Starting with Procedural Error: Why has the “Cabinet” of the 14th Lok Sabha been meeting today AFTER the results of the Elections to the 15th Lok Sabha have been declared?!

May 18, 2009 — drsubrotoroy

The 14th Lok Sabha stood automatically dissolved when General Elections to the 15th Lok Sabha were first announced.  A fortiori so did its Council of Ministers and its “Cabinet”.

Yet this morning Dr Manmohan Singh has held a purported “Cabinet Meeting” of the 14th Lok Sabha where its “members” (some of whom lost their seats!)  purportedly submitted their “resignations” which he will then convey to the President with a request that the 14th Lok Sabha be dissolved!

Nyet!

The 14th Lok Sabha was dissolved and came to end eo ipso with the calling of the General Elections and any Council of Ministers and Cabinet that continued in existence was necessarily of a caretaker nature.

The 15th Lok Sabha has been elected as soon as the Election Commission has certified its final results.    There can be no legitimate “Cabinet” of the 14th Lok Sabha subsisting alongside the 15th Lok Sabha even for one logical moment.

It is surprising we must begin perhaps with such a simple procedural error.  It suggests there may be more to come.  We must be sorry to see the steady corrosion of parliamentary law and custom.

Subroto Roy

Postscript:   In the interregnum between the dissolution of the 14th  Lok Sabha when General Elections are announced and the  actual  declaration of the results of the 15th, which has in fact taken a month or more, there is no  functioning legislative branch of Government — though I would not disagree that if a national emergency like a war occurred during that period, the President in her wisdom would have a right to recall the 14th Lok Sabha if necessary as a kind of “caretaker” body for the duration of the emergency.

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Posted in 15th Lok Sabha, Constitutional law, Constitutional Politics, Government of India, India's 2009 General Election, India's Constitution, India's constitutional politics, India's Democracy, India's Election Commission, India's Jurisprudence, India's Lok Sabha, India's Parliament, Manmohan Singh, Parliamentary Government, Parliamentary Procedure, Sonia Gandhi. Leave a Comment »

Inviting a new Prime Minister of India to form a Government: Procedure Right and Wrong (updated 2019 since 2009)

May 18, 2009 — drsubrotoroy

2019

Better Procedure:

 

 

So please follow my timetable for : Th 23/5 Results declared Fri 24/5 EC certifies results Sat Sun 25 26/5 Members sworn in Mon 27/5 Speaker pro tem divides House; Prez invites new to form a Gov’t Tue 28/5 Cabinet appointed

Better Procedure for .. Respected 16LS no longer exists as soon as results are certified by … Let 543 members of new be sworn in immediately one by one; let them elect a Speaker pro tem.

Let the Speaker pro tem divide the House between a putative Government & Opposition… Let then invite the leader of the former side to visit him for a chat… better then before please

Gen Chohan: Utopia not possible Prof. We can only dream IMO.

It’s the correct parliamentary logic tho.. Not hard to do… informs of winning candidates; LS informs 543 new members of to turn up pronto and be sworn in; elect a Speaker pro tem, divide the House; invites

Worse Procedure: 

Halla gulla … lists… parades of signatories… you know… Dilliwalla histrionics… 

 

 

2009:

Better Procedure

The Hon’ble President of India invites the leader of the single largest political party in the 15th Lok Sabha to visit Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The leader does so, bringing with her, her own nominee for the Prime Ministership of India as she herself wishes to decline the invitation to be PM.

The President meets the leader alone and extends the invitation.

The invitation is respectfully declined with the recommendation that the Hon’ble President may perhaps consider instead the name of the person nominated by the leader.

The President agrees and extends the invitation to the latter in the presence of the leader.  The latter accepts with thanks.

The President observes that since the PM-elect in this case happens not to be  a member of the Lok Sabha, she hopes that he shall soon become one.

The meeting ends.

Worse Procedure

The leader of the single largest political party in the 15th Lok Sabha publicly announces her nominee for the position of Prime Minister.

The Hon’ble President of India comes to learn of this from the newspapers or television and extends an invitation to the latter.

The latter visits Rashtrapati Bhavan, receives and accepts the President’s invitation to form a Government.

Of related interest:

Parliament’s sovereignty has been diminished by the Executive

Memo to the Hon’ble President of India: It is Sonia Gandhi, not Manmohan Singh, who should be invited to our equivalent of the “Kissing Hands” Ceremony

Starting with Procedural Error: Why has the “Cabinet” of the 14th Lok Sabha been meeting today AFTER the results of the Elections to the 15th Lok Sabha have been declared?!

Posted in 15th Lok Sabha, Congress Party, Constitutional law, Constitutional monarchy, Constitutional Politics, India's protocols, India's Constitution, India's constitutional politics, India's Democracy, India's Jurisprudence, India's Lok Sabha, India's Parliament, India's Politics, India's Polity, India's Presidency, India's Rajya Sabha, India's Rule of Law, Manmohan Singh, Parliamentary Government, Parliamentary Procedure, Sonia Gandhi. Leave a Comment »