Indian Polity GK Questions with Answers – Page 54

Part XVIII of the Constitution provides for three kinds of emergency. A National Emergency under Article 352 can be declared on the ground of war, external aggression or armed rebellion.

Article 315 provides for a Public Service Commission for the Union and a Public Service Commission for each State, and allows two or more States to ask Parliament for a Joint Public Service Commission.

Article 148 of the Constitution creates the office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, who audits all receipts and expenditure of the Union and the States and of bodies largely financed from public funds.

Mandamus is a Latin word meaning we command, and the writ is an order from a court to a public official, a public body, a corporation or a lower court to perform a public duty it has refused to do.

The Constitution (Fortieth Amendment) Act, 1976 rewrote Article 297 so that all lands, minerals and other things of value lying in the territorial waters, the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone of India vest in the Union and are held for the purposes of the Union.

Mizoram is a full state, not a Union Territory. It was carved out of Assam as a Union Territory in 1972, and after the Mizo Accord of 1986 it became a state on 20 February 1987 under the 53rd Constitutional Amendment, on the same day as Arunachal Pradesh.

Article 226 gives every High Court the power to issue writs for the enforcement of Fundamental Rights. The five writs are habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, certiorari and quo warranto.

A Council of Ministers is a body made up of ministers, so it comes into being only once each of them has been sworn in.

A Lok Adalat works by bringing the two sides to a settlement, so it can only handle matters the parties are free to compromise.

Till 1949 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, sitting in London, was the highest court of appeal for cases arising in British India.

Sindhi was added to the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution by the 21st Constitutional Amendment Act of 1967. The Eighth Schedule is the list of languages the Constitution recognises, and a candidate may take the civil services examination in any of them.

In this case of 1973 a bench of thirteen judges, the largest the Supreme Court has ever assembled, held by seven votes to six that Parliament may amend any part of the Constitution but may not damage or destroy its basic structure.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court sits at Chandigarh and serves the States of Punjab and Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

It empowers every High Court to issue directions, orders or writs, including habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari, to any person or authority within its territory, for the enforcement of Fundamental Rights "and for any other purpose".

Under Article 217(1), a judge of a High Court holds office until he or she attains the age of 62 years.

Under Article 217(1), every judge of a High Court is appointed by the President by warrant under his or her hand and seal after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the Governor of the State and, for any judge other than the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice of that…

It was established on 1 July 1862 under the Indian High Courts Act, 1861, which makes it the oldest High Court in India.

Justice M. Fathima Beevi, from Kerala, became the first woman judge of the Supreme Court of India in 1989, nearly forty years after the Court was set up.

Justice Harilal Jekisundas Kania, who had been the last Chief Justice of the Federal Court, became the first Chief Justice of India when the Supreme Court began on 26 January 1950, and presided over its inauguration on 28 January.

It allows the Supreme Court, in exercising its jurisdiction, to pass any decree or make any order necessary for doing "complete justice" in any case or matter pending before it.