As per question asking the constitutional position of the President ,the constitution of India says.
- Article 52 said that there shall be a President of India and he will be the first citizen of India.
- Article 53 said that all the executive power of the Union shall be vested in the President and he is the supreme power of all the defense services in Indian. He can declared the war and peace.
ARTICLE 74 : COUNCIL OF MINISTERS TO AID AND ADVISE PRESIDENT
(1) There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President who shall, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice:
Provided that the President may require the Council of Ministers to reconsider such advice, either generally or otherwise, and the President shall act in accordance with the advice tendered after such reconsideration.
(2) The question whether any, and if so what, advice was tendered by Ministers to the President shall not be inquired into in any court.
ARTICLE 75 (3): The Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People.
After reading the above articles esp. 74 and 75, Indian constitutional makers have chosen Parliamentary form of Government over Presidential form of government.
- The head of the State is a nominal head.
- The real power is vested with the Council of Ministers and Council of Minsters are collectively responsible to the Legislature.
- The Council of Ministers are drawn from the Legislature.
Though these principles must be the core idea of any country’s Parliamentary form of Government and such principles contradictory this will form the basic structure for the Presidential form of Government like in USA.
- Ram Jawaya Kapur vs State of Punjab, 1955
- Shamsher Singh vs State of Punjab, 1974
The Supreme Court of India, in above mentioned cases and in several others, has relied upon the Federal structure of the Indian Constitution that is based on the British Parliamentary system where the executive is deemed to have the function to formulate government policies and to incorporate it into law while retaining the confidence of the Legislature.
In support of the statement, Article 53 read with Article 74 (1 ) of the Indian Constitution vests the executive power of the Union in the President of India and the President cannot exercise the executive functions without/against the aid and advise of the Council of Ministers and he shall act according to the advice till the CoM enjoy the majority. (Substituted by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976.)
Also the 44th Constitutional Amendment Act,1976 enhances the vision of the above said article by inserting an another clause in the Article 74 which states “ The President may require the CoM to reconsider such advice and the President shall act in accordance with the advice tendered after such reconsideration.”
Moreover, The SC’s in U.N. RAO vs Indira Gandhi, 1971 judgement stated that there shall invariably be a CoM to aid and advise the President even when the Lok Sabha gets dissolved as in the form of a caretaker government.
Besides all this, the Chairman of the Drafting Committe, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar remarks the existence of the President as a symbolic head of the nation through whom major decisions of the Government are made public. His wordings were
“The office of the President of India is,more or less, a ceremonial office”
Eventually, the President of India is a constitutional head rather than a nominal head as the Constitution confers some authorities in extra ordinary circumstances (situationary discretionary power).
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