2.7. Constitutional Position of the President

The Constitution of India has provided for a Parliamentary form of government. Consequently, the President has been made only a nominal executive; the real executive being the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. In other words, the President has to exercise his powers and functions with the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister.

In estimating the constitutional position of the President of India, the relevant provisions are Article 53, 74, and 75.

♤ Art. 53 vests the executive power of the Union in the President and shall be exercised by him either directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with the Constitution.

♤ Article 74 provides that there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as the head to aid and advice the President who ‘shall’, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice.

♤ Art 75 lays down that the Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of People. This provision is the foundation of the Parliamentary system of government.

There was no doubt in minds of the framers of the Constitution that they were setting up a Parliamentary form of Government, modeled after the Great Britain. Dr. Ambedkar categorically stated in the Constituent Assembly, "the President is merely a nominal figure head" that "he has no power of administration at all" and that the President of India occupies the same position as the King of England. His place in the administration was that of a ceremonial device or a seal by which the decisions of the nation were to be made known.

Though the executive power is vested in the President; he is only a formal or constitutional head of the Executive. The real power is vested in the Council of Ministers (headed by Prime Minister) on whose aid and advice the President acts in the exercise of his functions. The Executive has the primary responsibility for the formulation of Governmental policy and its transmission into law. It is responsible for all its action to the legislature, whose confidence it must retain. The basis of this responsibility is embodied in Article 75(iii).

The President is generally bound by the advice of his ministers. He can do nothing contrary to their advice nor can he do anything without their advice.

The President's role as a figurehead is reflected in his indirect election. If he were to be elected by adult franchise, then it might have been anomalous not to give him any real powers and it was feared that he might emerge as a center of power in his own right. Since power was really to reside in the Ministry and the Legislature and not in the President, it was thought adequate to have him elected directly.