Article 75(3) is a fundamental provision in the Constitution of India, establishing the concept of Collective Responsibility for the Union executive. This provision, which was part of the original Constitution of 1950, ensures that the executive remains accountable to the legislature, a core tenet of India's parliamentary democracy. The text of the provision is concise: "The Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People".
The provision's mechanism dictates that the entire Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister, must function as a unified team, sharing responsibility for all government decisions, even those taken by an individual Minister. If a decision is made, every Minister must defend it, and if the Lok Sabha (the House of the People) passes a vote of no-confidence against any Minister, the entire Council of Ministers must resign. This principle was judicially affirmed in the landmark case U.N.R. Rao v. Smt. Indira Gandhi (1971), where the Supreme Court emphasized that the Council of Ministers must command the confidence of the Lok Sabha.
Article 75(3) is intrinsically connected to Article 74(1), which mandates that the President acts on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, thereby making the Council the real executive power, which is then made responsible to the Lok Sabha by Article 75(3). While the text of Article 75(3) has not been amended, the broader Article 75 was significantly changed by the Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act, 2003. This amendment added Article 75(1A), which capped the total number of Ministers, including the Prime Minister, at 15% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha, and Article 75(1B), which disqualified defecting members from being appointed as Ministers. These changes aimed to curb political instability and limit the size of the Council of Ministers.