Court caseAIR 1971 SC 1002

The fourth Lok Sabha was dissolved on 27 December 1970 and a general election was called. U.N.R. Rao filed a petition for a writ of quo warranto in the Supreme Court contending that Indira Gandhi could not continue as Prime Minister once the Lok Sabha was dissolved, because Article 75(3) makes the Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the House of the People and there was no House to which it could be responsible.

The petition was dismissed. Sikri CJ held that the word 'shall' in Article 74(1) is mandatory: the President cannot exercise the executive power without the aid and advice of a Council of Ministers, so a Council must exist at all times. Article 75(3) does not say that the Council of Ministers must vacate office on dissolution; collective responsibility operates only while the House is in existence, and the Article should be read as applying when the House is not dissolved or prorogued. Reading Article 75(3) literally would make the Government fall every time the House was dissolved, which cannot have been intended. The Constitution adopted the British convention that the Ministry continues until a new Government is formed.