Do you think that the Constitution of India does not accept the principle of strict separation of powers; rather, it is based on the principle of ‘checks and balances’? Explain.

Montesquieu (1748): "There would be an end of everything, were the same man or the same body to exercise those three powers". India heard this warning but answered it differently, through checks rather than walls.

Principle of strict separation of powers (USA)

• Personnel separation is complete — no member of Congress can hold executive office simultaneously; the President is not a member of Congress; federal judges have life tenure insulated from political cycles.
• The President derives mandate directly from the people (Electoral College) does not need congressional confidence to remain in office; pure separation of executive from legislature.

The Constitution of India adopted a Parliamentary form of government because of familiarity, accountability and Indian diversity. But like all other provisions it was not a “Blind imitation of the west” Evidence: cross-functional powers across organs

• Executive exercising legislative and judicial powers:
  • Art. 123: ordinance-making power
  • Arts. 323A/323B: executive establishes quasi-judicial tribunals (CAT, NGT)
  • Art. 311: executive exercises quasi-judicial disciplinary power over civil servants

Legislature exercising judicial powers:

• Arts. 105/194: contempt and privilege; legislature judges its own members — a judicial function
• Arts. 61, 124(4): impeachment of President, SC judges; legislature conducts quasi-judicial trial
• 10th Schedule: Speaker decides disqualification
• Art. 141: SC declarations are effectively law (Vishaka guidelines operated as binding law until POSH Act 2013)
• Art. 142: complete justice power; SC has framed environmental regulations, ordered CBI investigations, dissolved marriages

Judiciary exercising legislative and executive powers:

• Madison: "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition" Checks and balances: who controls whom
• Legislature over executive: confidence vote (Art. 75(3)), Question Hour, budget approval (Art. 266), parliamentary committees
• Legislature over judiciary: impeachment (Art. 124(4)), constitutional amendments can change basis of adjudication (9th Schedule)
• Judiciary over legislature: judicial review (Art. 13), Basic Structure doctrine — even constitutional amendments beyond Parliament's power (Kesavananda)
• Judiciary over executive: collegium controls judicial appointments (Second Judges Case 1993; NJAC judgment 2015 — judicial independence is Basic Structure)
• Executive over both: President summons/prorogues Parliament (Art. 85); Art. 72/161 pardon powers override judicial sentences
• Kesavananda Bharati (1973) settled the question constitutionally. separation of powers is Basic Structure, but India adopted functional separation with overlapping powers not American-style hermetic separation. The Indian Constitution does not treat separation of powers as an end in itself but as a means to prevent tyranny achieved not through hermetic walls between organs but through an elaborate system of mutual accountability.