9th Class Social Science: Working of Institutions

Question: What is judicial review?

Answer: Judicial review is a process under which executive and (in some countries) legislative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with judicial review power may invalidate laws and decisions that are incompatible with a higher authority; an executive decision may be invalidated for being unlawful or a statute may be invalidated for violating the terms of a written constitution. Judicial review is one of the checks and balances in the separation of powers: the power of the judiciary to supervise the legislative and executive branches when the latter exceed their authority. The doctrine varies between jurisdictions, so the procedure and scope of judicial review may differ between and within countries.

Question: What was the purpose of appointing Mandal Commission? What was its recommendation?

Answer: Mandal Commission was set up on Jan 1 in year 1979 by then Prime Minister Late Sri Morarji Desai.  The commission was headed by then Member of Parliament Bhindeswari Prasad Mandal from Bihar.

The Mandal commission was set up to identify in the country, various socially, economically and educationally backward castes and classes.  The people belonging to these castes and classes were to be classified under OBC or Other Backward Classes.  Then they were recommended for 27% reservation in jobs in the government offices and public sector undertakings.  The idea is to give a social lift upwards to the other backward classes.  The OBC were to be identified from Hindu and non Hindu population not belonging to forward castes and SC/ST.

Mandal commission took 11 parameters related to education of men and women, their ages at the time of marriages, their social status, number of men and women who work on daily labour, women and men who studied up primary and upto 10th standard, their property value as compared to the average in their state and so on.

On their basis Mandal commission included 100s of classes and castes into OBC.  The report was submitted in 1980. They identified about 5000 castes as part of OBC.  The commission said that they were really backward.  They recommended for relaxation of the upper limit for age for candidates belong to these classes.

The recommendations were not implemented later on as the government changed.  In 1990 again Prime Minister VP Singh implemented reservations for OBC. However, Supreme court stayed the decision. In 1992 the supreme court upheld the reservations.  SC believed that reservations for OBC will uplift and improve the status of OBC population.

Question: State the basic rules on the powers and functions of each institution?

Answer: The Constitution of any country lays down basic rules on the powers and functions of each institution. In India there are:

1. The Prime Minister and the cabinet are institutions that take all important policy decisions.
2. The Civil Servants, working together are responsible for taking steps to implement the minister’s decisions.
3. Supreme Court is an institutions where disputes between citizens and the government are finally settled.

Question: Difine Parliament. Why do we need it?

Answer: National assembly of elected representatives is called Parliament. It exercises political authority on be-hay of the people in many ways:

1. parliament is the final authority for making or legislation in any country.
2. Parliament all over the world exercise some control over those who run the government.
3. Parliament control all the money that governments have.
4. Parliament is the highest forum of discussion and debate on public issue and national policy in any country.

Question: Why Lok Sabha is considered more powerful than Rajya Sabha?

Answer: Lok Sabha exercises supreme power in the following ways

1. Any ordinary law needs to be passed by both the houses but in case of conflict, view of Lok Sabha prevails because it has large number of members.
2. Once the Lok Sabha paSses the budget or any other money related law, Rajya Sabha cannot reject it.
   The Rajya Sabha can delay it for a maximum of 14 days or suggest changes in it which may or may not be accepted by the Lok Sabha.
3. Most importantly, the Lok Sabha controls the Council of Ministers. If the majority of the Lok Sabha members say that they have no confidence in the Council of Ministers, then all the ministers including the Prime Minister have to resign.

Thus it can be concluded that bbk Sabha is more powerful that Rajya Sabha.