Indian Administration I: Evolution from the Ancient, Mughal and British Periods; the Constitutional Framework; the Union Executive — President, Prime Minister, Cabinet Committees, Secretariats and the PMO; the Election Commission; Union–State Relations

The Constitution combines a parliamentary executive with a federal division of powers. Its parliamentary features are a nominal head (the President) and a real executive (the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister); collective responsibility of the Council of Ministers to the Lok Sabha (Article 75(3)); membership of ministers in Parliament; the leadership of the Prime Minister; and dissolution of the lower house. Its federal features are a written, rigid and supreme Constitution; a division of powers in the Seventh Schedule (Union, State and Concurrent Lists); an independent judiciary as arbiter; and bicameralism with a Council of States.

The federation has a strong unitary bias — a single Constitution and citizenship, an integrated judiciary, the All India Services, the Governor appointed by the Union, the residuary power with Parliament, emergency provisions, and Parliament's power to reorganise states (Article 3). K. C. Wheare accordingly called India "quasi-federal", and Granville Austin "cooperative federalism". The Supreme Court in S. R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994) held federalism to be part of the basic structure. For the administrator the consequence is that most welfare and development services are delivered by state governments, often through centrally sponsored schemes designed and co-funded by the Union.

The executive power of the Union is vested in the President (Article 53) but exercised on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers (Article 74). The 42nd Amendment (1976) made that advice binding; the 44th Amendment (1978) allowed the President to return advice once for reconsideration, after which it binds. The President's real discretion is narrow — choosing a Prime Minister when no party has a majority, dismissing a ministry that has lost confidence, and the timing of assent to a bill (the "pocket veto"). Administratively, all executive action is taken in the President's name under rules made by him under Article 77: the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 distribute work among ministries and departments, and the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961 lay down how it is done.

The Prime Minister heads the Council of Ministers (Article 75), which has three ranks — Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State (some with independent charge) and Deputy Ministers — and whose size, by the 91st Amendment (2003), may not exceed fifteen per cent of the Lok Sabha. The Cabinet, a smaller body of senior ministers, is the real centre of policy; the word "cabinet" entered the Constitution only through the 44th Amendment (Article 352). Much of the Cabinet's work is done in Cabinet Committees, which are extra-constitutional, set up by the Prime Minister under the Transaction of Business Rules; the PM decides their number and composition and chairs most of them. They include the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, the Cabinet Committee on Security, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (the "super cabinet"), the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs and the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation; in 2019 committees on Investment and Growth and on Employment and Skill Development were added.

The Central Secretariat is the collection of ministries and departments that assist ministers in policy-making; it is a staff body, while execution is left to attached offices (which provide technical information and direction, such as a directorate-general) and subordinate offices (field establishments). A department is headed by a Secretary, below whom come the Additional Secretary, Joint Secretary, Director or Deputy Secretary, Under Secretary and Section Officer — the desk and section being the operating units. The Secretariat is staffed largely under the tenure system, begun under Curzon: officers from the All India and Central Services come to Delhi on deputation for fixed terms and return to the field, so that policy is made by people with field experience and the field is refreshed with a national view. Its critics point to delays from the "file" culture, excessive levels, and the dominance of generalists.

The two differ in whom they serve: the Cabinet Secretariat serves the Cabinet as a collective, the PMO serves the Prime Minister as a person. The PMO's weight has varied with the Prime Minister — it became a powerful policy centre under Indira Gandhi with P. N. Haksar as her secretary, and the Cabinet Secretary's coordinating role has been correspondingly eclipsed in some periods. The balance between them is an administrative barometer of how collective Cabinet government actually is.

The Election Commission of India (Article 324) superintends, directs and controls elections to Parliament, the state legislatures and the offices of President and Vice-President. It was a single-member body until 1989, briefly multi-member then, and permanently three-member since 1993, with decisions by majority. The Chief Election Commissioner can be removed only like a Supreme Court judge. In Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India (March 2023) the Supreme Court directed that appointments be made on the advice of a committee of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice until Parliament legislated; Parliament then passed the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, under which the selection committee is the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister. State Election Commissions, which conduct panchayat and municipal elections, are separate bodies under Articles 243K and 243ZA.

• Administrative reforms of the process: electronic voting machines, the voter-verifiable paper audit trail, photo identity cards and the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct — which gained real teeth under T. N. Seshan as Chief Election Commissioner (1990–96).
• Committees: the Dinesh Goswami Committee (1990) on electoral reforms and the Indrajit Gupta Committee (1998) on state funding of elections.
• Judicial interventions: disclosure of candidates' criminal, financial and educational antecedents (2002–03); the NOTA option (PUCL, 2013); and the striking down of the electoral bond scheme in Association for Democratic Reforms v. Union of India (February 2024).

Union–State relations run on three planes — legislative, administrative and financial (the last is taken up in Unit VI). Administratively, states must exercise their executive power so as to ensure compliance with Union laws (Article 256) and not impede the Union's executive power (Article 257); the Union may give directions, and failure to comply may be treated as a breakdown of constitutional machinery (Article 365). The Union may entrust functions to states with their consent (Article 258), and the All India Services place Union-recruited officers at the head of state administrations. The Sarkaria Commission (1983–88) recommended a permanent Inter-State Council under Article 263, set up in 1990, and restraint in using Article 356; the Punchhi Commission (2007–10) revisited the same questions.