Indian Polity Quiz: Official Language and Special Provisions

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, 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 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, 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 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 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 A. Article 348(2) allows the Governor of a state, with the previous consent of the President, to authorise the use of Hindi or of any other language used for the official purposes of the state in the proceedings of the High Court having its principal seat in that state. The clause expressly saves judgments, decrees and orders, which must continue to be in English unless Parliament provides otherwise by law. Option B is wrong because the consent required is the President's, not the Chief Justice of India's. Option C repeats the right authority but ignores the saving clause, and that is exactly the distinction examiners test. Option D invents a procedure; no resolution of the state legislature is needed. Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are the states that have obtained this authorisation.

The correct answer is C, Sanskrit. Article 351 is a directive to the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language and to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India. The article says this is to be done by assimilating the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages. Option A is wrong because Hindustani is named for forms, style and expressions, not for vocabulary. Option B is wrong because Persian and Arabic are not named at all. Option D is wrong because English finds no place in Article 351; its role comes from Article 343(3) and the Official Languages Act, 1963.

The correct answer is B, Article 371A. It was inserted by the Thirteenth Amendment Act, 1962, when Nagaland was created as a state, and it protects Naga customary law and procedure, the ownership and transfer of land and its resources, and gives the Governor a special responsibility for law and order in the state. Option A is wrong because Article 370 was the temporary provision for Jammu and Kashmir, made inoperative in August 2019. Option C is wrong because Article 371F, inserted by the Thirty-sixth Amendment of 1975, carries the provisions for Sikkim on its becoming a state. Option D is wrong because Article 371G, inserted by the Fifty-third Amendment of 1986, is the parallel provision for Mizoram, protecting Mizo customary law and social and religious practice. Nagaland and Mizoram are the pair most often interchanged in the options.

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 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.