Question

The makers of our Constitution adopted the Parliamentary and the Cabinet form of Government. With reference to this, answer the following questions:

What is meant by the collective and Individual Responsibility of the members of the Cabinet?

 

Answer 1

Collective Responsibility: The Council of Ministers, as a single body, has a responsibility towards the Lok Sabha for the Government’s general conduct of affairs. If any minister loses the confidence of the Lok Sabha, all the ministers of the government collectively have to resign from the office. This is known as Collective Responsibility.

Individual Responsibility: Individual Responsibility means that each minister is answerable to the President of the department under his care. Members of the Parliament are entitled to question the ministers and the ministers are responsible for the actions or negligence of their respective departments.