Prime Minister : Heads the Council of Ministers
The office of the Prime Minister in Britain is the result of accident of circumstances and growth. But in India, the office has been created by the Constitution itself. The Prime Minister heads the Council of Ministers which he or she forms. The Ministers are technically appointed by the President but in actual practice they are the nominees of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister forms the Ministry but he can alter it or destroy it. But Constitution is silent on how the President appoints the Prime Minister. It does not say whether the Prime Minister must belong to the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. When Mrs. Indira Gandhi was appointed the Prime Minister after the death of Mr. Sastri, she was a member of Rajya Sabha.
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The accepted convention is that the head of the State summons the leader of the party which has a majority in Lok Sabha if there is one, or such a person capable of commanding a majority in Legislature, when there is no single party having clear majority, and appoints him as the Prime Minister and commissions him to form the Ministry. The Prime Minister-ship of India entails one of the heaviest burdens in the world. In India the prime minister is Primus inter parus – first among equals. He is rather a ‘sun around which planets revolve’.