Parliamentary System in India and Britain

Britain’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, died on September 8 at the age of 96.

Image Source - CNBC

British Monarchy

• The British Monarchy is a constitutional monarchy because an elected Parliament, not the Sovereign Head of State, has the power to draught and enact laws.
• Although she reigns, the British monarch does not rule.
• Belgium, Cambodia, Jordan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Thailand are additional constitutional monarchies.
• In contemporary Britain, the monarch's authority or function is primarily ceremonial.
• The king "must maintain absolute neutrality in regard to political affairs.

Powers and Functions:

• Government and Prime Minister Nominations
• The Prime Minister with the support of the majority of MPs is chosen by the monarch.
• The Head of State summons the party's leader to Buckingham Palace to form the government after the party wins the general election.
• The discretionary power to appoint or dismiss a Prime Minister no longer lies with the monarch.

Opening the Parliament:

• The Monarch opens the Parliamentary year with the State Opening Ceremony, during which he/she delivers an address about the executive's planned policies and priorities in the House of Lords.

Assenting legislation:

• The sovereign gives his/her Royal Assent to the bills passed in the House of Lords and Commons but that is now essentially a rubber-stamping exercise as the last time a bill denied the Royal Assent was in 1707 by Queen Anne.

Commonwealth Realms:

• The Monarch is also the head of the Commonwealth of Nations, an association that is a product of the erstwhile British empire.
• It consists of 56 independent nations with a population of 2.4 billion.

Distinction Between Indian and British Models

India's parliamentary government is substantially modelled after the British parliamentary system. It never did, however, replicate the British system and is different in the following ways:

• Instead of the British monarchy, India has a republican system. In other words, the Head of the State in Britain (the King or Queen) holds a hereditary status, whereas the Head of the State in India (the President) is elected.
• The British system is predicated on the idea that Parliament has absolute power, whereas in India, thanks to a written Constitution, a federal government, judicial scrutiny, and fundamental rights, Parliament has only limited and constrained authority.
• The British Prime Minister must be a member of the Parliament's Lower House (House of Commons). The Prime Minister of India may belong to either of the two Houses of Parliament.
• In Britain, ministerial positions are typically filled solely by members of Parliament. In India, a non-Parliamentary individual may also be appointed as a minister for a maximum of six months.
• While India lacks a system of ministerial legal responsibility, Britain does. India's ministers are not needed to countersign the official acts of the Head of State, unlike in the United Kingdom.

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