Constitutional Bodies: Attorney General of India (Art 76)

Attorney General of India (Art 76)

The Attorney General is the Union’s chief law officer, appointed by the President from among persons qualified to be Supreme Court judges. There is no fixed term: he holds office during the pleasure of the President. He has the right to take part in the proceedings of either House and to be a member of a parliamentary committee, and to speak in the Lok Sabha, but not to vote (Art 88).

Two 2022 traps: Attorney General of India and Solicitor General of India are the only officers of the Government who are allowed to participate in the meetings of Parliament? No: ministers obviously do, and the Solicitor General has no such constitutional right. And the Constitution does not say he resigns when the government resigns; that is only a convention. Neither statement is correct.

Mains 2019 (‘The Attorney-General is the chief legal adviser and lawyer of the Government of India

Mains 2019 ‘) and ask about his responsibilities, rights and limitations Mains 2025. Duties: advise the Union on legal matters referred by the President, appear for the Union in the Supreme Court and High Courts and in presidential references (Art 143). Rights: audience in all courts in India, the parliamentary rights above, the privileges of an MP (Art 105(4)). Limits: he is not a government servant or a Cabinet member; he must not advise or hold briefs against the Government of India, or defend accused persons in criminal cases without permission.

The State counterpart is the Advocate General (Art 165).

National Commissions for SCs, STs and Backward

Classes; Official Language

Each Commission investigates and monitors constitutional safeguards, inquires into specific complaints, advises on planning, and reports to the President, who lays the reports before Parliament with an action-taken memorandum. While investigating, each has the powers of a civil court (summon, require documents, take evidence), but its recommendations do not bind.

Mains 2022 asked about the role of the National Commission for Backward Classes in the wake of its transformation from a statutory body to a constitutional body. Before 2018 it could only advise on including or excluding castes from the central list. Now it also hears complaints and monitors safeguards for socially and educationally backward classes. The 102nd Amendment’s wording led the Supreme Court (Maratha reservation case, 2021) to hold that only the Union could identify backward classes; the 105th Amendment (2021) restored the States’ power to keep their own lists.

Mains 2018 asked whether the NCSC can enforce the implementation of constitutional reservation for the Scheduled Castes in the religious minority institutions. Article 15(5) exempts minority educational institutions under Art 30 from reservation in admissions, and the NCSC’s findings are recommendations, so it can investigate and report but not compel such an institution. Mains 2026 widened this: do the NCSC and NCST possess adequate enforcement powers to secure substantive social equality? Points: civil-court powers only for inquiry, no power to punish, reports tabled late, vacancies; reforms could include time-bound action-taken reports, adequate staff, and powers to direct compliance in atrocity cases.

Official Language Commission (Art 344). The President constitutes it five years after the Constitution began and again after ten years; the first was the B.G. Kher Commission (1955). A Committee of Parliament (20 Lok Sabha and 10 Rajya Sabha members) examines its recommendations.

Mains view: are these bodies independent and

effective?

→ Non Constitutional Bodies NITI Aayog, NHRC, CVC, CBI, Lokpal and others.