UPSC Prelims 2014 · Question 42 of 100
UPSC Prelims 2014 question on Article 77 Conduct of Government Business
Consider the following statements:
1. The President shall make rules for the more convenient transaction of the business of the Government of India, and for the allocation among Ministers of the said business.
2. All executive actions of the Government of India shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the Prime Minister.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Show answer
Answer: A. 1 only
Verdict
The answer is 1 only. The President does make rules for the transaction and allocation of government business, but executive action is expressed in the name of the President, not the Prime Minister.
Analysis
Statement 1 is CORRECT and is close to the verbatim text of Article 77, under which the President makes rules for the more convenient transaction of government business and for the allocation of that business among Ministers. Statement 2 is INCORRECT. Article 77 also provides that all executive action of the Government of India shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President. The Prime Minister has no such formal role in the wording of executive orders, even though the Council of Ministers takes the substantive decisions.
Source
M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity, on Article 77.
How to crack it
The Constitution vests formal executive authority in the President and real authority in the Council of Ministers, and UPSC repeatedly builds a wrong statement by putting the Prime Minister into a formal slot. Whenever a statement names the Prime Minister in constitutional text, be suspicious, because the office is mentioned far less often than intuition suggests. Read Articles 74, 75, 77 and 78 together once and the whole family of questions becomes routine.