Indian Polity Mixed Quiz: Set 26

The correct answer is Article 129. 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. Being a court of record means two things: its judgments and proceedings are preserved as permanent records of evidentiary value that cannot be questioned when produced before any court, and it has the inherent power to punish anyone who scandalises the court or disobeys its orders.

The other options are nearby Articles with different content. Article 123 gives the President the power to issue ordinances. Article 125 deals with the salaries and allowances of Supreme Court judges. Article 127 provides for the appointment of ad hoc judges when there is no quorum of permanent judges. The High Courts are courts of record too, under Article 215, so remember the pair: 129 for the Supreme Court and 215 for the High Courts. Contempt of court is further defined by the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.

The correct answer is D, Mizoram. 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. The difference matters: a Union Territory is administered by the President through an Administrator or Lieutenant Governor under Article 239, while a state has its own Governor and its own government under Part VI of the Constitution. Option A is wrong because Ladakh has been a Union Territory since 31 October 2019 and Puducherry since 1962, and both are listed as Union Territories in the First Schedule. Option B is wrong because Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu were joined into one Union Territory on 26 January 2020. Option C is wrong because Lakshadweep is a Union Territory of coral islands in the Arabian Sea, with its capital at Kavaratti. Exam tip: Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh became states on 20 February 1987, Goa on 30 May 1987.

The correct answer is Article 137. It gives the Supreme Court the power to review any judgment it has pronounced or any order it has made, subject to the provisions of any law made by Parliament and the rules made by the Court under Article 145. A review petition is normally heard by the same bench that gave the judgment, and it succeeds only if there is an error apparent on the face of the record or some similar strong ground. Beyond review, the Court recognised the curative petition in the Rupa Ashok Hurra case (2002) as a last remedy to prevent a gross miscarriage of justice.

The other options are the Articles right around it. Article 135 lets the Supreme Court exercise the jurisdiction the Federal Court had under earlier law. Article 136 is the special leave to appeal from any court or tribunal. Article 138 allows Parliament to enlarge the Court's jurisdiction. The sequence 136, 137 is worth fixing in memory: special leave to appeal, then review of its own judgments.

The correct answer is B, Article 161. Article 161 lets the Governor grant pardons, reprieves, respites and remissions of punishment, and suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of an offence against a law on a matter to which the executive power of the state extends. His power is narrower than the President's under Article 72 in two ways: the Governor cannot pardon a death sentence and has no say in a sentence passed by a court martial, while the President can act in both cases. Like the President, the Governor exercises this power on the advice of the state Council of Ministers. Option A is wrong because Article 163 provides for the Council of Ministers to aid and advise the Governor. Option C is wrong because Article 55 lays down the manner of election of the President. Option D is wrong because Article 145 lets the Supreme Court frame rules of procedure. Exam tip: Article 72 for the President's pardon and Article 161 for the Governor's; only the President can pardon a death sentence or a court-martial sentence.

The correct answer is All courts within the territory of India. Article 141 says the law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within the territory of India. This is what gives its judgments the force of precedent: every High Court, district court and tribunal must follow the legal principles the Supreme Court lays down. The Supreme Court itself, however, is not bound by its own earlier decisions and can overrule them, usually through a larger bench.

The other options misread the Article. It is not limited to the High Courts, and it does not exclude civil courts or apply only to some tribunals. As for State governments, their duty comes from a different Article: under Article 144, all authorities, civil and judicial, in the territory of India shall act in aid of the Supreme Court. So remember the pair: Article 141 binds the courts to the Court's law, and Article 144 obliges every authority, including governments, to help enforce its decisions.

The correct answer is D, 86th amendment. The 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002 made free and compulsory education a fundamental right. It inserted Article 21A, under which the State shall provide free and compulsory education to every child between the ages of six and fourteen years. The same amendment rewrote Article 45 in the Directive Principles, asking the State to care for children below six years, and added Article 51A(k), which makes it a fundamental duty of a parent or guardian to send a child to school. Parliament gave the right its working shape through the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, in force from 1 April 2010. Option A is wrong because the 88th Amendment dealt with service tax. Option B is wrong because the 89th Amendment split the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission into two separate bodies. Option C is wrong because the 87th Amendment shifted the basis of delimitation to the 2001 census. Exam tip: remember the trio 86th Amendment, Article 21A and the RTE Act, 2009.

The correct answer is Article 142. 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 is a unique power that lets the Court fill gaps where the law is silent. In 2022, in Budhadev Karmaskar v. State of West Bengal, the Court used it to issue directions recognising sex work as a profession and ordering the police not to harass consenting adult sex workers. It also relied on Article 142 in the Ayodhya judgment of 2019 to direct that five acres of land be given for a mosque.

The other options are the Articles around it. Article 140 lets Parliament confer supplementary powers on the Court. Article 141 makes the law declared by the Court binding on all courts. Article 143 is the President's power to seek the Court's advice. Because Article 142 is so broad, critics say the Court should use it sparingly, but for exams remember it with two words: "complete justice".

The correct answer is A, JS Khehar. Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar was the Chief Justice of India when the nine-judge bench delivered its verdict in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India on 24 August 2017, and he presided over it. The bench held unanimously that privacy is a fundamental right, protected mainly as part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and by the freedoms in Part III. It overruled the older rulings in M.P. Sharma (1954) and Kharak Singh (1962), which had said the Constitution gives no such right. The case grew out of a challenge to the Aadhaar scheme. Justice Khehar was also the first Sikh Chief Justice of India. Option B is wrong because Dipak Misra became Chief Justice a week later, and led the benches on Section 377 and adultery. Option C is wrong because H.J. Kania was India's first Chief Justice, in 1950. Option D is wrong because T.S. Thakur retired as Chief Justice in January 2017. Exam tip: Puttaswamy 2017, nine judges, Article 21, CJI Khehar.

The correct answer is Harilal Kania. 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. He died in office in November 1951 and was succeeded by M. Patanjali Sastri.

The other options are also Chief Justices, which is exactly why they appear. B.K. Mukherjea and A.K. Sarkar became Chief Justice later, in the 1950s and 1960s. Y.V. Chandrachud is the longest-serving Chief Justice, from 1978 to 1985, and a favourite answer to a different question. To keep the Supreme Court firsts together: first Chief Justice H.J. Kania; first woman judge M. Fathima Beevi (1989); longest-serving Chief Justice Y.V. Chandrachud. The present Chief Justice, Justice Surya Kant, is the 53rd, and took office in November 2025.

The correct answer is A, a-iii, b-ii, c-iv, d-i. Article 263 allows the President to set up an Inter-State Council to discuss disputes and common subjects among states; the council was first formed in 1990 on the Sarkaria Commission's advice. Article 226 gives every High Court the power to issue writs such as habeas corpus and mandamus, not only for Fundamental Rights but also 'for any other purpose', which makes it wider than the Supreme Court's power under Article 32. Article 239 says each Union Territory is run by the President through an administrator appointed by him. Article 280 requires a Finance Commission every five years to recommend how tax revenue is shared between the Centre and the states. Option B is wrong because it links Article 263 with the Finance Commission and Article 280 with Union Territories. Option C is wrong because it links Article 263 with the High Court and Article 226 with the Finance Commission. Option D is wrong because it links Article 263 with Union Territories and Article 239 with the Inter-State Council. Exam tip: 263 Inter-State Council, 226 High Court writs, 239 UTs, 280 Finance Commission.

The correct answer is Fatima Beevi. 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. She was also the first Muslim woman to sit on the Court and, according to many accounts, the first woman appointed to the highest court of any Asian country. After retiring she served as the Governor of Tamil Nadu from 1997 to 2001.

The other options are women judges who came later, which is why they are chosen to confuse. Justice R. Banumathi was appointed in 2014. Justices Indira Banerjee and Indu Malhotra were both appointed in 2018; Indu Malhotra was the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court directly from the Bar, without first serving as a High Court judge. India has not yet had a woman Chief Justice. Keep "first woman judge" and "first woman appointed directly from the Bar" apart, since both are asked.

The correct answer is C, Residuary powers in the Centre – Canadian Constitution. The makers of the Constitution took the scheme of a federation with a strong centre from Canada, and with it the rule that subjects not listed in any of the three lists stay with the Union; Article 248 and entry 97 of the Union List carry that rule. The appointment of state Governors by the centre and the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court come from the same source. Option A is wrong because the Directive Principles were borrowed from the Irish constitution; Australia gave the Concurrent List, freedom of trade and commerce, and the joint sitting of the two Houses. Option B names the American constitution for the federal system, whereas from the United States came fundamental rights, judicial review, an independent judiciary and the impeachment procedure. Option D is wrong because fundamental duties were taken from the constitution of the erstwhile USSR. Exam tip: Canada for residuary powers, Ireland for Directive Principles, USSR for duties.

The correct answer is Calcutta High Court. It was established on 1 July 1862 under the Indian High Courts Act, 1861, which makes it the oldest High Court in India. The Bombay and Madras High Courts followed in August of the same year, so all three "chartered" High Courts date from 1862, but Calcutta came first.

The other options were all set up later. The Allahabad High Court was established in 1866, first at Agra, and moved to Allahabad (now Prayagraj) in 1869. The Karnataka High Court began as the Chief Court of Mysore in 1884. The Delhi High Court was set up in 1966. Today there are 25 High Courts, the newest being the Andhra Pradesh High Court, set up in 2019. A related question asks which High Court has the largest number of judges, and the answer there is Allahabad, so do not mix up "oldest" with "largest".

The correct answer is A, Non-compoundable criminal offences. A Lok Adalat works by bringing the two sides to a settlement, so it can only handle matters the parties are free to compromise. Section 19(5) of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 therefore keeps out any offence that is not compoundable under law, such as murder or rape, because no private agreement can wipe out a serious crime against society. Its award is treated as a decree of a civil court and no appeal lies against it, which is why consent matters so much. Option B is wrong because compensation disputes arising from land acquisition are regularly settled in Lok Adalats. Option C is wrong because motor accident claims are among the commonest cases there. Option D is wrong because a divorce by mutual consent is exactly the kind of agreed settlement a Lok Adalat can record. Exam tip: Lok Adalat — statutory status 1987, award final with no appeal, no court fee, non-compoundable offences excluded.

The correct answer is The State Governor. 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 High Court. In practice, since the Judges cases, recommendations come through the collegium system, but the Governor remains one of the constitutional consultees.

The other options have no role in the process. District magistrates are executive officers of the State government. Members of the State Legislature do not take part in judicial appointments, which keeps the judiciary independent of legislative politics. The Union Cabinet advises the President in general, but the Constitution does not name it as a consultee for judicial appointments. The State connection continues after appointment too: the Governor, or a person appointed by the Governor, administers the oath to a High Court judge under Article 219.

The correct answer is C, 1961. The Dowry Prohibition Act was passed by Parliament in 1961 and came into force on 1 July 1961. It makes both the giving and the taking of dowry an offence, and it also punishes anyone who demands dowry or advertises an offer of money or property in return for a marriage. The Act defines dowry as property or valuable security given in connection with a marriage, and it keeps gifts freely given to the bride outside that definition. It was tightened by amendments in 1984 and 1986, which brought in Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code on dowry death and Section 498A on cruelty by a husband or his relatives. Option A is wrong because 1973 is the year of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Option B is wrong because no dowry law was enacted in 1982. Option D is wrong because 1954 is the year of the Special Marriage Act. Exam tip: Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, Hindu Marriage Act 1955, Special Marriage Act 1954.

The correct answer is 62. Under Article 217(1), a judge of a High Court holds office until he or she attains the age of 62 years. The original Constitution set the age at 60; the 15th Amendment Act, 1963 raised it to 62. If a question arises about a judge's age, the President decides it after consulting the Chief Justice of India, and that decision is final.

The other options come from elsewhere. Sixty-five is the retirement age of Supreme Court judges, which makes it the most tempting wrong answer. Sixty was the retirement age for High Court judges before 1963. Fifty-six has no connection with judges at all. A judge of a High Court can also leave earlier by resigning to the President, being appointed to the Supreme Court, being transferred to another High Court, or being removed by the same process as a Supreme Court judge. The pair to remember remains Supreme Court 65, High Court 62.

The correct answer is Article 226. 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". Those last words make the High Courts' writ power wider than the Supreme Court's under Article 32, which covers only Fundamental Rights. On the other hand, Article 32 is itself a Fundamental Right, while Article 226 is not, so the Supreme Court cannot refuse to hear a genuine Fundamental Rights petition merely because a High Court remedy exists.

The other options are nearby Articles about High Court judges. Article 220 restricts a retired permanent judge from practising law before the same courts. Article 222 lets the President transfer a judge from one High Court to another. Article 224 provides for additional and acting judges. Pair the two writ Articles in your mind: 32 for the Supreme Court and 226 for the High Courts.

The correct answer is Chandigarh. The Punjab and Haryana High Court sits at Chandigarh and serves the States of Punjab and Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. It is a common High Court, of the kind Article 231 allows Parliament to set up for two or more States, or for States and a Union Territory. Chandigarh itself is a Union Territory that serves as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, which is why their shared court is located there.

Firozpur is in Punjab, and Karnal and Faridabad are in Haryana, so the options play on real towns in the two States. Other common High Courts are also asked: the Bombay High Court serves Maharashtra, Goa and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu; the Gauhati High Court serves Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh; and the Calcutta High Court's jurisdiction extends to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In all there are 25 High Courts.

The correct answer is D, Privy Council in London. Till 1949 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, sitting in London, was the highest court of appeal for cases arising in British India. Appeals went up from the provincial high courts, and later from the Federal Court, to these judges in England. The Government of India Act, 1935 set up the Federal Court of India at Delhi in 1937, but even its decisions could be carried further to the Privy Council. The Abolition of Privy Council Jurisdiction Act, 1949 cut that link, and the Supreme Court of India began work on 28 January 1950. Option A is wrong because the Federal Court stood below the Privy Council and worked only from 1937 to 1950. Option B is wrong because the House of Commons is a law-making chamber of the British Parliament, not a court. Option C is wrong because the Supreme Court set up at Calcutta in 1774 under the Regulating Act served only that Presidency town. Exam tip: Federal Court 1937 → Privy Council appeals ended 1949 → Supreme Court of India 28 January 1950.