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The Government of India (Hindi: Bharat Sarkar), officially referred to as the Union Government, and commonly as Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of a federal union of 28 states and 7 union territories, collectively called the Republic of India. The basic civil and criminal laws governing the citizens of India are set down in major parliamentary legislation, such as the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, etc. The federal (union) and individual state governments consist of executive, legislative and judicial branches. The legal system as applicable to the federal and individual state governments is based on the English Common and Statutory Law. India accepts compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction with several reservations.

Legislative branch

India's bicameral parliament (also known as the Sansad) consists of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People). The Union Council of Ministers is responsible to the Lok Sabha. In India's parliamentary system, the executive is nominally subordinate to the legislature. There are 543 members in the Lok Sabha that are elected from the various states on the basis of proportional representation. There are 2 Anglo-Indian members nominated by the President. The Rajya Sabha has 250 members.

Executive branch

The Executive arm consists of the President, Vice-President, the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of either house of parliament.

President of India

The government exercises its broad administrative powers in the name of the President of India, who is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the Head of State and chief guardian of the Constitution of the Republic.

The President's true role is mostly ceremonial. He is the Supreme Commander of the nation's armed forces, has the authority to dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections, declare a state of emergency, and dismiss governments in the states, but all upon the counsel of the Prime Minister and the elected government.

Historically, the President of the Republic has been a person revered by the people for his position above ordinary politics. The President and Vice President are elected indirectly for 5-year terms by a special electoral college, composed of delegates from the federal Parliament and state legislatures.

Union Cabinet

Real national executive power is centred in the Council of Ministers, the Union Cabinet, led by the Prime Minister of India, the Head of Government. The President appoints the Prime Minister, who is the designated leader of the political party or coalition commanding parliamentary majority. All Central Government decisions are nominally taken in the name of the President.

The Ministers may be of 3 types - Cabinet Minister, Minister of State (Independent Charge) and Minister of State, in order of seniority. Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State with independent charge may usually attend Cabinet meetings.

The Union Ministries

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The day-to-day enforcement and administration of national laws lies in the hands of the various federal Union Ministries and Departments, created by the Indian Parliament to deal with specific areas of national and international affairs. In matters delegated to the States, Ministries act in advisory and funding capacity.

*Ministry of Agriculture
*Ministry of Agro and Rural Industries
*Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers
*Ministry of Civil Aviation
*Ministry of Coal and Mines
*Ministry of Commerce and Industry
*Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
*Ministry of Company Affairs
*Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
*Ministry of Culture
*Ministry of Defence
*Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region
*Ministry of Environment and Forests
*Ministry of External Affairs
*Ministry of Finance
*Ministry of Food Processing Industries
*Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
*Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
*Ministry of Home Affairs
*Ministry of Human Resource Development
*Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
*Ministry of Labour and Employment
*Ministry of Law and Justice
*Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources
*Ministry of Panchayati Raj
*Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs
*Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
*Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas
*Ministry of Power
*Ministry of Railways
*Ministry of Rural Development
*Ministry of Science and Technology
*Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways
*Ministry of Small Scale Industries
*Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
*Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
*Ministry of Steel
*Ministry of Textiles
*Ministry of Tourism
*Ministry of Tribal Affairs
*Ministry of Urban Development
*Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation
*Ministry of Water Resources
*Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports

Central Government (Independent Departments):

*Department of Atomic Energy
*Department of Ocean Development
*Department of Space

Independent Executive Agencies

The Constitution of India also provides for following independent organisations, who are answerable only to the Parliament and are not under the purview of any Ministry,
* Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) - premier national investigative agency, analogous to the United States FBI, but limited in authority.
* Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)
* Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)
* Election Commission of India
* National Commission for Women
* National Commission on Population
* National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
* Planning Commission - The premier agency
* Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) - Telecom regulator.
* Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) - The recruitment agency for civil service positions based on competitive exams.

Judicial branch

India's independent judicial system began under the British, and its concepts and procedures resemble those of Anglo-Saxon countries. The Supreme Court of India consists of a Chief Justice and 25 associate justices, all appointed by the President on the advice of the Chief Justice of India. In the 1960s, India moved away from using juries for most trials, finding them to be corrupt and ineffective, instead almost all trials are conducted by judges.

Unlike its US counterpart, the Indian justice system consists of a unitary system at both state and federal level. The judiciary consists of the Supreme Court of India, High Courts at the state level, and District and Session Courts at the district level.

National Judiciary

The Supreme Court of India has original, appellate and advisory jurisdiction. Its exclusive original jurisdiction extends to any dispute between the Government of India and one or more states, or between the Government of India and any state or states on one side and one or more states on the other, or between two or more states, if and insofar as the dispute involves any question (whether of law or of fact) on which the existence or extent of a legal right depends.

In addition, Article 32 of the Indian Constitution gives an extensive original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court in regard to enforcement of Fundamental Rights. It is empowered to issue directions, orders or writs, including writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari to enforce them. The Supreme Court has been conferred with power to direct transfer of any civil or criminal case from one State High Court to another State High Court, or from a court subordinate to another State High Court.

Public Interest Litigation: Although the proceedings in the Supreme Court arise out of the judgments or orders made by the Subordinate Courts, of late the Supreme Court has started entertaining matters in which interest of the public at large is involved, and the Court may be moved by any individual or group of persons either by filing a Writ Petition at the Filing Counter of the Court, or by addressing a letter to Hon'ble The Chief Justice of India highlighting the question of public importance for invoking this jurisdiction.

Such a concept is known as Public Interest Litigation, or PIL and several matters of public importance have become landmark cases. This concept is unique to the Supreme Court of India, and perhaps no other Court in the world has been exercising this extraordinary jurisdiction.

State Judiciary

The High Court stands at the head of a State's judicial administration. There are 21 High Courts in the country, three having jurisdiction over more than one state. The Union Territories come under the jurisdiction of different State High Courts. Each High Court comprises a Chief Justice and such other Judges as the President may, from time to time, appoint.

Each High Court has powers of jurisprudence over all subordinate courts within its jurisdiction, namely the District and Sessions courts and other lower courts. It can call for returns from such Courts, make and issue general rules and prescribe forms to regulate their practice and proceedings and determine the manner and form in which book entries and accounts shall be kept.

The District and Session Courts comprise the lowest level of courts, and are trial courts of original jurisdiction, applying both federal and state laws. States are divided into districts and within each, a District and Sessions Judge is head of the judiciary. A District Judge presides over civil cases, while a Sessions Judge over criminal cases. These judges are appointed by the Governor of the state in consultation with the state's High Court. There is a hierarchy of judicial officials below the district level, many selected through competitive examination by the state's public service commissions.

Civil cases at the sub district level are filed in subdistrict or munsif courts. Lesser criminal cases are entrusted to courts of magistrates functioning under the Sessions Judge. At the village level, disputes are frequently resolved by Panchayats or Lok Adalats (Hindi: People's Courts), appealable to the District and Sessions Court.

Note: The judicial system retains substantial legitimacy in the eyes of many Indians despite its politicization since the 1970s. In fact, as illustrated by the rise of social action litigation in the 1980s and 1990s, many Indians turn to the courts to redress grievances with other social and political institutions. It is frequently observed that Indians are highly litigious, which has contributed to a growing backlog of cases.

Indeed, the Supreme Court was reported to have more than 150,000 cases pending in 1990, the high courts had some 2 million cases pending, and the lower courts had a substantially greater backlog. Research in the early 1990s show that the backlogs at levels below the Supreme Court are the result of delays in the litigation process and the large number of decisions that are appealed, and not the result of an increase in the number of new cases filed.

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References

*Official websites of various Indian Government Ministries
*Official Website of Indian Courts, Govt of India (public domain text)
*Official Website of Govt of India (public domain text)
*Directory of Indian Government websites