According to Article 75, the President appoints the Prime Minister. The mechanism for selecting and appointing the Prime Minister is not specified in the Constitution. However, this does not mean that the President is free to nominate anybody he wants as Prime Minister. The President must designate the leader of the majority party in the Lok Sabha as Prime Minister in the parliamentary form of government, but if no party has a clear majority in the Lok Sabha, the President may exercise his discretion in the appointment of the Prime Minister. The following examples demonstrate this:

• In 1979, for the first time, President NS Reddy exercised the discretion and appointed Charan Singh as Prime Minister after the fall of the Janata Party Government headed by Morarji Desai.
• In 1984, after Indira Gandhi's assassination, there was no obvious successor, then the President Zail Singh appointed Rajiv Gandhi as the Prime Minister.
• In 1980, the court stated that the Constitution does not require that a person must prove his majority in the Lok Sabha before he/she is appointed as Prime Minister. He/she may prove their majority in the Lok Sabha within reasonable period.
• Supreme Court in 1997 held that a person, who is not a member of either House of Parliament can be appointed as Prime Minister for six months, but within it he/she should become a member of either House of Parliament Otherwise, he ceases to be the Prime Minister.