Indian Polity Previous Year Questions (PYQ) with Answers – Page 10

Part II of the Constitution, Articles 5 to 11, deals with citizenship.

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.

It declares that the Supreme Court shall be a court of record and shall have all the powers of such a court, including the power to punish for contempt of itself.

The Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, reserves one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha, the State Legislative Assemblies and the Legislative Assembly of Delhi, including one-third of the seats already reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Article 79 says: "There shall be a Parliament for the Union which shall consist of the President and two Houses to be known respectively as the Council of States and the House of the People." The President is therefore part of Parliament even though he or she sits in neither…

Article 75(3) says the Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People, the Lok Sabha.

Article 77 says all executive action of the Government of India shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President, and that the President shall make rules for the more convenient transaction of the government's business and for allocating it among ministers.

Voting is not among the eleven Fundamental Duties in Article 51A. The right to vote comes from Article 326, which provides for elections on the basis of adult suffrage, and from the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

In 1999 the Committee on the Fundamental Duties of Citizens, headed by Justice J.S. Verma, a former Chief Justice of India, looked at how the duties could be made operational.

Teaching people to turn kitchen waste into compost for a park reduces waste and enriches the soil, which is exactly what Article 51A(g) asks for: to protect and improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures.

The tenth Fundamental Duty is clause (j) of Article 51A, which continues: "so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement".

That is the duty in Article 51A(i). It asks citizens not to damage buses, trains, roads, government buildings and other public property, and to reject violence, for example during protests.

Article 50 says the State shall take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State.

It says two things at once: the provisions of Part IV "shall not be enforceable by any court", but the principles laid down in it are "nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws".

Part IV of the Constitution, Articles 36 to 51, contains the Directive Principles: the goals the State should pursue in making laws and policies, such as a living wage, free legal aid, village panchayats and a Uniform Civil Code.

Article 30(1) gives all minorities, whether based on religion or on language, the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

This is the order in which the Preamble describes India: "a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC". Socialist and secular were inserted between sovereign and democratic by the 42nd Amendment in 1976; before that the phrase read "sovereign democratic republic".

Article 51 says nothing about UN peacekeeping forces; it is a Directive Principle on the promotion of international peace and security.

The Citizenship Act, 1955 provides for the acquisition and determination of Indian citizenship after the commencement of the Constitution, which came into force on 26 January 1950.

Under paragraph 6 of the Tenth Schedule, a question of disqualification for defection is decided by the presiding officer of the House.