Constitutional, Statutory and Non-Statutory Bodies

Beyond the three great organs of government, the state runs through many specialised bodies: auditors, commissions and watchdogs.

These bodies fall into three kinds by where their authority comes from:

• Constitutional bodies: created directly by the Constitution.
• Statutory bodies: created by an Act of Parliament.
• Non-statutory (executive) bodies: set up by a government order.

These bodies are created by the Constitution itself, so an ordinary law cannot abolish them.

Dr Ambedkar called the CAG the most important officer under the Constitution, the guardian of the public purse.

• Appointment and tenure (Article 148): appointed by the President. The term is six years or until the age of 65, whichever is earlier. This is fixed by Parliament under the CAG (Conditions of Service) Act, 1971, not by the Constitution itself. He can resign by writing to the President.
• Independence: he is removed only in the manner of a Supreme Court judge, by an address of both Houses on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity (Article 148(1) with Article 124(4)). So he is outside the rule that civil servants hold office at the President's pleasure. His salary and service conditions cannot be varied to his disadvantage (Article 148(3)). After retirement he is barred from any further office under the Union or a state (Article 148(4)).
• Role: he audits all spending from the Consolidated Fund, the Contingency Fund and the Public Account of both the Union and the states. He also audits the accounts of government companies (Article 149). The form of those accounts is prescribed under Article 150. His reports go to the President or Governor, who lays them before the legislature (Article 151), where the Public Accounts Committee examines them.
• A key catch: despite the name "Comptroller", in India he only audits after the money is spent. He has no control over the issue of money from the Consolidated Fund, unlike his British counterpart. He also has no judicial powers and cannot himself prosecute wrongdoers. He merely reports. His findings do feed the system, however: his reports are examined by the Public Accounts Committee, and the information in them can be used by investigating agencies (such as the CBI) to press charges.

• Composition (Article 324): a multi-member body since 1993, comprising the Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners, appointed by the President, with equal powers and decisions taken by majority.
• Independence (Article 324(5)): the CEC can be removed only like a Supreme Court judge. The two Election Commissioners can be removed only on the CEC's recommendation.
• Work (Article 324): it is responsible for the full range of electoral administration:
  • Elections: conducts elections to Parliament, the state legislatures, and the offices of President and Vice-President, but not to local bodies, which the State Election Commissions run.
  • Schedule: fixes the election schedule itself (the Home Ministry has no say in this).
  • Parties and symbols: registers parties and allots symbols.
  • Splits and mergers: settles disputes over party splits and mergers.
  • Disqualification: advises on the disqualification of sitting legislators. The President or Governor acts on its opinion under Articles 103 and 192 (disqualification of MPs and MLAs respectively).
  • Model Code of Conduct: enforces the Model Code of Conduct.

• Constitution (Article 280): set up by the President every five years (or earlier), with a chairman and four members whose qualifications Parliament prescribes.
• Task (Article 280(3)): it recommends how the net proceeds of central taxes are shared between the Union and the states (and among the states). It also recommends the principles that govern grants-in-aid (Article 275, grants from Union to states), and the measures needed to add to a state's fund so it can support its panchayats and municipalities.
• Weight (Article 281): its recommendations are advisory, not binding. The government lays them before Parliament with a memorandum of the action taken.
• Recent awards: the 14th Finance Commission raised the states' share of the divisible pool of central taxes from 32% to 42%, the largest jump ever, and discontinued sector-specific grants. The 15th Finance Commission set the share at 41% (one per cent kept back for the new Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh). It recommended grants tied to education outcomes for 2022–26, an incentive of about Rs 45,000 crore for states that carry out agricultural reforms, and brought back a tax-effort criterion to reward states that collect their own taxes well.
• Horizontal devolution (15th FC): the share of each state was fixed by six criteria: population, area, income distance, demographic performance, forest and ecology, and tax and fiscal efforts. Governance reforms and stability of government were not criteria.
• State Finance Commission (Article 243-I): the state-level counterpart, set up by the Governor every five years. It recommends to the Governor the principles for deciding which taxes and duties may be assigned to or appropriated by the Panchayats. The Union Finance Commission has no role here.

The first law officer of the Government of India and its chief legal adviser.

• Appointment and tenure (Article 76): appointed by the President, and must be qualified to be a Supreme Court judge. The Constitution fixes no term and lays down no removal procedure. He holds office during the pleasure of the President and is not required by the Constitution to resign when the government that appointed him resigns.
• In Parliament: under Article 88 he has the right to speak and take part in the proceedings of both Houses, their committees and a joint sitting, but no right to vote. He also enjoys the privileges of a Member of Parliament (Article 105(4), privileges of non-member officers who address Parliament).
• In the courts: a right of audience in all courts in India.
• He is not a member of the Cabinet and not a whole-time government servant (he may take limited private practice). The Solicitor General and the Additional Solicitors General assist him, but those are not constitutional posts and have no Article 88 right to address Parliament.

The state's counterpart of the Attorney General, and its highest law officer. He is appointed by the Governor and must be qualified to be a High Court judge. He holds office during the Governor's pleasure. Under Article 177 (right to address the state legislature) he may speak in the state legislature and its committees but cannot vote.

• The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (Article 338) and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (Article 338A) were separated into two bodies by the 89th Amendment (2003). They investigate and monitor the safeguards for these groups, exercise the powers of a civil court, and report to the President.
• The National Commission for Backward Classes (Article 338B) became a constitutional body through the 102nd Amendment (2018).
• The GST Council (Article 279A) was created by the 101st Amendment (2016). It is chaired by the Union Finance Minister with the state finance ministers as members. It recommends GST rates and rules. Its decisions need a three-fourths majority, with the Centre holding one-third of the voting weight.

Matching questions sometimes pair well-known names with the offices they held. The pairings worth remembering:

• R.K. Trivedi and T.S. Krishnamurthy: Chief Election Commissioners.
• A.N. Ray and R.C. Lahoti: Chief Justices of India.
• Ashok Desai: Attorney General of India.
• Nagender Singh: President of the International Court of Justice.
• K.C. Pant: chairman of the 10th Finance Commission.
• A.M. Khusro: chairman of a Finance Commission. He was never chairman of the UPSC, a common trap.

The Public Service Commissions (Articles 315–323) are the constitutional bodies that recruit the civil services on merit:

• The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is established under Article 315 and recruits for the all-India services (IAS, IPS) and the central services. Its chairman and members are appointed by the President for six years or until age 65 (Article 316). Its role under Article 320 is advisory. The government must lay any rejection of its advice before Parliament (Article 323).
• Its independence is guarded like a judge's. A member can be removed only by the President after a Supreme Court inquiry (Article 317), and its expenses are charged on the Consolidated Fund (Article 322).
• Each state has a State Public Service Commission. Its members are appointed by the Governor (Article 316, term up to 62) but, to protect them, can be removed only by the President (Article 317). Parliament may also create a Joint SPSC for two or more states (Article 315(2)).

These are not named in the Constitution but are just as important.

Statutory bodies are created by an Act of Parliament:

• National Human Rights Commission (NHRC): under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. It inquires into rights violations, but its findings are only recommendatory. Under the original 1993 Act, only a retired Chief Justice of India could be its Chairman. A 2019 amendment widened the field, so the head may now be a former Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court judge. Two further points the Act settles: a State Human Rights Commission is not compulsory in every state, and there is no statutory requirement of a woman member.
• Central Vigilance Commission (CVC): the apex anti-corruption watchdog, given statutory status in 2003 after the Vineet Narain judgment. It comprises a Central Vigilance Commissioner and two Vigilance Commissioners.
• Central Information Commission (CIC): under the Right to Information Act, 2005. It hears appeals and complaints about access to information held by public authorities.
• National Commission for Women (NCW): under the 1990 Act. It safeguards and promotes the interests of women.
• Lokpal: the anti-corruption ombudsman at the Union level under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013. It has a chairperson and up to eight members, half of whom are judicial. The chairperson may be a former Chief Justice of India, a former Supreme Court judge, or an eminent person; the post is not reserved for ex-CJIs alone. A chairperson or member must be at least 45 years old and must not be an MP or MLA. Its jurisdiction covers Indian public servants even when posted outside India, and it can inquire into a sitting Prime Minister, subject to safeguards. Each state has a corresponding Lokayukta. In some states, such as Rajasthan and Karnataka, the Lokayukta law brings even the Chief Minister within its ambit.
• National Legal Services Authority (NALSA): under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. It provides free legal services to the weaker sections on the principle of equal opportunity for justice, and it lays down guidelines for the State Legal Services Authorities. Eligibility is targeted, not universal. It covers, among others, persons with an annual income below Rs 1 lakh and transgender persons with annual income below Rs 2 lakh, but not all OBCs and not all senior citizens.
• National Commission for Minorities (NCM): got statutory status in 1993. The Constitution recognises and protects religious and linguistic minorities but nowhere defines the word "minority". Among the notified minority communities, Zoroastrians (Parsis) are the smallest, and Jains were added later as the sixth group.
• Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT): under the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, passed during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure, not in the Shastri years. It adjudicates the service disputes of central government employees, and its members are drawn from both judicial and administrative streams.
• National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC): a statutory quasi-judicial body (originally the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, now the 2019 Act), the apex consumer court at the top of the district–state–national tier. It is not a constitutional body.
• Zonal Councils: advisory bodies that promote inter-state cooperation, created by statute under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (so statutory, not constitutional). The separate North Eastern Council has its own Act of 1971. After a 2002 amendment, the NEC comprises the Governors and Chief Ministers of its constituent states plus three members nominated by the President. The Union Home Minister is not a member.

Executive (non-statutory) bodies are set up by a government resolution, not by law:

• NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission in 2015 as the government's policy think tank. Unlike the old Planning Commission, it does not allocate funds to the states. It advises and coordinates. Two bodies often wrongly attached to it are not its organs: the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), an infrastructure fund with a corpus of about Rs 40,000 crore under the Finance Ministry, and the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), which is chaired by the Union Finance Minister and handles macro-prudential supervision of the economy.
• The old Planning Commission (1950) and the National Development Council (1952) were both executive bodies set up by government resolution. Neither was ever named in the Constitution. The NDC, the highest deciding body for the Five-Year Plans, comprised the Prime Minister, all Union Cabinet Ministers and all Chief Ministers. The chairman of the Finance Commission was not a member. The Secretary of the Planning Commission also served as Secretary to the NDC. Two constitutional pegs go with this machinery: economic and social planning sits in the Concurrent List (Entry 20), and Article 243G asks states to entrust Panchayats with preparing plans for economic development.
• Law Commission of India: despite the "Commission" name and its weighty law-reform reports, it is neither constitutional nor a permanent statutory body. It is an executive body constituted afresh by a government order for a fixed term, to recommend changes to existing laws.
• Quality Council of India (QCI): set up jointly by the Government and Indian industry, so it is neither purely official nor purely private. Its chairman is appointed by the Prime Minister on the recommendation of industry.
• National Renewal Fund (1992): created when public-sector units were being restructured. It financed the retraining, counselling and redeployment of retrenched workers. It was a safety net for labour, not a fund for new investment.

The origin test matters most for the bodies that coordinate the Union and the states:

• Inter-State Council: has a direct constitutional basis in Article 263. The President establishes it to inquire into inter-state disputes and to discuss subjects of common interest.
• National Security Council: a purely executive body created by government order. It has no constitutional or statutory basis.
• Governors' Conference and the NDC: both are extra-constitutional and extra-legal devices of coordination. No provision of the Constitution and no statute creates them.

One adjacent fact is often packed into the same questions. Under Article 123 the President can promulgate an ordinance when either House of Parliament is not in session. Both Houses need not be out of session.

The consumer courts form a three-tier ladder: District Forum, State Commission, and the NCDRC at the top. The district tier under the original Consumer Protection Act, 1986 is tested in detail:

• Monetary ceiling: the District Forum heard claims up to Rs 20 lakh.
• Composition: it had to include a woman member.
• Number: a state government could set up more than one forum in a district.
• Who can complain: the state government can file a representative complaint on behalf of consumers, and a legal heir can file for a deceased consumer.
• Consumer privileges: a consumer may take a sample of food for testing, but a filing fee is payable. Complaints are cheap, not free.

• Directorate of Enforcement (ED): works under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, not under the Home Ministry. Besides the money-laundering law, it enforces the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018.
• Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI): also under the Department of Revenue. It is the anti-smuggling agency and enforces the Customs Act, 1962.

Parliament can declare an institution an Institute of National Importance by an Act. The Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, NIPER Mohali (pharmaceutical education and research) and the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology hold this status under Acts of Parliament. The Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education does not.

Office-holders constantly meet at state functions, so the government needs a fixed protocol of rank. The Warrant of Precedence supplies it. It is a table of ranks issued under the authority of the President and maintained by the Ministry of Home Affairs. It applies only to ceremonial occasions such as state funerals and official receptions. It confers no legal power and has no bearing on the day-to-day business of government.

The top of the table follows the constitutional hierarchy:

• Rank 1: the President.
• Rank 2: the Vice-President.
• Rank 3: the Prime Minister.
• Rank 4: the Governor of a state, within his own state. Outside his state he drops to a lower rank.
• Rank 5: former Presidents, with the Deputy Prime Minister placed just after them at 5A.
• Rank 6: the Chief Justice of India and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, who share the same rank.

A striking result follows from ranks 4 to 6. Within his own state, the Governor outranks the Deputy Prime Minister, a former President and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, because he is the head of the state he is standing in.

Lower down, the order among frequently confused offices is also fixed. Judges of the Supreme Court (rank 9) come first. Next is the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (rank 10), who shares that rank with Deputy Chief Ministers, the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and Union Ministers of State. The Attorney General of India (rank 11), the first law officer, follows them. Ordinary Members of Parliament stand much further down, at rank 30. The descending sequence to remember is: Supreme Court judges, then Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, then Attorney General, then Members of Parliament.