 If however a candidate is elected as the prime minister
he/she must vacate their post from any private or
government company/ sector and may take up the post
only on completion of his /her term
Narendra Modi
(current PM of India)
David Cameron
(current PM of UK)

5. Powers and Functions
The prime minister leads the functioning and exercise of authority of the Government of
India. He is invited by the President of India in the Parliament of India as leader of the
majority party to form a government at the federal level (known as Central orUnion
Government in India) and exercise its powers. In practice the prime minister nominates the
members of their Council of Ministers to the president. They also work upon to decide a core
group of Ministers (known as the Cabinet) as in-charge of the important functions and
ministries of the Government of India.
 The prime minister is responsible for aiding and advising the president in distribution of
work of the Government to various ministries and offices and in terms of the Government
of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961. The co-ordinating work is generally allocated
to the Cabinet Secretariat While generally the work of the Government is divided into
various Ministries, the prime minister may retain certain portfolios if they are not
allocated to any member of the cabinet.
 The prime minister, in consultation with the Cabinet, schedules and attends the sessions
of the Houses of Parliament and is required to answer the question from the Members of
Parliament to them as the in-charge of the portfolios in the capacity as Prime Minister of
India.
 Some specific ministries/department are not allocated to anyone in the cabinet but the
prime minister himself. The prime minister is usually always in-charge/head of:
 Appointments Committee of the Cabinet;
 Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions;
 Ministry of Planning;
 Department of Atomic Energy; and
 Department of Space.
 The prime minister represents the country in various delegations, high level meetings
and international organisations that require the attendance of the highest government
office and also addresses to the nation on various issues of national or other importance.

6.  The Indian Parliament is the supreme
legislative body in India. Parliament is
composed of:
 The President of India
 Lok Sabha (House of the People)
 Rajya Sabha (Council of States).
Election of Parliament
. The MPs of Lok Sabha are directly elected by the
Indian public and the MPs of Rajya Sabha are
elected by the members of the State Legislative
Assemblies, in accordance with proportional
representation. The Parliament is composed of 790
MPs, who serve the largest democratic electorate in
the world; 814.5 million Indians registered to vote
in the 2014 general elections.
Mohammad Hamid
Ansari (chairman of
Rajya Sabha and Vice-
President of India)
Sumitra Mahajan
(Speaker of Lok
Sabha)

7.  Powers and functons
 The Constitution of India enumerates the powers and functions of the Indian
Parliament in Chapter II of Part V of the constitution. Like the British
counterpart, the Parliament of India is not a fully sovereign legislature. It does
not enjoy unlimited and absolute powers like that of the British Parliament. It
is a creation of the Constitution. It has no natural growth like that of the
British Parliament. As it is created by the Constitution, it is bound by the
provisions of the Constitution.
 Amending Power:
 The Parliament is competent to amend the Constitution. Both the Houses have
equal powers so far amendment of the Constitution is concerned. A bill to
amend the Constitution may originate either in the Rajya Sabha or in the Lok
Sabha. Unless it is passed by both the Houses with the required majority, the
amendment cannot be effective.
 Electoral Function
 The Parliament participates in the election of the President and the Vice-
President. It also elects some of its members to various Committees of the
Parliament. The Vice- President is elected by both the Houses of the
Parliament. He is removable by a resolution of the Rajya Sabha agreed to
by the Lok Sabha.

8.  Supreme Court of India
 The Supreme Court of India comprises the Chief Justice and 30
other Judges appointed by the President of India, as the
sanctioned full strength. Supreme Court Judges retire upon
attaining the age of 65 years. In order to be appointed as a Judge
of the Supreme Court, a person must be a citizen of India and
must have been, for at least five years, a Judge of a high court or
of two or more such Courts in succession, or an advocate of a
high court or of two or more such Courts in succession for at
least 10 years or he must be, in the opinion of the president, a
distinguished jurist. Provisions exist for the appointment of a
Judge of a high court as an ad hoc judge of the Supreme Court
and for retired judges of the Supreme Court or High Courts to sit
and act as Judges of that Court.
 The Constitution seeks to ensure the independence of Supreme
Court Judges in various ways. A judge of the Supreme Court
cannot be removed from office except by an order of the
president passed after an address in each House of Parliament
supported by a majority of the total membership of that House
and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of members present
and voting, and presented to the president in the same Session
for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or
incapacity.
 High Court
 There are 24 High Courts at the State level. Article 141 of the
Constitution of India mandates that they are bound by the
judgments and orders of the Supreme Court of India by
precedence. The High Courts are the principal civil courts
of original jurisdiction in the state along with District Courts
which are subordinate to the High courts.
Supreme court of
India
H. L. Dattu(chief
justice of Indis)

9.  However, High courts exercise their original civil and criminal jurisdiction only if the courts
subordinate to the high court in the state are not competent (not authorised by law) to try such
matters for lack of pecuniary, territorial jurisdiction. High courts may also enjoy original
jurisdiction in certain matters if so designated specifically in a state or Federal law.
 District courts
 The district court is presided over by one District Judge appointed by the state Government. In
addition to the district judge there may be number of Additional District Judges and Assistant
District Judges depending on the workload. The Additional District Judge and the court
presided have equivalent jurisdiction as the District Judge and his district court.The district
judge is also called "Metropolitan session judge" when he is presiding over a district court in a
city which is designated "Metropolitan area" by the state Government. The district court has
appellate jurisdiction over all subordinate courts situated in the district on both civil and
criminal matters. Subordinate courts, on the civil side (in ascending order) are, Junior Civil
Judge Court, Principal Junior Civil Judge Court, Senior Civil Judge Court (also called sub-
court). Subordinate courts, on the criminal side (in ascending order) are, Second Class Judicial
Magistrate Court, First Class Judicial Magistrate Court, Chief Judicial Magistrate Court.
 Village courts
 Village courts, called Lok Adalat (people's court) or Nyaya Panchayat (justice of the
villages), compose a system of alternative dispute resolution.
 They were recognized through the 1888 Madras Village Court Act, then developed (after
1935) in various provinces and (after 1947) Indian states. The model from the Gujarat
State (with a judge and two assessors) was used from the 1970s onwards. In 1984 the Law
Commission recommended to create Nyaya Panchayats in rural areas with laymen
("having educational attainments"). The 2008 Gram Nyayalayas Act have foreseen 5,000
mobile courts in the country for judging petty civil (property cases) and criminal (up to 2
years of prison) cases. However, the Act has not been enforced properly, with only 151
functional Gram Nyayalayas in the country (as of May 2012) against a target of 5000 such
courts.[9] The major reasons behind the non-enforcement includes financial constraints,
reluctance of lawyers, police and other government officials

10. The Civil Services of India refer to the civil service and the
permanent bureaucracy of the Government of India. The civil service system is the
backbone of the administrative machinery of the country.
 In the parliamentary democracy of India, the ultimate responsibility for
running the administration rests with the elected representatives of the people
which are the ministers. But the handful of ministers cannot be expected to deal
personally with the manifold problems of modern administration. Thus the
ministers lay down the policy and it is for the civil servants to carry out this
policy.
 The executive decisions are implemented by the Indian civil servants. The
members of civil service serve at the pleasure of thePresident of India and
Article 311 of the constitution protects them from politically motivated or
vindictive action. Civil servants are employees of the Government of India;
however, not all employees of the Government are civil servants. Civil servants
in a personal capacity are paid from the Civil List. Senior civil servants may be
called to account by Parliament.
 As of year 2010, there are total 6.4 million government employees in India, and
less than 50,000 civil servants to administer them. The civil service system in
India is rank-based and does not follow the tenets of the position-based civil
services.

11.  Powers and functions
 The responsibility of the civil services is to run
 the administration of India. The country is
 managed through a number of Central
 Government agencies in accordance with the
 policy directions given by the ministries.
 The members of the civil services represent as
 administrators in the central government and
 state government; emissaries in the foreign missions/embassies; as tax
collectors and revenue commissioners; as civil service commissioned police
officers; as permanent respresentative(s) and employees in the United
Nations and its agencies and as Chairman, Managing Director, full-time
functional Director/Member of the Board of Management of various Public
Sector Undertakings/ Enterprises, Corporations, Banks and financial
institutions. Civil servants are employed to various agencies of India and
can also be appointed as advisors or special duty officers or private
secretaries to ministers of the Union and the State Government.
 All appointments in the rank of Joint Secretary to Government of India and
above, other major appointments, empanelment and extension of tenure is
done by theAppointments Committee of the Cabinet. However, all
appointments in the rank below Joint Secretary in the federal government is
done by the Civil Services Board.
Ajit Seth (head of civil
service)

12.  Public-Interest Litigation is litigation for the protection of the public
interest. In Indian law, Article 32 of the Indian constitution contains a
tool which directly joins the public with judiciary. A PIL may be
introduced in a court of law by the court itself (suo motu), rather than
the aggrieved party or another third party. For the exercise of the
court's jurisdiction, it is not necessary for the victim of the violation of
his or her rights to personally approach the court. In a PIL, the right to
file suit is given to a member of the public by the courts through judicial
activism. The member of the public may be a non-governmental
organization (NGO), an institution or an individual. The Supreme
Court of India, rejecting the criticism of judicial activism, has stated that
the judiciary has stepped in to give direction because due to executive
inaction, the laws enacted by Parliament and the state legislatures for
the poor since independence have not been properly
implemented.Subodh Markandeya well known Senior Advocate of
Supreme court of India and Judicial activist believes that public interest
litigation is the principal legal remedy For a common man and it is
main weapon of judicial activist .