Indian Polity Mixed Quiz: Set 42

The correct answer is C, Article 246. Article 246 distributes legislative power with reference to the three lists of the Seventh Schedule: Parliament has exclusive power over the Union List, State legislatures over the State List, and both may legislate on the Concurrent List. Option A is wrong because Article 243 is the definition clause of Part IX on panchayats, whose attached Schedule is the Eleventh. Option B is wrong because Article 244 is the article for the Fifth and Sixth Schedules on Scheduled and tribal areas. Option D is wrong because Article 248 deals with residuary powers of legislation, which belong to Parliament, and is tested separately. As enacted, the Union List had ninety-seven entries, the State List sixty-six and the Concurrent List forty-seven, and the Forty-second Amendment of 1976 moved five subjects, including education and forests, from the State List to the Concurrent List.

The correct answer is B, Mandal Commission. The Second Backward Classes Commission, headed by B. P. Mandal, recommended 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in central government services and public undertakings. It was appointed in 1979 and submitted its report in 1980, listed 3,743 castes as backward and put the share of the OBCs in the population at about 52 per cent. The quota was fixed at 27 per cent so that total reservation would stay within the 50 per cent ceiling the courts had indicated. The recommendation was put into effect in 1990, and the Supreme Court upheld it in the Indra Sawhney case of 1992. A is wrong because the Sarkaria Commission of 1983 examined Centre-State relations. C is wrong because the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee of 1957 suggested the three-tier panchayati raj system. D is wrong because the Kothari Commission of 1964-66 dealt with education. Exam tip: Mandal Commission 1979, report 1980, 27 per cent OBC quota, upheld in Indra Sawhney 1992.

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 B, Sarkaria Commission. The Inter-State Council was constituted in 1990 by a presidential order acting on this commission's report on centre-state relations. Article 263 empowers the President to set up such a council to inquire into disputes between states, discuss subjects of common interest and make recommendations. The Sarkaria Commission, headed by Justice R. S. Sarkaria, was appointed in 1983 and submitted its report in 1988; it asked that the council be made a permanent body. The Prime Minister chairs it, and the chief ministers of all states, the administrators of union territories and six union ministers are its members. Option A is wrong because the Punchhi Commission came much later, in 2007, and reported in 2010. Option C is wrong because the Rajamannar Committee of 1969 was set up by the Tamil Nadu government, not the Union. Option D is wrong because the Mungerilal Commission dealt with backward class reservation in Bihar. Exam tip: Article 263 plus Sarkaria Commission gives the Inter-State Council, 1990.

The correct answer is C, Third Schedule. The Third Schedule sets out the texts of the oath or affirmation for a Union Minister, a candidate for and a member of Parliament, the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, the Comptroller and Auditor General, a State Minister and a member of a State legislature. Option A is wrong because the First Schedule lists the names of the States and Union Territories with their territorial extent. Option B is wrong because the Second Schedule fixes the salaries, allowances and privileges of the high constitutional functionaries, all charged on the Consolidated Fund of India or of the State. Option D is wrong because the Fourth Schedule allocates Rajya Sabha seats. Note the exception examiners like: the oaths of the President and the Governor are not in the Third Schedule but in Articles 60 and 159 themselves.

The correct answer is A, Land transfers. The Fifth Schedule lets the Governor make regulations for the peace and good government of a Scheduled Area, and it names three matters such a regulation may cover: it may prohibit or restrict the transfer of land by or among members of the Scheduled Tribes, regulate the allotment of land to them, and regulate money-lending to them. The purpose is to stop outsiders from buying up tribal land, so land alienation is the heart of the provision. A regulation of this kind needs the assent of the President, and the Governor must also report to the President every year on the administration of these areas, advised by a Tribes Advisory Council. Option B is wrong because taxation is settled by Parliament and the state legislature, not by such a regulation. Option C is wrong because freedom of speech is a fundamental right no Governor's regulation can curtail. Option D is wrong because water use is not one of the three listed matters. Exam tip: Fifth Schedule regulations cover land transfer, land allotment and money-lending.

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 B, State Government. Section 16 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 extends the collective-fine provision of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 to atrocities, and the power to impose and recover a collective fine on the inhabitants of an area rests with the State Government. The purpose is to make a whole locality answerable when its people abet an atrocity or shield the offenders, and the inhabitants must be given a chance to be heard before the fine is fixed and apportioned among them. A is wrong because the District Magistrate carries out such orders but is not the authority that imposes the fine. C is wrong because the Special Court tries offences under the Act and punishes individual offenders. D is wrong because the High Court hears appeals and does not levy collective fines. Exam tip: remember the pair - collective fine under Section 16, imposed by the State Government.

The correct answer is B, 18. The Twelfth Schedule was added by the Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992 and lists eighteen functions that a State legislature may entrust to urban local bodies under Article 243W, among them urban planning including town planning, water supply, public health and sanitation, fire services, slum improvement, urban poverty alleviation and the regulation of slaughter houses and tanneries. Option A is wrong because twelve is the number of Schedules in the Constitution, not the number of entries in this one, a confusion the question is built on. Option C is wrong because twenty-one matches no Schedule count. Option D is wrong because twenty-nine is the number of subjects in the Eleventh Schedule for panchayats. The safe way to remember it is rural twenty-nine under Article 243G and urban eighteen under Article 243W.

The correct answer is C, 1980. The Bharatiya Janata Party was founded on 6 April 1980, after the Janata Party broke up.

Its ancestor was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, started by Syama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951. In 1977 the Jana Sangh merged with other opposition groups to form the Janata Party, which came to power after the Emergency. When that coalition split in 1979, its former Jana Sangh members left and set up the BJP in 1980, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as its first president. The party's election symbol is the lotus. It first led a government in 1996 for thirteen days, and then from 1998 to 2004 under Vajpayee.

A is wrong: 1957 was the year of the second general election, not of this party's birth. B is wrong: 1934 falls deep in the colonial period, long before the BJP existed. D is wrong: 1967 was the year of the fourth general election and of the first non-Congress governments in several states.

Exam tip: Jana Sangh in 1951, Janata Party in 1977, and the BJP founded on 6 April 1980 with Vajpayee as its first president.

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, Tenth Schedule. The anti-defection law sits in the Tenth Schedule, which sets out when a member of Parliament or of a State legislature loses the seat for defecting. It was inserted by the 52nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1985, after a decade in which governments were toppled by floor crossing. A member is disqualified for voluntarily giving up the membership of the party on whose ticket the seat was won, or for voting against the party whip. The Speaker or the Chairman of the House decides such a case, and courts can review that decision. The 91st Amendment of 2003 removed the old one third split defence, so only a merger supported by two thirds of a party’s legislators is now protected. A is wrong because the Second Schedule fixes the salaries and allowances of the President, Governors, Speakers and judges. C is wrong because the Third Schedule carries the forms of oath and affirmation. D is wrong because the Fourth Schedule allots Rajya Sabha seats to states and union territories. Exam tip: Tenth Schedule, anti-defection, 52nd Amendment of 1985.

The correct answer is B, Eight. The Constitution as adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949 had eight Schedules, along with twenty-two Parts and three hundred and ninety-five articles. Option A is wrong because seven is the count of the Schedule that carries the three legislative lists, not of the Schedules themselves. Option C is wrong because ten was never the number at commencement; the Tenth Schedule came only in 1985, after a short-lived Tenth Schedule on Sikkim between 1974 and 1975. Option D is wrong because twelve is the present number, reached in 1992 when the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Amendments added the Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules. The sequence to memorise is eight at the start, nine in 1951, ten in 1985, and eleven and twelve together in 1992.

The correct answer is Sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic, republic. 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".

The first option swaps socialist and secular, which is the most common slip, since both words were added at the same time. The third option repeats "secular" and begins with the wrong word, and the fourth moves "sovereign" from the front to the end. A simple way to hold the order is to say the three S-words by sound: So, So, Se (Sovereign, Socialist, Secular), followed by the original last two words, Democratic Republic. The two words added in 1976 sit together in the middle.

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, Sindhi. Sindhi was added to the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution by the 21st Constitutional Amendment Act of 1967.

The Eighth Schedule is the list of languages the Constitution recognises, and a candidate may take the civil services examination in any of them. It began in 1950 with 14 languages. Sindhi came in as the fifteenth in 1967, after Partition brought a large Sindhi-speaking population into India without a state of its own. Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were added together by the 71st Amendment in 1992, and Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali by the 92nd Amendment in 2003, which took the list to 22 languages.

Option A is wrong because Manipuri was added in 1992. Option B is wrong because Nepali also came in 1992. Option C is wrong because Konkani was part of the same 1992 group.

Exam tip: 21st Amendment 1967 gave Sindhi; 71st in 1992 gave Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali; 92nd in 2003 gave Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali.

The correct answer is B, Article 244(1). Article 244(1) says that the provisions of the Fifth Schedule apply to the administration and control of the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes in any State other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Under it the Governor makes regulations for a Scheduled Area, a Tribes Advisory Council is constituted, and the Governor reports annually to the President on the administration of such areas. Option A is wrong because Article 243G is the article on the powers of panchayats, attached to the Eleventh Schedule. Option C is wrong because Article 244(2) carries the Sixth Schedule for the tribal areas of the four north-eastern States. Option D is wrong because Article 371A contains the special provisions for Nagaland, which stand outside both the Fifth and the Sixth Schedule systems.

The correct answer is C, Mizoram. Article 371G sits in Part XXI of the Constitution, which holds temporary, transitional and special provisions, and was inserted by the 53rd Amendment Act, 1986, when Mizoram was made a full state. It protects Mizo customary law and practice, social and religious usage, and the administration of civil and criminal justice based on that customary law: a law of Parliament on these subjects applies to Mizoram only if the Legislative Assembly of the state decides by resolution that it should. The Assembly is also fixed at a minimum of forty members. Option A is wrong because the special provision for Jammu and Kashmir was Article 370, whose operation was withdrawn in August 2019. Option B is wrong because Jharkhand has no such article; it was carved out of Bihar in 2000 by an ordinary reorganisation Act. Option D is wrong because Nagaland is covered by Article 371A, added by the 13th Amendment of 1962. Exam tip: 371A Nagaland, 371B Assam, 371C Manipur, 371F Sikkim, 371G Mizoram, 371H Arunachal Pradesh.

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.