Indian Polity Mixed Quiz: Set 48

The correct answer is C, the Eighty-sixth Amendment. The Eighty-sixth Amendment Act of 2002 inserted Article 21A, which makes free and compulsory education for every child between the ages of six and fourteen a fundamental right. The same amendment recast Article 45 to cover early childhood care and education below the age of six and added the duty of a parent or guardian to provide education in Article 51A. Option A is wrong because the Forty-second Amendment of 1976 added Fundamental Duties, the words socialist and secular to the Preamble, and Articles 39A, 43A and 48A. Option B is wrong because the Forty-fourth Amendment of 1978 removed the right to property from Part III and placed it in Article 300A. Option D is wrong because the Ninety-third Amendment of 2005 enabled reservation in educational institutions through Article 15, clause 5.

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, two years, eleven months and eighteen days, counted from the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly on 9 December 1946 to the adoption of the Constitution on 26 November 1949. In that period the assembly held eleven sessions and sat for one hundred and sixty-five days, and the draft was debated clause by clause. The Constitution then came into force on 26 January 1950, the date chosen because the Congress had observed it as Independence Day since 1930. A, C and D are offered because candidates remember the figure loosely; the useful way to hold it is as almost three years, the two dates fixing the ends. The same assembly went on to work as the provisional Parliament of India until the first general election.

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 C, Article 123. It empowers the President to promulgate an ordinance when Parliament, or either House of it, is not in session and the President is satisfied that circumstances exist which make immediate action necessary; such an ordinance has the same force and effect as an Act of Parliament. Option A is wrong because Article 72 is the pardoning power, under which the President may grant pardon, reprieve, respite, remission, suspension or commutation of punishment. Option B is wrong because Article 111 deals with assent to bills passed by both Houses and is the source of the President's veto powers, not of ordinances. Option D is wrong because Article 213 confers the matching ordinance-making power on a Governor in respect of state subjects, and swapping 123 with 213 is the usual error in this question.

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, Article 93. Article 93 of the Constitution provides that the House of the People shall, as soon as may be, choose two members of the House to be respectively Speaker and Deputy Speaker, and that whenever either office becomes vacant the House shall choose another member to fill it. The election is held on a date fixed by the President and is decided by a simple majority of those present and voting. Option A is wrong because Article 89 is the matching provision for the Rajya Sabha, which deals with the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of the Council of States, and the Vice-President is the ex officio Chairman there. Option C is wrong because Article 97 only charges the salaries and allowances of these presiding officers on the Consolidated Fund of India. Option D is wrong because Article 100 covers voting in the Houses, the casting vote of the presiding officer and the quorum of one-tenth of the total membership.

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 procedure for amendment of the Constitution. Article 368, in Part XX, gives Parliament the power to amend the Constitution and lays down the procedure: a bill may be introduced in either House, must be passed by each House by a majority of its total membership and by a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting, and certain amendments touching federal matters must also be ratified by the legislatures of half the states. In the Kesavananda Bharati case the Supreme Court held that this power cannot be used to destroy the basic structure of the Constitution. Option B is wrong because the emergency provisions are Articles 352 to 360 in Part XVIII. Option C is wrong because the official language of the Union is Article 343 in Part XVII. Option D is wrong because elections are dealt with in Part XV, Articles 324 to 329.

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, the Forty-second Amendment of 1976, the only amendment of the Preamble so far. It changed the description of the country from a sovereign democratic republic to a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic, and changed the unity of the nation to the unity and integrity of the nation. The same amendment, passed during the emergency and often called a mini constitution, also added the Fundamental Duties. A made amendment of Fundamental Rights explicit after the Golaknath case. C undid several of the emergency changes and replaced the right to property with a legal right. D is the Anti-Defection Amendment, which added the Tenth Schedule. Much of that amendment was reversed in 1978, but the three words added to the Preamble were left untouched.

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 B, six weeks. An ordinance must be laid before both Houses when Parliament reassembles, and it ceases to operate on the expiry of six weeks from the date of reassembly, or earlier if both Houses pass resolutions disapproving it. Where the two Houses reassemble on different dates, the six weeks are counted from the later of the two. Option A is wrong because four weeks is not a period mentioned anywhere in Article 123. Option C is wrong because three months has no place in the ordinance scheme either, although it appears in other parts of the Constitution. Option D is wrong because six months is the maximum gap permitted between two sessions of Parliament, and it is this gap plus the six weeks that gives an ordinance its maximum life.

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 B, a majority of all the then members of the House. Article 94(c) says the Speaker or Deputy Speaker may be removed from office by a resolution of the House of the People passed by a majority of all the then members of the House, and the proviso requires fourteen days notice of the intention to move such a resolution. This is the effective majority, counted on the strength of the House excluding vacancies, not on those merely present. Option A is wrong because a simple majority is what elects the Speaker under Article 93, not what removes the Speaker. Options C and D are wrong because a two-thirds majority is nowhere required for the Speaker; it belongs to other provisions, such as the removal of a judge or the impeachment of the President, and examiners place it here as a deliberate trap. Note also that Article 96 bars the Speaker from presiding while such a resolution is being considered.

The correct answer is C, they are appointed by the Governor in consultation with the High Court of the concerned State. This is the rule laid down in Article 233 of the Constitution. Appointment, posting and promotion of district judges in a state are made by the Governor, who must consult the High Court that exercises jurisdiction over that state. A person not already in government service can be appointed only if they have practised as an advocate or pleader for at least seven years and are recommended by the High Court. Article 234 covers other judicial officers, who are appointed by the Governor from the state judicial service as per rules framed after consulting the High Court and the State Public Service Commission. Option A is wrong because the High Court is only consulted; its Chief Justice does not appoint. Option B is wrong because the President appoints judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, not district judges. Option D is wrong because the Supreme Court has no role here. Exam tip: Article 233 — Governor appoints, High Court is consulted.

The correct answer is A, Article 262. Article 262 allows Parliament to provide by law for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint about the use, distribution or control of the waters of an inter-state river or river valley, and clause 2 allows Parliament to bar the Supreme Court and every other court from such a dispute. Parliament used this power to pass the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, under which tribunals decide disputes such as those over the Cauvery, the Krishna and the Ravi-Beas. Option B is wrong because Article 263 provides for an Inter-State Council to investigate and discuss subjects of common interest. Option C is wrong because Article 131 is the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in disputes between the Union and states, which Article 262 expressly keeps out for water disputes. Option D is wrong because Article 143 is the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

The correct answer is D, single citizenship, which comes from Britain. The United States gives every person two citizenships, of the union and of the state of residence, while India deliberately gives one citizenship for the whole country, so that no state may treat the people of another state as outsiders. A, judicial review, by which a court may declare a law void for violating the Constitution, is the American contribution most often asked. B, the impeachment of the President for violation of the Constitution, follows the American model closely. C, the office of the Vice-President who presides over the upper House, is also taken from the American Vice-President. In exam options, single citizenship and the parliamentary system are the two features that belong to Britain.

The correct answer is C, six months and six weeks. The arithmetic is worth learning. Article 85 requires that six months shall not intervene between the last sitting of one session and the first sitting of the next, so the longest an ordinance can run before Parliament reassembles is six months; Article 123 then allows it six weeks more from the date of reassembly. Option A is wrong because six weeks is only the period after reassembly, not the whole life of the ordinance. Option B is wrong because the gap between sessions is capped at six months and not at three. Option D is wrong because no ordinance can survive a year without parliamentary approval, and it was precisely the practice of keeping ordinances alive beyond their term by re-issuing them that the Supreme Court struck down.

The correct answer is B. The proviso to Article 94 states that the Speaker shall not vacate office on the dissolution of the House of the People but shall continue to hold it until immediately before the first meeting of the next Lok Sabha. The reason is practical: the office must survive so that someone can authenticate records, exercise the powers of the House in the interval and hand over an orderly House to the new Speaker. Option A is wrong precisely because of this proviso, which makes the Speaker an exception to the rule that the House and its members go with dissolution. Option C is wrong because the President appoints only a Speaker pro tem, and that is to swear in the members of the new House after it is constituted, not to fill a gap after dissolution. Option D is wrong because the Rajya Sabha is a permanent House that is never dissolved, and its Chairman has no role in Lok Sabha business except at a joint sitting in the Speaker absence.