Parliament & the Union executive

Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

A private member's bill is any bill moved by an MP who is not a minister, whether elected or nominated. And such bills are not new to Parliament: fourteen of them have become law since 1952, so neither statement holds.

• ✗ 1. The test is whether the mover is a minister, not how the member reached Parliament. Any non-minister MP, elected or nominated, introduces a private member's bill; a minister's bill is a government bill.
• ✗ 2. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat records 14 private members' bills enacted so far, starting with the Muslim Wakf Bill, 1952; the last of them became law in 1970. So when the Rajya Sabha passed the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2014 on 24 April 2015, it was not a first.

Remember · Private member's bill = moved by any MP who is not a minister. Only 14 have ever become law; the last one cleared both Houses in 1970.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) the executive remains responsible to the legislature.

The defining advantage of the parliamentary system is that the executive stays answerable to the legislature. In India the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, so a government that loses the House's confidence cannot continue.

• ✓ (c) Article 75(3) makes the Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the House of the People. NCERT says the parliamentary form has many mechanisms that keep the executive answerable to and controlled by the legislature.
• ✗ (a) Independent working is a feature of the presidential system. In the parliamentary system the two organs are interdependent.
• ✗ (d) The government must have a majority in the legislature, so a Prime Minister can be replaced when that support is lost, without a fresh election.
• ✗ (b) Continuity and efficiency are not guaranteed, since a government can fall when it loses its majority. Accountability to the legislature is the main advantage.

Remember · Parliamentary system: the executive is drawn from, and answerable to, the legislature. Article 75(3): the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three are tools by which Parliament controls the Council of Ministers. Because ministers must answer to the House, members can question them, discuss urgent public matters, and press for further answers.

• ✓ 1. An adjournment motion lets the House set aside its business to discuss a definite matter of urgent public importance, with the Speaker's consent (Lok Sabha Rule 56). NCERT lists it among the instruments of control over the executive.
• ✓ 2. Question Hour is held every day during sessions and ministers must answer searching questions from members. NCERT calls it perhaps the most effective way of keeping vigil on the executive.
• ✓ 3. A supplementary question follows a minister's answer and lets a member seek further facts on it (Lok Sabha Rule 50). NCERT lists such questions among the ways the Lok Sabha controls the executive.

Remember · Parliament controls the executive through Question Hour, supplementary questions, adjournment motion, resolutions and the no-confidence motion.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Neither statement is correct. Lok Sabha and Assembly seats are won by plurality, the most votes, and not by a 50 per cent majority. The Constitution only says the House elects its Speaker and Deputy Speaker from among its members; it does not reserve either post for a party.

• ✗ 1. India uses the First Past the Post system: the candidate with more votes than every other candidate wins, and need not secure a majority of the votes polled.
• ✗ 2. Article 93 says the House of the People chooses two of its members as Speaker and Deputy Speaker. It says nothing about the majority party or the Opposition; any such sharing is only a convention, not a constitutional provision.

Remember · Lok Sabha seats are won by plurality (First Past the Post), not a 50 per cent majority. Article 93: the House elects its own Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) A mechanism of parliamentary democracy for ensuring collective responsibility of the Government to the people.

The principle behind the Cabinet form of government is collective responsibility: the whole Council of Ministers answers to the elected House, and through it to the people. Article 75(3) states this for the Union: the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.

• ✓ (c) Collective responsibility means the ministers sink or swim together, and the ministry must resign if the Lok Sabha withdraws its confidence. That is how a parliamentary democracy holds the government accountable to the people.
• ✗ (a) The Cabinet system does not exist to reduce criticism; it exposes the government to questions and debate in the legislature.
• ✗ (b) Speed of decision-making is a side benefit at most; accountability to the legislature is the defining principle.
• ✗ (d) The Cabinet system is meant to make the executive answerable, not to strengthen a leader whose support has weakened.

Remember · Cabinet (parliamentary) government rests on collective responsibility: the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha (Article 75(3)).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error