Rule 198 Needs 50 Members and Notice by 10.00 Hours; 2018 Motion Fell 325 to 126

Article 75(3) of the Constitution says the Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People, which is the Lok Sabha. A no-confidence motion is the procedure through which a member can bring that responsibility before the House. The procedure is set out in Rule 198 of the Lok Sabha's Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business.

The rule sets a written notice deadline, a threshold of fifty members for leave, and a ten-day limit before the motion is taken up. The motion moved against the Union government in August 2023, over the violence in Manipur, shows how those steps apply in practice. An earlier motion in July 2018 was defeated by 325 votes to 126.

Collective Responsibility Under Article 75

Article 75 covers the appointment and tenure of ministers. Under clause (1), the Prime Minister is appointed by the President, and the other ministers are appointed by the President on the Prime Minister's advice. Under clause (2), ministers hold office during the pleasure of the President.

Clause (3) is the part that ties the executive to the House. It makes the Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, which implies that all Ministers share responsibility for the decisions made by the government.

The Lok Sabha's own explainer says a government must keep majority support in the popular House to remain in power. If needed, it must show that strength on the floor by moving a motion of confidence and winning it.

The same explainer says a motion expressing want of confidence in an individual minister is out of order. Under the rules, only a motion against the Council of Ministers as a body is admissible.

The clause itself does not describe how a motion is moved or voted on. That procedure sits in the House's own rules, and Rule 198 is the provision that sets it out.

Notice, Leave and the Fifty-Member Threshold

A member who wants to move the motion must give a written notice to the Secretary-General of the Lok Sabha. Under Rule 198, that notice must reach the office by 10.00 hours on the day leave is asked for. The notice is a separate step from the request for leave itself.

Leave is granted only when at least fifty members stand in the House. The rule says not less than fifty, so a count of exactly fifty meets the threshold. When the threshold is met, the Speaker declares that leave is granted, and the motion is taken up on a day the Speaker appoints.

Under sub-rule (2), the Speaker first has to be of opinion that the motion is in order, then reads it to the House and asks those in favour of leave to rise.

A motion does not have to state the grounds on which it is based. The Lok Sabha's explainer says that even where grounds are mentioned in the notice and read out in the House, they do not form part of the motion.

The Ten-Day Window and How House Time Is Allotted

The motion must be taken up on a day no more than ten days after leave is asked for. The ten days are counted from the request for leave, not from the date the notice is given. Within that limit, the Speaker chooses the day.

Sub-rule 3 of Rule 198 allows the Speaker, after considering the state of business in the House, to allot a day, several days, or part of a day to the discussion. The wording also allows part of a day to be allotted, not only whole days.

The 2018 and 2023 motions ran for different lengths: about 12 hours in 2018 and three days in 2023.

Because the ten days run from the request for leave, the date the Speaker appoints can fall anywhere within that period.

Earlier Motions From 1963 to 2008

The first motion was moved in 1963 by Acharya J B Kripalani against Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The debate lasted 21 hours over four days and drew 40 participants. Nehru's government survived the motion.

Between 1964 and 1975, 15 motions were debated: three against Shastri and twelve against Indira Gandhi. None succeeded.

In 1979, Y B Chavan moved a motion against Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Desai resigned before the vote, after a nine-hour debate spread over two days. The Janata Party also split that year.

Between 1987 and 1997, Rajiv Gandhi's government survived one motion, in 1987, and P V Narasimha Rao's government survived three. Two of the Rao motions were defeated by margins of 46 and 14 votes.

In 2003, the Vajpayee government survived a motion moved by Sonia Gandhi. In 2008, the Manmohan Singh government survived a motion over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Leave is granted only when at least fifty members stand in the House.

The 2018 and 2023 Motions, and the Accounts of the Vote

In 2018, the Telugu Desam Party moved a motion on 20 July. The House defeated it by 325 votes to 126, with 451 members voting and no abstentions, after about 12 hours of debate. Together, the 325 and 126 votes account for all 451 members who voted. The 2018 motion is counted as the 27th in parliamentary history.

The opposition INDIA bloc moved the motion of 2023 over the violence in Manipur, and Gaurav Gogoi moved it in the House. The debate ran for three days, and the motion was defeated on Thursday, 10 August 2023.

Wikipedia records the motion as defeated by voice vote after an opposition walkout. Outlook reports that opposition MPs walked out and skipped voting. Both accounts mention the walkout, but only Wikipedia mentions a voice vote.

For that reason, this article gives a vote count only for the 2018 motion.

What the Rules Mean for Readers

The rule sets three points that a reader can check against the House's record: whether a written notice reached the Secretary-General by 10.00 hours, whether at least fifty members stood, and whether the motion was taken up within ten days of the request for leave.

The two recent motions were moved by different groups: the Telugu Desam Party in 2018 and the opposition INDIA bloc in 2023. Both were moved against the Council of Ministers as a body, which is the only form the rules admit.