Council Of Ministers - The functions and powers

COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

The constitution of India under Article 163 provides that there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister as its head to aid and advise the Governor in every state. Accordingly, the Governor is a nominal head and real powers of the state

government vests in the Council of Ministers in Tamil Nadu. Though the Governor has discretionary powers, he rarely exercises them. As already stated, the Governor appoints the Chief Minister and on his recommendation other ministers are appointed. There is no fixed term of office prescribed for the ministers and they hold office during the pleasure of the Governor. However, the normal term of office of the minsters is five years. The salaries and allowances of the ministers are determined by the state legislature from time to time.

Since parliamentary form of government is followed in the states as in the Union Government, the ministers are individually and collectively responsible to the state Legislative Assembly in which they are members. As a result, the ministers work as a team. 'All for one and one for all' policy works in the functioning of the Council of Ministers. A minister can not separate himself from the collective decision of the ministry. The Council of Ministers remains in power so long as it commands the confidence of the Legislative Assembly. If a no - confidence motion is passed in Legislative Assembly, the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister has to tender resignation. This is known as collective responsibility.

As far as the size of the Council of Ministers is concerned, it is not uniform in all the states in India. The Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) suggested, 'Taking a broad view of the needs of the administration in different states, we consider that big states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra may have about 20 persons in the Council of Ministers. The middle sized states like Madras (now Tamil Nadu), Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh may have 14 to 18 ministers and the small states like Kerala, Haryana and Punjab may have 8 to 12 ministers'. However, the size of the Council of Ministers depend on the Chief Minister of the state concerned. But, the number of ministers should not exceed 15 percent of the total members of the state legislative Assembly due to the recent Constitutional Amendment.

Act. Each minister has to be a member in the state Legislative Assembly. If not, he has to procure this membership within six months. In Tamil Nadu, according to the strength of Legislative Assembly (234 members), the number ministers may be upto 36, ie 15 percent of 234. The functions and powers of the Council of Ministers in Tamil Nadu are following.

1.     The Council of Ministers maintains law and order and security of life and property of the people in the state.

2.     It formulates and decides the policies of the state and implements them effectively.

3.     It decides the legislative programmes of the Legislative Assembly and sponsor all important bills.

4.     It controls the financial policy and decides the tax structure for the public welfare of the state.

5.     It chalks out programmes and schemes for the socio-economic changes so that the state makes headway in various inter-related fields.

6.     It makes the important appointments of the Heads of Departments.

7.     It discusses and takes efforts on the dispute with other states

8.     It advises the Governor on the appointment of Judges of the subordinte courts.

9.     It considers state's share of work in the Five Year Plans and determines its obligations.

10.    It frames the proposal for incurring expenditure out of state reserves.

11.   It decides all the bills whether ordinary bills or money bills to be introduced in the Legislative Assembly.

12.   Each minister of the Council of Ministers supervises, controls and coordinates the department concerned; and

13.   Annual Financial Statement called as the Budget is finalised by the Council of Ministers.