Indian Polity Mixed Quiz: Set 45

The correct answer is B, official language of the Union. Article 343 opens Part XVII of the Constitution and provides in clause (1) that the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in the Devanagari script, with the international form of Indian numerals for official purposes. Clause (2) allowed English to continue for fifteen years from 26 January 1950, and clause (3) empowers Parliament to continue English beyond that period, which it did through the Official Languages Act, 1963. Option A is wrong because the President is dealt with by Articles 52 to 62. Option C is wrong because the Governor's special address to the state legislature is Article 176, the counterpart of Article 87 for Parliament. Option D is wrong because the constitution of Parliament is Article 79, which says Parliament consists of the President and the two Houses.

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 B, Article 124. Article 124(1) establishes the Supreme Court, and Article 124(2) provides that every judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal after consultation with such judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts as the President may deem necessary; its proviso makes consultation with the Chief Justice of India compulsory for the appointment of any judge other than the Chief Justice himself. Option A, Article 122, is wrong because it bars courts from inquiring into the proceedings of Parliament. Option C, Article 127, is wrong because it deals with the appointment of ad hoc judges to the Supreme Court by the Chief Justice of India, not with regular appointments. Option D, Article 217, is wrong because it governs the appointment of judges of a High Court, which is a different provision altogether.

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 B, Part XVII. Part XVII is titled Official Language and runs from Article 343 to Article 351, in four chapters: the language of the Union, regional languages, the language of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, and special directives. Option A is wrong because Part XVI carries the special provisions relating to certain classes, Articles 330 to 342, which include reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the Anglo-Indian provisions. Option C is wrong because Part XVIII, Articles 352 to 360, deals with emergency provisions. Option D is wrong because Part XIX, Articles 361 to 367, contains miscellaneous provisions such as the protection of the President and Governors from legal proceedings. Remembering the order of these four Parts answers many questions by itself.

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, S. P. Gupta v. Union of India (1981), known as the First Judges Case. The Court there read "consultation" literally, holding that the Chief Justice of India's opinion was not binding on the government, which therefore kept the final say in appointments. Option B, the Second Judges Case of 1993, is wrong because it reversed this very position, holding that consultation means concurrence and giving primacy to the Chief Justice of India, and in doing so created the collegium. Option C, the Third Judges Case of 1998, is wrong because it only expanded the collegium to the Chief Justice of India and his four senior-most colleagues on a Presidential reference. Option D is wrong because Kesavananda Bharati laid down the basic structure doctrine and did not deal with judicial appointments.

The correct answer is B, N.C.E.R.T. Section 29(1) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 says the curriculum and the evaluation procedure for elementary education shall be laid down by an academic authority notified by the appropriate government, and the Central Government notified the National Council of Educational Research and Training for the schools under it, while the states notified their own SCERTs. Section 29(2) then binds that authority to constitutional values, the all-round development of the child, learning through activity and discovery, teaching in the mother tongue as far as practicable, and continuous and comprehensive evaluation. A is wrong because the N.C.T.E. frames norms for teacher education and teacher eligibility, which the Act deals with in Section 23. C is wrong because N.I.E.P.A. works on educational planning and administration. D is wrong because N.I.O.S. runs open and distance schooling. Exam tip: in the RTE Act, Section 29 gives the academic authority, NCERT, and Section 23 the teacher qualifications through NCTE.

The correct answer is B, the Twenty-first Amendment Act, 1967. Sindhi was the first language added to the Eighth Schedule after the Constitution came into force, taking the list from the original fourteen languages to fifteen. Option A is wrong because the Fifteenth Amendment of 1963 dealt with High Court judges, raising their retirement age from sixty to sixty-two. Option C is wrong because the Seventy-first Amendment of 1992 added three languages, Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali, taking the Schedule to eighteen. Option D is wrong because the Ninety-second Amendment of 2003 added the last four languages, Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali, taking the Schedule to its present twenty-two. The sequence fourteen, fifteen, eighteen and twenty-two is worth memorising, because papers often ask the number of languages at a given stage rather than the amendment itself.

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, four senior-most judges. The Second Judges Case of 1993 required the Chief Justice of India to form his opinion in consultation with his two senior-most colleagues, so the first collegium had three members. In 1998 the President made a reference under Article 143, and in the Third Judges Case the Court enlarged the collegium for Supreme Court appointments to the Chief Justice of India plus his four senior-most colleagues, and directed that the opinions be recorded in writing. Option A is wrong because two colleagues is the 1993 position, which still applies to High Court appointments. Option B and option D are wrong because the numbers three and five were never prescribed for this purpose; the figure of four is the one the 1998 opinion fixed and the Memorandum of Procedure follows.

The correct answer is Dr Sachchidananda Sinha. When the Constituent Assembly met for the first time on 9 December 1946, Sinha, its oldest member, was made the temporary President, following the French practice of letting the senior-most member preside until a regular head is chosen.

Dr Rajendra Prasad is the classic trap: he was elected the permanent President of the Assembly on 11 December 1946, two days after the first sitting, so he did not preside over the first meeting. Jawaharlal Nehru's best-known role in the Assembly was moving the Objectives Resolution on 13 December 1946 and chairing committees such as the Union Powers Committee. G.V. Mavalankar presided when the Assembly sat as the Dominion Legislature, the country's first Parliament, not when it met to frame the Constitution. Keep the three offices apart: temporary President Sinha, President Prasad, and Mavalankar for the legislative sittings.

The correct answer is C, the Ninety-second Amendment Act, 2003. It added Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali and brought the Eighth Schedule to twenty-two languages, where it still stands. Option A is wrong because the Seventy-first Amendment of 1992 added Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali. Option B is wrong because the Eighty-sixth Amendment of 2002 inserted Article 21A, making free and compulsory education for children between six and fourteen years a fundamental right, and also added Article 51A(k) and amended Article 45. Option D is wrong because the Hundredth Amendment of 2015 gave effect to the land boundary agreement with Bangladesh by amending the First Schedule. Note that Maithili is a language of Bihar, Dogri of Jammu, Bodo and Santhali tribal languages, so a question may name the state instead of the language.

The correct answer is Socialist. The 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976 added three words to the Preamble: "Socialist" and "Secular" to the description of India, and "Integrity" to the phrase "unity and integrity of the Nation". It is the only amendment ever made to the Preamble.

Democratic, Republic and Sovereign were all in the Preamble from the start: as adopted on 26 November 1949, it described India as a "sovereign democratic republic". That is why they are wrong here. Questions on this amendment come in several forms: which word was added, which word was not added, or how many words were added. Keep all three in mind together: Socialist, Secular and Integrity, added in 1976. A related fact worth linking is the Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973, which had held three years earlier that the Preamble is part of the Constitution and can be amended without changing its basic features.

The correct answer is B, the Ninety-ninth Amendment Act, passed in 2014, which inserted Articles 124A, 124B and 124C to create the National Judicial Appointments Commission and to let Parliament regulate the procedure for appointments by law. It was brought into force in April 2015 along with the NJAC Act, 2014, and struck down by a Constitution Bench the same year. Option A is wrong because the Ninety-seventh Amendment dealt with co-operative societies and added Part IXB. Option C is wrong because the One Hundred and First Amendment introduced the Goods and Services Tax. Option D is wrong because the Forty-second Amendment of 1976 was the wide-ranging "mini constitution" amendment that added words to the Preamble and the Fundamental Duties, and had nothing to do with judicial appointments.

The correct answer is A, Article 350-B. The Seventh Constitutional Amendment Act, 1956 inserted this article on the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission and created the office of the Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities, known in practice as the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities. The President appoints the Commissioner, whose duty is to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards the Constitution provides for linguistic minorities and to report to the President, who has the report laid before each House of Parliament and sent to the state governments concerned. The office works under the Ministry of Minority Affairs. Article 350-A, added by the same amendment, asks states to provide primary education in the mother tongue. Option B is wrong because there is no Article 315-B; Article 315 deals with public service commissions. Option C is wrong because Article 338-A set up the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. Option D is wrong because Article 348 deals with the language of the Supreme Court and the High Courts. Exam tip: 350-A mother tongue teaching and 350-B Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, both from the Seventh Amendment, 1956.

The correct answer is C, Articles 350A and 350B. Both were inserted by the Seventh Amendment Act, 1956, which carried out the reorganisation of states on the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission. Article 350A requires a state to provide instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage to children of linguistic minorities, and Article 350B provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities appointed by the President. Option A is wrong because Articles 343 and 344 are part of the original Constitution. Option B is wrong for the same reason; Articles 345 to 347 on the languages of states were there from the start. Option D is wrong because Article 351 is original and Article 352, on the proclamation of a national emergency, belongs to Part XVIII and was not inserted in 1956, though it was later amended.

The correct answer is C, the Attorney General of India, who was never a member of the Commission. Article 124A gave the National Judicial Appointments Commission six members: the Chief Justice of India as ex officio chairperson, the two next senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, the Union Minister of Law and Justice, and two eminent persons nominated by a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Options A, B and D therefore name genuine members and are wrong answers to a question asking for the exception. One of the two eminent persons had to belong to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, minorities or women, and both held office for three years and could not be renominated.

The correct answer is B, thirty members, twenty from the Lok Sabha and ten from the Rajya Sabha. Article 344(4) provides for this committee to examine the recommendations of the Official Language Commission constituted under Article 344(1) and to report its opinion to the President. The two to one ratio between the Houses follows the pattern the Constitution uses elsewhere for joint bodies. Option A understates the strength and is a made-up figure. Option C gives the right total but the wrong split, and this is the commonest trap in the question. Option D, twenty-one members with fourteen and seven, is the composition of a parliamentary standing committee pattern and does not appear in Article 344. The first such committee, set up in 1957, was chaired by Govind Ballabh Pant, while the Commission of 1955 was chaired by B. G. Kher.

The correct answer is B, 4:1, with Justice J. Chelameswar dissenting. A five-judge Constitution Bench held that the Ninety-ninth Amendment and the NJAC Act violated the independence of the judiciary, which is part of the basic structure, mainly because the Union Law Minister and two eminent persons would sit on a body selecting judges. Justice Chelameswar alone upheld the amendment, arguing that the collegium lacked transparency. Option A is wrong because the bench had five judges and the split was not three to two. Option C is wrong because the decision was not unanimous. Option D is wrong because a bench of five judges cannot divide four to three, and Justice Madan Lokur was in the majority that struck the amendment down. The bench also struck down Article 124C, which had allowed Parliament to regulate the procedure of appointment by law, and the judgment is now the leading authority on judicial independence as a facet of the basic structure.