Indian Polity Quiz: Constitutional and Statutory Bodies

The correct answer is C, Article 324. Article 324 vests in the Election Commission the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and of the conduct of all elections to Parliament, to the legislature of every State, and to the offices of President and Vice-President of India. Because the body stands on an article, it cannot be wound up by an ordinary law of Parliament. Option A, Article 280, creates the Finance Commission, which the President constitutes every fifth year to recommend the distribution of taxes between the Union and the States. Option B, Article 315, creates the Union Public Service Commission and a Public Service Commission for each State, which conduct recruitment examinations. Option D, Article 338, creates the National Commission for Scheduled Castes; the companion commission for the Scheduled Tribes sits in Article 338A. Candidates lose this mark by confusing 324 with 325, which bars exclusion from the electoral roll on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex.

The correct answer is B, the National Human Rights Commission. It is a statutory body created by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, and no article of the Constitution mentions it, so Parliament could alter or repeal its parent Act by an ordinary majority. Option A, the Finance Commission, is constitutional under Article 280, and the President constitutes it every fifth year or earlier if he thinks it necessary. Option C, the Comptroller and Auditor General, is constitutional under Article 148, with a removal procedure borrowed from that of a Supreme Court judge and a salary charged on the Consolidated Fund of India. Option D, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, became constitutional when the 89th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003 inserted Article 338A and separated it from the Scheduled Castes commission. The lesson to carry into the examination hall is that the three commissions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes are constitutional, while the commissions for human rights, women and minorities are statutory.

The correct answer is C, the 89th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003. Until that amendment a single National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes worked under Article 338. The 89th Amendment divided the work, keeping the Scheduled Castes commission in Article 338 and inserting a new Article 338A for a separate National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, each with its own chairperson, vice-chairperson and members. Option A, the 73rd Amendment of 1992, added Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule and gave constitutional standing to the panchayats. Option B, the 86th Amendment of 2002, inserted Article 21A making elementary education a fundamental right, along with Article 51A(k) and a change to Article 45. Option D, the 102nd Amendment of 2018, inserted Article 338B and gave the National Commission for Backward Classes its constitutional status. Learning the three commission amendments as a set, 338 with no amendment, 338A with the 89th and 338B with the 102nd, settles a whole family of questions.

The correct answer is B, Article 279A. The article was inserted by the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2016, the amendment that introduced the goods and services tax, and it requires the President to constitute a Council of the Union Finance Minister, the Union Minister of State in charge of revenue or finance, and the Minister in charge of finance or taxation of each State. The Council recommends the rates, the exemptions, the threshold limits and the model laws. Option A, Article 263, empowers the President to establish an Inter-State Council to inquire into and advise upon disputes between States. Option C, Article 280, is the Finance Commission, which deals with the sharing of tax revenue and grants-in-aid, a different subject altogether. Option D, Article 282, allows the Union or a State to make any grant for a public purpose even outside its own legislative competence, and is the article behind many centrally sponsored schemes. Note the number: 279A, not 279.

The correct answer is C, the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003. The Commission was first set up in 1964 by a resolution of the Government of India on the recommendation of the Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption, and for nearly four decades it worked as an executive body. The Act of 2003 turned it into a statutory, multi-member body with a Central Vigilance Commissioner and Vigilance Commissioners. Option A, the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, defines the offences of bribery and criminal misconduct by public servants but creates no commission. Option B, the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, is the law from which the Central Bureau of Investigation draws its powers of investigation; the CBI itself was created by a Home Ministry resolution in 1963. Option D, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, created the Lokpal at the Union level and required States to set up Lokayuktas. The examiner likes this question because the body has two dates, 1964 and 2003.

The correct answer is C. NITI Aayog, the National Institution for Transforming India, was created by a resolution of the Union Cabinet dated 1 January 2015, and it therefore has neither constitutional nor statutory standing. Option A is wrong because Article 282 merely permits the Union or a State to make grants for a public purpose and creates no institution; no article of the Constitution names NITI Aayog. Option B is wrong because Parliament passed no Act for it, which is exactly why the earlier Planning Commission could be replaced without legislation; the Planning Commission too rested on a Cabinet resolution of March 1950. Option D is wrong both in the instrument and in the year. The practical consequence is worth remembering: an executive body can be reorganised or dissolved by the next Cabinet resolution, so its independence rests on convention rather than on law, unlike the Election Commission or the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The correct answer is A, Article 76. The article requires the President to appoint a person qualified to be a judge of the Supreme Court as Attorney General for India, the highest law officer of the Union, who advises the Government on legal matters and appears for it in the Supreme Court. The Attorney General has the right of audience in all courts in India and the right to speak in either House of Parliament and in its committees, but no right to vote. Option B, Article 148, creates the Comptroller and Auditor General. Option C, Article 165, is the parallel provision for a State and appoints the Advocate General, so the pairing to memorise is 76 for the Union and 165 for a State. Option D, Article 324, is the Election Commission. A frequent trap is to ask whether the Attorney General is a member of the Union Cabinet; the answer is no, the office is not a ministerial one.

The correct answer is C, Article 317. It provides that the Chairman or any other member of a Public Service Commission shall be removed from office by order of the President on the ground of misbehaviour only after the Supreme Court, on a reference made by the President, has held an inquiry and reported that the member ought to be removed. The President may also remove a member who is adjudged insolvent, takes paid employment outside his duties, or is unfit by reason of infirmity of mind or body. Option A, Article 315, is the article that creates the Commissions in the first place. Option B, Article 316, deals with appointment and term of office. Option D, Article 320, lists the functions of the Commissions, including conducting examinations and advising on disciplinary matters. The contrast examiners want is with the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Chief Election Commissioner, who go only by the route of a judge of the Supreme Court through an address of both Houses.

The correct answer is B. The Central Information Commission was created by the Right to Information Act, 2005, and hears second appeals from the orders of public information officers and first appellate authorities of the Union. Option A is wrong: the National Green Tribunal was created by the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, while the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 is the umbrella environmental law that followed the Bhopal gas tragedy. Option C is wrong: the National Commission for Women was created by the National Commission for Women Act, 1990, and the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 created the National Human Rights Commission and the State Human Rights Commissions. Option D is wrong: the Securities and Exchange Board of India became a statutory regulator under the SEBI Act, 1992, having begun in 1988 as an administrative body, and the Companies Act dealt with the incorporation and working of companies.

The correct answer is D, Article 350B. The article, inserted by the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1956, requires the President to appoint a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities, usually called the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities and to report to the President, who places the report before Parliament and sends it to the State concerned. Option A, Article 343, declares Hindi in the Devanagari script to be the official language of the Union. Option B, Article 344, provides for a Commission and a Committee of Parliament on official language. Option C, Article 350A, is the closely related provision that directs every State and local authority to provide instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage to children of linguistic minority groups. Note that 350A is a direction to States and 350B creates the officer; swapping the two is the standard trap.

The correct answer is C, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013. The Act created the Lokpal, an anti-corruption ombudsman for the Union, consisting of a Chairperson and members of whom not more than half are judicial members, and it required the States to establish a Lokayukta. The idea goes back to the recommendation of the Administrative Reforms Commission of the 1960s for a Lokpal at the Centre and a Lokayukta in each State. Option A, the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003, gave statutory status to a body set up in 1964 to advise on vigilance in central government departments. Option B, the Right to Information Act, 2005, created the Central and State Information Commissions, not an ombudsman. Option D, the Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2014, provides a mechanism to receive disclosures about corruption and to protect the person making them. All four are statutory, which is why the question tests the exact pairing rather than the class of the body.