PM, CM do not have disciplinary control over members of Council of Ministers: SC

New Delhi, Jan 3: The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister do not have disciplinary control over the members of their Council of Ministers.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice S.A. Nazeer and comprising Justices B.R. Gavai, A.S. Bopanna, V. Ramasubramanian, and B.V. Nagarathna, delivered the verdict. However, Justice Nagarathna delivered a separate judgment.
Justice Ramasubramanian, who authored the majority judgment, noted that suggestion made by an advocate that the Prime Minister, in the case of a minister of the Union of India, and the Chief Minister, in the case of a minister of the state should be allowed to take appropriate action, against the erring minister, is just fanciful.
“The Prime Minister or the Chief Minister does not have disciplinary control over the members of the Council of Ministers. It is true that in practice, a strong Prime Minister or Chief Minister will be able to drop any Minister out of the Cabinet,” he said.
The top court made this observation while holding that a statement made by a minister, even if traceable to any affairs of the state or for protecting the government, cannot be attributed vicariously to the government by invoking the principle of collective responsibility.
Justice Ramasubramanian said but in a country like ours where there is a multi-party system and where coalition governments are often formed, it is not possible at all times for a PM/CM to crack the whip, whenever a statement is made by someone in the Council of Ministers.
“Governments which survive on wafer thin majority (of which we have seen quite a bit), sometimes have individual ministers who are strong enough to decide the very survival of such governments. This problem is not unique to our country,” he said.
The bench noted that the country followed the Westminster model but the model itself became shaky after the UK saw the first coalition government in 2010, since the Winston Churchill caretaker ministry of 1945.
It said that it is interesting to note that in a report submitted by the Constitution Committee (UK) in 2014, under the title, “Constitutional Implications of Coalition Government”, it was pointed out that “collective ministerial responsibility has been the convention most affected by coalition government”.
The bench, however, clarified that it is not suggesting for a moment that any public official including a minister can make a statement which is irresponsible or in bad taste or bordering on hate speech and get away with it.
“We are only on the question of collective responsibility and the vicarious liability of the government,” it said. (IANS)