What are the political, executive and judicial powers of Indian president?
Answers
As the Chairman of the Drafting Committee Dr. BR Ambedkar puts it, the framers had tried to accumulate and accommodate the best features of other constitutions, keeping in view the peculiar problems and needs of our country. Seems cleverness has been in the blood of lazy Indians since generations. The present Constitution is a reproduction of Government of India Act, 1935 in case of matters of administrative detail.
The Former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, Cyriac Joseph said that “The Legislature, Executive and Judiciary should work in tandem for the success of democracy.” According to him, the Constitution is above all others and these organs do not have the authority to transgress it or cross the ‘lakshmana rekha’ drawn by it. This division is also termed as ‘separation of powers.’
Who are the Executives?
In constitutional democracies, executive authority is generally limited in three ways: by separation of powers, among the national government’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches, with the legislature and judiciary able to check the power of the executive branch; by the constitutional guarantees of fundamental rights, and by periodic elections.[ii] In the modern democracies, the executive authority is commonly structured in one of the two ways, either parliamentary or a presidential system.
Talking about both of these systems, the parliamentary system is the one where the majority party in the legislature forms the executive branch of the government, headed by the Prime Minister. The executive and the legislature are not entirely distinct from each other in this system since both the Prime Minister and the members of the cabinet are drawn from the parliament, even though the PM is the national leader.
By contrast, in the Presidential system, the President is elected separately from the members of the legislature. Both the legislature and the President in this system have their own power bases and constituencies, which somehow serves to keep on checking and balancing each other. Both of these systems have their own pros and cons and one cannot supersede other on an allover basis.
The Indian Union and State Executives
The president of India is the Union executive. It has been stated in Article 53 (1) of the Constitution that “the executive power of the Union shall be vested in the President and shall be exercised by him directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with the Constitution.” This makes it evident that the President is the head of the Government. The executive power of the Union extends to all the matters upon which the Parliament can make laws and also to exercise those powers that accrue to the government of India from any International treaty or agreement.[iii] Another important provision is Article 74 (1) which states that “there shall be a council of ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid an advice the President in exercise of his functions.” The President of India is also the supreme commander of defense forces of the Union. Some of the other powers of President are that he/she summons, addresses, prorogues, sends message to Parliament and dissolves the Lok Sabha, promulgates ordinances at any time apart from when both the houses i.e. Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are in session, makes recommendations for introducing financial an money bills and gives final assent to bills, grants pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or suspends, and remits or commutes sentences in certain cases.
The President of India holds his/her office for a term of 5 years beginning from the date of his joining the office. Any time before that he may resign by addressing the resignation letter to the Vice President of the Country. The president may also be impeached from his office under the provisions of Article 61 on grounds of violation of Constitution.
The executive is the organ exercising authority in and holding responsibility for the governance of a state. The executive executes and enforces law.
In political systems based on the principle of separation of powers, authority is distributed among several branches (executive, legislative, judicial)—an attempt to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a small group of people. In such a system, the executive does not pass laws (the role of the legislature) or interpret them (the role of the judiciary). Instead, the executive enforces the law as written by the legislature and interpreted by the judiciary. The executive can be the source of certain types of law, such as a decree or executive order. Executive bureaucracies are commonly the source of regulations.
In the Westminster political system, the principle of separation of powers is not as entrenched. Members of the executive, called ministers, are also members of the legislature, and hence play an important part in both the writing and enforcing of law.
In this context, the executive consists of a leader(s) of an office or multiple offices. Specifically, the top leadership roles of the executive branch may include:
head of state – often the supreme leader, the president or monarch, the chief public representative and living symbol of national unity.
head of government – often the de facto leader, prime minister, overseeing the administration of all affairs of state.
defence minister – overseeing the armed forces, determining military policy and managing external safety.
interior minister – overseeing the police forces, enforcing the law and managing internal safety.
foreign minister – overseeing the diplomatic service, determining foreign policy and managing foreign relations.
finance minister – overseeing the treasury, determining fiscal policy and managing national budget.
justice minister – overseeing criminal prosecutions, corrections, enforcement of court orders.
In a presidential system, the leader of the executive is both the head of state and head of government.[1] In a parliamentary system, a cabinet minister responsible to the legislature is the head of government, while the head of state is usually a largely ceremonial monarch or president.