A Parliamentary System of Government is one in which
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) the Government is responsible to the Parliament and can be removed by it
The defining feature of a parliamentary system is that the executive survives only while it keeps the confidence of the legislature. In India the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, which can remove it at any time.
- ✓ (b) The Council of Ministers depends on majority support in the legislature and can be removed whenever it loses that support, for example through a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha.
- ✗ (d) A government with a fixed term that the legislature cannot remove is a feature of the presidential system, as in the USA, not the parliamentary one.
- ✗ (c) Voters elect the legislature, not the government directly; the government is formed from the majority in the legislature and answers to it.
Remember · Parliamentary system: executive drawn from and responsible to the legislature, removable any time by loss of confidence. Presidential system: fixed-term executive not removable by the legislature (except impeachment).
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 11 · Indian Constitution at Work, Chapter 4 “In a parliamentary system, the Council of Ministers is dependent on the support of the majority in the legislature.”
- NCERT Class 11 · Indian Constitution at Work, Chapter 5 “The Council of Ministers is responsible to the Lok Sabha and not Rajya Sabha. Therefore, Rajya Sabha can criticise the government but cannot remove it.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·