Indian Polity Mixed Quiz: Set 50

The correct answer is C, commutation. Commutation changes the nature of the punishment itself, substituting a lighter kind for the one awarded, so that a death sentence becomes imprisonment for life or rigorous imprisonment becomes simple imprisonment. Option A is wrong because remission reduces only the period of the sentence and leaves its character untouched, as when rigorous imprisonment for two years becomes rigorous imprisonment for one year; this is the commonest confusion in the topic. Option B is wrong because a reprieve is a temporary stay of the execution of a sentence, granted to let a convict pursue a plea for mercy. Option D is wrong because a respite is the award of a lesser sentence on account of a special fact such as pregnancy or physical disability, and not a general substitution.

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, the Tenth Schedule. The Tenth Schedule, inserted by the Fifty-second Amendment Act of 1985, carries the anti-defection provisions, and Paragraph 6 of that Schedule says that a question of disqualification on the ground of defection shall be decided by the Chairman or the Speaker of the House concerned, whose decision is final. In Kihoto Hollohan against Zachillhu in 1992 the Supreme Court held that while deciding such a question the Speaker acts as a tribunal, so the decision is open to judicial review on limited grounds. Option A is wrong because the Eighth Schedule lists the languages recognised by the Constitution. Option B is wrong because the Ninth Schedule, added by the First Amendment in 1951, protects certain laws, mostly land reform laws, from challenge. Option D is wrong because the Twelfth Schedule, added by the Seventy-fourth Amendment, lists the eighteen subjects of municipalities.

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 110. Article 110 lists the matters that make a Bill a Money Bill: taxation, borrowing by the Union, the custody of the Consolidated Fund and the Contingency Fund, appropriation of money from the Consolidated Fund, the declaring of expenditure charged on that Fund, and the receipt or audit of money on account of it. A Bill is a Money Bill only if it deals with nothing else. A, Article 109, is wrong because it does not define the Bill; it prescribes the special procedure a Money Bill follows, including introduction in the Lok Sabha alone and the fourteen-day limit on the Rajya Sabha. C, Article 112, is wrong because it deals with the annual financial statement, popularly called the Union Budget. D, Article 117, is wrong because it governs Financial Bills, which contain a matter of Article 110 along with other matters of general legislation.

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, the first hour of the sitting. Question Hour is the first hour of every sitting of each House, normally from 11 a.m. to 12 noon, and it is set out in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business. During this hour members put questions to ministers on matters of public administration within their charge, and the minister is bound to reply. A, the last hour, is wrong because the last part of a sitting is given to the listed legislative or financial business, not to questions. C is wrong because the hour after Question Hour is Zero Hour, and the business after the recess is whatever the day's list carries; no device is tied to the lunch recess. D is wrong because no hour is reserved for questions before adjournment; once Question Hour is over, questions can be taken only through a short notice question that the Speaker specially admits.

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, a Constitutional Amendment Bill. The Twenty-fourth Amendment of 1971 made it obligatory for the President to give assent to a bill amending the Constitution, so that neither assent may be withheld nor the bill returned. Option A is wrong because a Money Bill, although it cannot be returned for reconsideration, may still be refused assent, so a veto does exist over it in principle. Option C is wrong because over a state bill reserved by the Governor under Article 200 the President's veto is at its strongest: Article 201 allows assent to be withheld even after the state legislature has passed the bill a second time. Option D is wrong because a financial bill other than a Money Bill is treated like an ordinary bill and can be returned.

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 B, G. V. Mavalankar. Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar was the Speaker of the Constituent Assembly when it sat as a legislature and then became the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha in 1952, which is why he is remembered as the Father of the Lok Sabha; many of the conventions of the chair were laid down in his time. Option A is wrong because Sachchidananda Sinha was the temporary or provisional president of the Constituent Assembly at its first sitting in December 1946, after which Rajendra Prasad was elected its permanent president. Option C is wrong because M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar was the first Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and only later became Speaker, on Mavalankar death. Option D is wrong because Hukam Singh held the office of Speaker in the 1960s, well after the first term, and is not the first holder of the chair.

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 C, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Article 110(3) says that if any question arises whether a Bill is a Money Bill, the decision of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is final, and Article 110(4) requires the Speaker to endorse the certificate on the Bill when it is transmitted to the Rajya Sabha or sent for assent. The certificate cannot be questioned in any court or in either House. A, the President, is wrong because the President only recommends the introduction of a Money Bill and later gives assent to it. B, the Finance Minister, is wrong because a minister merely moves the Bill; the presiding officer, not the government, classifies it. D, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, is wrong because the Rajya Sabha has no say in the classification, which is exactly why the Speaker's certificate is final.

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 C, 1962. Zero Hour is an Indian innovation in parliamentary procedure and has been in use since 1962. It begins immediately after Question Hour, at about 12 noon, and lasts until the listed business of the day is taken up, and it allows a member to raise a matter without the prior notice that every other device requires. Its most examined feature is that it is nowhere mentioned in the Rules of Procedure, which makes it an informal device. A, 1952, is wrong because that year marks the first sitting of the Parliament elected under the Constitution, not the start of Zero Hour. B, 1954, is wrong because that is the year from which the calling attention motion, another Indian innovation, has been in use. D, 1977, is wrong; no parliamentary device of this kind dates from that year.

The correct answer is B, 1998. The post of National Security Adviser was created in November 1998, when the Vajpayee government set up the National Security Council. Brajesh Mishra was the first National Security Adviser and held the post along with that of Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. The Adviser is the Prime Minister's chief counsellor on national security and strategic affairs, heads the National Security Council Secretariat and receives the intelligence agencies' assessments. The Council works through three limbs, the Strategic Policy Group, the National Security Advisory Board and the Secretariat. Option A is wrong because by 2000 the office was already two years old. Option C is wrong because 2003 falls towards the end of the first Adviser's long tenure, not at its start. Option D is wrong because 1999, the year of the Kargil conflict, is often confused with it, but the Council and the Adviser had been announced a few months earlier. Exam tip: National Security Council and National Security Adviser, November 1998, first holder Brajesh Mishra.

The correct answer is B, D. C. Wadhwa v. State of Bihar, decided in 1987, in which the Court found that Bihar had kept hundreds of ordinances alive for years by re-issuing them without ever placing them before the legislature, and held this to be a fraud on the Constitution. The position was reaffirmed in Krishna Kumar Singh v. State of Bihar in 2017. Option A is wrong because Kehar Singh, of 1989, concerned the pardoning power under Article 72. Option C is wrong because S. R. Bommai, of 1994, laid down the limits on the use of Article 356 and the imposition of President's rule. Option D is wrong because Maru Ram, of 1980, dealt with remission and the exercise of clemency, not with ordinances.

The correct answer is B. Article 97 provides that the salaries and allowances of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the House of the People and of the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of the Council of States shall be such as Parliament may by law determine, and these are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India. A charged expenditure is not submitted to the vote of Parliament, which protects the independence of the office from the government of the day. Option A is wrong for exactly that reason: charged expenditure can be discussed but not voted. Option C is wrong because the Contingency Fund of India, under Article 267, is an imprest placed at the disposal of the President to meet unforeseen expenditure pending authorisation by Parliament; it is not used for regular salaries. Option D is wrong because these salaries are determined by Parliament by law and not by the President at discretion.

The correct answer is B, 14 days. Under Article 109 a Money Bill passed by the Lok Sabha is transmitted to the Rajya Sabha, which may only make recommendations and must return the Bill within fourteen days. The Lok Sabha is free to accept or reject those recommendations, and if the Rajya Sabha fails to return the Bill within the period, the Bill is deemed to have been passed by both Houses in the form in which the Lok Sabha passed it. A, 7 days, is wrong; no stage of the procedure uses that period. C, 21 days, is wrong, though candidates confuse it with other constitutional periods. D, 30 days, is wrong; it is sometimes mixed up with the six-week limit for approving an ordinance after Parliament reassembles. The fourteen-day rule is the single most tested fact in this chapter.

The correct answer is B, it is answered orally and supplementary questions are allowed. A starred question is distinguished by an asterisk, is answered on the floor of the House by the minister, and because the answer is oral, members may follow it with supplementary questions. The daily limit is twenty starred questions in the Lok Sabha. A is wrong because a written answer with no supplementaries describes an unstarred question, whose daily limit in the Lok Sabha is two hundred and thirty. C is wrong because a question to a private member is a separate category, admitted only when the subject is a Bill or a matter for which that member is responsible. D is wrong because the requirement of fifty members' support belongs to the adjournment motion and the no-confidence motion, not to any kind of question.