Indian Polity Mixed Quiz: Set 47

The correct answer is B, the Hyderabad-Karnataka region of Karnataka. Article 371J, inserted by the Ninety-eighth Amendment Act, 2012, provides a separate development board for this backward region, with reservation in education and in state government posts for people domiciled there, and it is the latest addition to the 371 series. Option A is wrong because Vidarbha is covered by Article 371, which provides development boards for Vidarbha and Marathwada in Maharashtra. Option C is wrong for the same reason: Saurashtra and Kutch are the Gujarat regions named in Article 371. Option D is wrong because the Bodoland Territorial Region is an autonomous council under the Sixth Schedule, not under Part XXI, and Assam's special provision in Part XXI is Article 371B, on a committee of the Assembly for the tribal areas.

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, Article 51A. The Fundamental Duties were not in the Constitution as adopted. They were inserted as Article 51A in a new Part IVA by the Forty-second Amendment Act of 1976, on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee, and one more duty, the duty of a parent or guardian to provide education to a child, was added by the Eighty-sixth Amendment of 2002. Option A is wrong because Article 48A, also added by the Forty-second Amendment, directs the State to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard forests and wildlife; it is a directive principle, not a duty of citizens. Option B is wrong because Article 49 asks the State to protect monuments and places of national importance. Option D is wrong because Article 50 directs the separation of the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State.

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 C, South Africa. Two features are traced to the South African constitution: the procedure for amending the Constitution, which combines a special majority with the consent of States for some provisions, and the election of members of the Rajya Sabha by the elected members of the State legislative assemblies through proportional representation by a single transferable vote. A gave the parliamentary system, the rule of law, single citizenship and the writs. B gave a strong Centre, Centre-appointed Governors and the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. D gave only one feature, the suspension of Fundamental Rights during an emergency, and that is the pairing most often asked about the Weimar constitution. When an option mentions the single transferable vote, it almost always points to the election of the Rajya Sabha.

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, Article 222, which empowers the President to transfer a judge from one High Court to any other High Court after consultation with the Chief Justice of India; by the collegium practice laid down in the Third Judges Case, the Chief Justice forms that opinion with four senior-most colleagues and the Chief Justices of the two High Courts concerned. Option A is wrong because Article 219 deals with the oath or affirmation taken by a judge of a High Court. Option B is wrong because Article 221 deals with the salaries and allowances of High Court judges, which are charged on the Consolidated Fund of the State. Option D is wrong because Article 224 provides for additional and acting judges of a High Court, and Article 224A for retired judges sitting at a High Court.

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, the Official Languages Act, 1963. Article 343(2) allowed English for only fifteen years, to 25 January 1965, and Article 343(3) left it to Parliament to continue it by law. Parliament enacted the Official Languages Act in 1963, and the amendment of 1967 made it clear that English would continue as an associate official language along with Hindi for the official purposes of the Union and for business in Parliament until a resolution for its discontinuance is passed by the legislature of every state that has not adopted Hindi. Option B is wrong because 1955 is the year of the first Official Language Commission under B. G. Kher, not of any Act. Option C is an invented title. Option D is wrong because the Official Language Rules, 1976 are subordinate rules made under the 1963 Act, dividing the country into regions A, B and C for correspondence.

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 A, Article 123. Article 123 allows the President, when either House of Parliament is not in session, to promulgate an ordinance that has the same force as an Act of Parliament. The ordinance must be laid before both Houses when they reassemble and ceases to operate six weeks after that date unless it is approved earlier. Option B is wrong because Article 213 gives the identical power to a Governor for a state, which is the standard distractor in this question; candidates must remember 123 for the Union and 213 for a state. Option C is wrong because Article 143 lets the President refer a question of law or fact of public importance to the Supreme Court for its advisory opinion. Option D is wrong because Article 356 provides for President's rule in a state when its government cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution.

The correct answer is D, Members of a Trade Union. A pressure group is an organised body of people with a shared interest that tries to influence government policy without contesting elections or seeking power itself, so a trade union pressing for better wages is the classic example. Pressure groups work through petitions, strikes, lobbying, publicity and public campaigns; in India business bodies such as FICCI, farmers' organisations, caste associations and student unions act in the same way. A is wrong because members of the Lok Sabha are elected representatives who sit inside the lawmaking body itself. B is wrong because panchayat members are elected office-holders of local self-government. C is wrong because cabinet members form the executive that takes the very decisions a pressure group tries to influence. Exam tip: the line to remember is that a political party seeks power, while a pressure group seeks only influence.

The correct answer is A, Australia. The Australian constitution has a list of subjects on which both the federal and the state legislatures may make law, and India adopted the device as the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule, with central law prevailing in case of conflict. The guarantee of free trade, commerce and intercourse throughout the territory, now in Article 301, and the joint sitting of the two Houses to resolve a deadlock over an ordinary bill, now in Article 108, come from the same source. B gave the Directive Principles. C gave the Fundamental Rights and judicial review. D gave the phrase procedure established by law used in Article 21. A useful hook is that in both Australia and India central law prevails over state law on a concurrent subject.

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 B, only 2 and 3. Statement 1 is wrong: the Constitution nowhere says that the senior-most judge must become Chief Justice of India; seniority is a convention and the Memorandum of Procedure records it, not Article 124. Statement 2 is correct, because the convention was broken in 1973 when Justice A. N. Ray was appointed over three senior judges, and in 1977 when Justice M. H. Beg superseded Justice H. R. Khanna, who then resigned. Statement 3 is correct, since the outgoing Chief Justice is asked to recommend his successor under the Memorandum of Procedure. Options A, C and D are therefore wrong because each of them includes statement 1, which misstates the Constitution. The Memorandum of Procedure, an administrative document agreed between the government and the Supreme Court, records the seniority convention and the steps of the process, which is why examiners describe the collegium as a judicial creation rather than a constitutional one.

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, Finance Commission. Article 280 requires the President to constitute a Finance Commission every fifth year, or earlier if required, with a chairman and four other members. It recommends how the net proceeds of taxes should be distributed between the Union and the states, how the share of each state should be settled, and what grants-in-aid should be paid to the states out of the Consolidated Fund of India. Option A is wrong because the Election Commission is created by Article 324. Option C is wrong because the Comptroller and Auditor General is provided for by Article 148, with duties and powers under Article 149. Option D is wrong because Article 315 provides for a Public Service Commission for the Union and for each state, with the UPSC chairman and members appointed under Article 316.

The correct answer is B, the Weimar Republic of Germany. The Weimar constitution allowed the President to suspend civil liberties in an emergency, and the Indian provisions under which the operation of certain Fundamental Rights may be restricted during a proclamation of emergency follow that model. The experience of Weimar is also the reason the provision is treated with suspicion: the same clause was used to dismantle the German republic. A contributed the republican form and the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. C contributed the shape of a federation with a strong Centre. D contributed the Fundamental Duties and the ideal of social, economic and political justice in the Preamble. Articles 358 and 359 are the provisions in which this borrowing appears in the Indian text today.

The correct answer is C, Article 360. Article 360 allows the President to declare a Financial Emergency if satisfied that a situation has arisen by which the financial stability or credit of India or of any part of its territory is threatened. During its operation the Union may direct states on financial propriety and may reduce the salaries of public servants, including judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts. A Financial Emergency has never been proclaimed in India. Option A is wrong because Article 352 is the National Emergency, on the ground of war, external aggression or armed rebellion. Option B is wrong because Article 356 is President's rule in a state, often called State Emergency. Option D is wrong because Article 365 merely says that a state's failure to comply with a direction of the Union may be treated as a failure of constitutional machinery.

The correct answer is A, Canada. Canada is the federation that keeps residuary powers with the centre instead of leaving them with the units, appoints the head of each province from the centre and allows its supreme court an advisory jurisdiction, and all three features were adopted in India. The very phrase union of states in Article 1 reflects the Canadian idea that the federation is not the result of an agreement among states and that no state may leave it. B gave the Concurrent List and the joint sitting. C gave the parliamentary system and single citizenship. D gave the Directive Principles and the nomination of members to the Rajya Sabha. In the United States, by contrast, the residuary powers rest with the states, and that is the comparison examiners expect.