UPSC Mains 2019 GS Paper 2 Q1: model answer
Do you think that Constitution of India does not accept principle of strict separation of powers rather it is based on the principle of ‘checks and balance’? Explain.
What the question wants
Explain whether the Constitution prefers checks and balances over strict separation of powers.
How to structure it
Do you think ... Explain: show the fusion, the checks, and the courts' view.
- No strict separation
- Overlaps
- Checks
- Court's view
How to think it through
Article 50 separates the judiciary from the executive in the lower courts only. That is the only explicit separation. Everything else is overlap with checks.
Model answer
Montesquieu wanted three organs in three boxes. India's Constitution builds three organs that overlap and watch each other.
No strict separation
- Parliamentary system: ministers are MPs; the executive is drawn from the legislature.
- Article 50 only asks the State to separate the judiciary from the executive in public services.
- The President has legislative powers (ordinances, Article 123); courts make rules (Article 145).
Checks and balances
- Legislature on executive: questions, no-confidence, committees.
- Executive on legislature: summoning, dissolution, assent.
- Judiciary on both: judicial review (Articles 13, 32, 226).
- Legislature on judiciary: impeachment (Article 124(4)), changing the law after judgments.
The Court's view
Ram Jawaya Kapur (1955) said India has no rigid separation; Indira Gandhi v Raj Narain (1975) and Kesavananda (1973) made separation of powers part of basic structure in a functional sense: no organ may take over another's core.
So the design is checks and balances, with a protected core for each organ. Each organ may borrow a little of another's role, but none may take over its essential function.
Draw: Three overlapping circles with arrows of checks between them.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
Montesquieu, Article 50, 123, 145, judicial review, impeachment, Ram Jawaya Kapur 1955, Indira Gandhi v Raj Narain 1975, functional separation.
Where most answers lose marks
- Saying India follows strict separation like the USA. It does not.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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