Indian Polity Mixed Quiz: Set 16

The Supreme Court has held that when a court tests whether a law is constitutional, and finds that the law gives effect to a Fundamental Duty, it may treat the law as "reasonable" under Article 14 or Article 19 and uphold it.

Subordinate courts are the courts at the district level and below, and they hear civil and criminal cases as courts of first instance.

Under Article 60, the President takes the oath or affirmation before the Chief Justice of India, or, in the Chief Justice's absence, before the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court.

Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar was the Chief Justice of India when the nine-judge bench delivered its verdict in Justice K.S.

Statement A is right because Article 153 provides a Governor for each state, and the Governor is the constitutional head of the state, in whose name all executive action of the state is taken.

It gives every High Court the power to issue writs within its territory. A High Court can issue the five writs, habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, certiorari and quo warranto, not only to enforce Fundamental Rights but also 'for any other purpose', that is, for ordinary legal rights.

In a cognizable offence the police may register a case, start an investigation and arrest a person without any order from a magistrate.

It is the one false statement, because the Constitution creates only the Attorney General, not the Solicitor General. Article 76 provides for the Attorney General for India, the chief legal advisor to the Government and the highest law officer.

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.

Article 239 says every Union Territory is administered by the President, acting through an administrator appointed by him with such designation as he thinks fit.

Article 56(1)(a) says the President may resign by writing under his or her hand addressed to the Vice-President. The Vice-President must then communicate the resignation to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha without delay.

The Dowry Prohibition Act was passed by Parliament in 1961 and came into force on 1 July 1961.

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.

Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister from 15 August 1947 until his death on 27 May 1964, about sixteen years and nine months, and no Indian Prime Minister has held the office for longer.

Article 61 sets out the only way a President can be removed before the end of the term: impeachment for "violation of the Constitution".

Even during a national emergency, the enforcement of Articles 20 and 21 cannot be suspended. Article 21 protects life and personal liberty, and Article 20 protects a person from retrospective criminal laws, from being punished twice for the same offence and from being forced to be a witness against himself.

Article 51A(f) actually asks citizens "to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture". The word matters: India's culture is described as composite, a blend of many traditions, languages and faiths, not a single unitary culture.

Article 72 gives the President the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment, and to suspend, remit or commute a sentence.

The Fundamental Duties were written into the Constitution in 1976 by the 42nd Amendment, on the advice of the Swaran Singh Committee, and the idea was borrowed from the Constitution of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

Article 123 lets the President promulgate an ordinance when either House of Parliament is not in session and the President is satisfied that circumstances make immediate action necessary.