Indian Polity Mixed Quiz: Set 1

The Cabinet Mission came to India in 1946 to work out how power would be handed over, and its plan laid down how a Constituent Assembly would be formed: 389 seats in all, 296 for British India and 93 for the princely states, with the members from the provinces elected…

The Preamble opens with the words "We, the people of India", which name the people as the source from which the Constitution draws its authority.

The Bill of Rights is the name given to the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States, adopted in 1791, which protect freedoms such as speech and religion against the government.

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.

The 42nd Amendment of 1976, passed on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee, added a new Part IV-A with a single Article 51A listing ten Fundamental Duties of citizens, such as respecting the Constitution, the National Flag and the National Anthem, protecting the environment and developing the scientific temper.

Part V is titled "The Union" and its first chapter, "The Executive", covers the President, the Vice-President, the Council of Ministers and the Attorney-General.

These two Articles create the Council of Ministers that actually runs the Union government. Article 74 says there shall be a Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister to aid and advise the President, and the President acts on that advice.

It gives Parliament the power to provide by law for additional courts so that laws made by Parliament, or older laws on Union List subjects, are administered better.

It says that the law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within the territory of India.

Article 360 lets the President proclaim a financial emergency when the financial stability or credit of India, or of any part of it, is threatened.

Article 361 gives this personal immunity to only two offices, the President of India and the Governor of a State.

Under Article 171, the Governor nominates one-sixth of the members of a State Legislative Council. These members must have special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art, the co-operative movement or social service.

Article 243ZD was inserted by the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992, which added Part IX-A on Municipalities.

The Constitution (First Amendment) Act was passed by the provisional Parliament in June 1951, barely seventeen months after the Constitution came into force.

The Constitution (Sixty-first Amendment) Act, 1988 changed Article 326, which provides for elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies on the basis of adult suffrage, and lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 years.

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

Goa became a full state on 30 May 1987 through the Constitution (56th Amendment) Act and the Goa, Daman and Diu Reorganisation Act, and the day is celebrated every year as Goa Statehood Day.

The Tenth Schedule, popularly called the anti-defection law, was added by the 52nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1985.

It empowers the President to constitute the Goods and Services Tax Council, a joint forum of the Centre and the States.

It orders the person or authority holding someone to produce that person before the court, and if the detention is found unlawful the person is set free.