B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 3 Political Science (State and Political Obligations) 2016 Jun (100 marks) Question Paper with Solutions

Every political obligation involves four things. There is a person bound, and the State to which it is owed. There is a content, what must be done or avoided, and a ground, why it binds. The kinds of political obligation are found by varying each of these.

The kinds of political obligation

1. By what binds

1. Legal obligation is imposed by law and enforced by courts. Its sanction is a penalty, such as a fine for not filing a tax return.
2. Moral obligation binds the conscience. Its sanction is guilt and the disapproval of others, as with the duty not to cheat on taxes even where one would not be caught.
3. Political obligation in the strict sense is the moral duty to treat the State's laws as binding because the State made them. It does not depend on agreeing with each of them. It is what the subject of political obligation is really about.

2. By content

1. Obedience to law. The most basic content: keeping the laws of the State in force.

3. Public officials owe more than ordinary citizens. Ministers, legislators and judges take an oath under the Third Schedule to "bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India", and civil servants are bound by service rules.
4. Members of the armed forces accept a special obligation of discipline and obedience to lawful command.
5. Legislators owe obligations to the House and, under the Tenth Schedule, to the party on whose ticket they were elected.

4. By the form of the State

The content of the obligation changes with the kind of State.

1. Under monarchy, the subject owed personal loyalty to the king, and the king owed protection and justice.
2. In an individualist State, the citizen's obligation is narrow: keep the peace and the laws that protect others' rights.
3. In a welfare or socialist State, the obligation widens to sharing burdens for the common good, such as higher taxes for public services. The State's own obligations widen in return.

1. Legal and positive: she must file her tax return and pay her tax on time.
2. Negative: she must not commit any offence, like every other person.
3. Moral: she should refuse a gift meant to buy her vote, even if no one would ever find out.
4. As an official: she has sworn to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution.
5. As a legislator: she must vote with her party on a motion of confidence, or face disqualification under the Tenth Schedule.
6. Prima facie, not absolute: suppose a law plainly violated fundamental rights. Her first duty would be to challenge it in the House and in the courts.

The example shows that the kinds are not separate boxes. One person carries several kinds of obligation at once, and their weight depends on her position.

Two Indian cases on the obligations of legislators

Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachillhu, 1992 Supp (2) SCC 651. The Tenth Schedule, inserted in 1985, disqualifies a legislator who leaves the party that set him up, or votes against its direction. It was challenged as violating the member's freedom of speech, vote and conscience. The Supreme Court upheld it in substance. A member elected on a party's platform is not entitled to defeat the mandate on which he was returned. But it read "any direction" narrowly, to votes critical to the government or integral to the party's policy. The case shows a special political obligation owed by a legislator, within limits.

Raja Ram Pal v. Hon'ble Speaker, Lok Sabha, (2007) 3 SCC 184. In December 2005 a television channel broadcast recordings of members of Parliament accepting money for asking questions. After inquiries, eleven members were expelled. The Supreme Court upheld the power of each House to expel a member under article 105(3). It held that the constituency's rights were not violated, since an expelled member may stand again. The case shows that a legislator's obligation includes honesty in the House itself, and that breach can cost him his seat.