“The growth of cabinet system has practically resulted in the marginalisation of the parliamentary supremacy.” Elucidate.
Approach · directive: “elucidate”
What it asks · Explain how a dominant cabinet has reduced Parliament's effective control over the executive, while noting the checks that still exist.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- Elucidate: how the growth of the cabinet system has marginalised Parliament's supremacy — the mechanisms, with examples
- Qualify: the checks that still operate on the cabinet, and why Indian Parliament was never fully 'supreme'
Open with · In principle the Council of Ministers answers to the Lok Sabha; in practice a cabinet with a disciplined majority largely controls the House meant to hold it to account.
Cover
- Agenda control: government business dominates; private members' time shrinks; ordinances are used to bypass the legislature.
- Party discipline: the whip and the anti-defection law (Tenth Schedule) turn a majority into near-automatic approval.
- Thin scrutiny: fewer sittings, bills passed without committee reference, demands for grants guillotined, money-bill route to skip the Rajya Sabha.
- Delegated legislation: much law is made through executive rules with little parliamentary review.
- Information and expertise lie with the executive and a centralised Prime Minister's Office.
- Counterpoint: no-confidence motions, Question Hour, committees, the PAC and a strong Rajya Sabha still bite — more so in coalition eras.
- Note: Indian Parliament was never fully 'supreme' — the Constitution and judicial review bound it from the start.
Close with · The remedy lies in restoring deliberation — more sittings, mandatory committee scrutiny and space for the opposition — without weakening stable government.
Add value (verified)
- Article 75(3) makes the executive answerable to the Lok Sabha — the basis of parliamentary control. The Constitution of India (as on 1 May 2024), Article 75(3) — Legislative Department ↗“shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People.”
- Article 123 lets the executive legislate by ordinance while Parliament is in recess — one route by which the cabinet bypasses the House. The Constitution of India (as on 1 May 2024), Article 123 — Legislative Department ↗“123. Power of President to promulgate Ordinances during recess of Parliament.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2024, GS Paper II — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 223 words (UPSC limit 150) · Minimalist IAS
Under Article 75(3) the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha; in practice, a cabinet with a disciplined majority controls the very House meant to hold it to account.
How the cabinet has eclipsed Parliament
- Agenda control: government business dominates the timetable, private members' bills rarely progress, and ordinances under Article 123 bypass the legislature.
- Party discipline: the whip, backed by disqualification under the Tenth Schedule, turns a majority into near-automatic approval.
- Thin scrutiny: fewer sittings, bills passed without committee reference, demands for grants guillotined, and the money-bill route that sidelines the Rajya Sabha.
- Delegated legislation: much operative law is made through executive rules with only formal parliamentary oversight.
- Information asymmetry: data and expertise sit with the executive and a centralised Prime Minister's Office, leaving members dependent on the government they must scrutinise.
What still constrains the cabinet
- Question Hour, no-confidence and adjournment motions, and the Public Accounts Committee working on CAG reports still extract answers.
- Coalition governments and a Rajya Sabha without a ruling majority restore bargaining and amendment.
- Parliament was never 'supreme' in the British sense: a written Constitution and judicial review have bound it since 1950.
The remedy is not a weaker cabinet but a more deliberative Parliament — more sittings, mandatory committee scrutiny and protected opposition time — so that stable government coexists with real accountability.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.