Given below are two statements, one labelled as Assertion (A) and the other labelled as Reason (R).
Assertion (A): The President can dismiss the Prime Minister at any time.
Reason (R): The Prime Minister holds office during the pleasure of the President.
Select the correct answer from the code given below.
- ABoth (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
- B(A) is false, but (R) is true
- CBoth (A) and (R) are true, and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
- D(A) is true, but (R) is false
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: (b) (A) is false, but (R) is true
Explanation
(A) is false and (R) is true.
Under Article 75(2), ministers, including the Prime Minister, hold office during the pleasure of the President. So (R) is true.
But in a parliamentary system, the President acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers (Article 74). The Council is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha (Article 75(3)). So the President cannot dismiss a Prime Minister who has the confidence of the Lok Sabha, and (A) is false.