Page 87 - Sst Class - IX

4. Working of Institutions
4. Working of Institutions

Memory Points
Memory Points
• The President is the head of the State and is the highest formal authority in India.
• The Prime Minister is the head of the government and takes most of the decisions in the Cabinet
meetings.

• Parliament consists of the President and two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
• The Prime Minister must have the support of a majority of Lok Sabha members to pass a memorandum.

• On 13 August 1990, the Government of India issued an order which was called an Office Memorandum.
• According to Office Memorandum, the order says that other than SC and ST, the 27% job reservation
benefit will be given to a new third category called Socially and Educationally Backward Classes
(SEBC). Only persons who belong to backward classes were eligible for this quota.

• In the “Indira Sawhney and Others vs Union of India” case, the dispute related to the imposition of
Office of Memorandum was resolved . The Supreme Court judges in 1992 declared that this order
of the Government of India was valid. Thus, the dispute came to an end, and this policy has been
followed since then.
• Institutions are several arrangements made in modern democracies whose performance of functions
decides whether democracy will work well or not.

• Institutions involve meetings, committees, and routines which often leads to delays and complications.
• Some of the delays and complications introduced by institutions are very useful as they provide an
opportunity for a wider set of people to be consulted.

• Institutions make it difficult to have a good decision taken very quickly, but they also make it equally
difficult to rush through a bad decision.
• Parliament exercises political authority on behalf of the people in many ways, as listed below:

 The Parliament is the final authority for making laws in any country.
 Those who run the government can take decisions only when they get the support of the
Parliament.

 The Parliament controls all the money that the government has.
 The Parliament is the highest forum of discussion and debate on public issues and national policy
in any country.

• The Indian Constitution does give the Rajya Sabha some special powers over the states. But on most
matters, the Lok Sabha exercises supreme power. Here are some points to illustrate this:
 Any ordinary law needs to be passed by both the Houses. But if there is a difference between
the two Houses, the final decision is taken in a joint session in which members of both houses sit
together. The view of the Lok Sabha is likely to prevail in such a meeting due to the larger number
of members of the Lok Sabha.

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