Indian Polity Quiz: Schedules of the Constitution

The correct answer is C, 29. The Eleventh Schedule was inserted by the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 and lists twenty-nine subjects, from agriculture and minor irrigation to drinking water, rural housing, poverty alleviation and the public distribution system, which a State legislature may devolve on the panchayats under Article 243G. Option A is wrong because twenty-two is the number of languages in the Eighth Schedule, a figure examiners deliberately place next to this one. Option B is wrong because twenty-four matches nothing in the Schedules and is only a plausible-looking number. Option D is wrong because thirty-two is not the count of any Schedule either; the companion figure to remember is eighteen, the number of subjects in the Twelfth Schedule for municipalities added by the Seventy-fourth Amendment of the same year. Fix the pair in memory as panchayats twenty-nine and municipalities eighteen.

The correct answer is B, Tenth Schedule. The anti-defection law sits in the Tenth Schedule, which was inserted by the Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985 and is read with Articles 102(2) and 191(2). It allows the Speaker or the Chairman of the House to disqualify a member who voluntarily gives up the membership of the party on whose ticket they were elected, or who votes or abstains against the party whip. Option A is wrong because the Ninth Schedule is the list of laws protected by Article 31B. Option C is wrong because the Eleventh Schedule contains the twenty-nine subjects of the panchayats. Option D is wrong because the Twelfth Schedule contains the eighteen subjects of the municipalities. Note the trap: a Tenth Schedule on the association of Sikkim existed from 1974 to 1975 before the present one.

The correct answer is A, the First Amendment, 1951. The very first amendment to the Constitution added Article 31B along with the Ninth Schedule, so that the zamindari abolition and land ceiling laws of the new State governments could not be struck down for violating the fundamental right to property. Option B is wrong because the Seventh Amendment of 1956 carried out the reorganisation of States and rewrote the First and Fourth Schedules, but created no new Schedule. Option C is wrong because the Forty-fourth Amendment of 1978 removed the right to property from the list of fundamental rights and made it a legal right under Article 300A. Option D is wrong because the Fifty-second Amendment of 1985 added the Tenth Schedule on defection. Remember also that after the I. R. Coelho judgment of 2007, laws placed in the Ninth Schedule after 24 April 1973 remain open to a basic structure challenge.

The correct answer is C, the Ninety-second Amendment. Passed in 2003, it added Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali to the Eighth Schedule, taking the number of languages listed there to twenty-two. Option A is wrong because the Twenty-first Amendment of 1967 added only Sindhi, making the list fifteen languages. Option B is wrong because the Seventy-first Amendment of 1992 added Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali, taking the list to eighteen. Option D is wrong because the Eighty-sixth Amendment of 2002 has nothing to do with languages: it inserted Article 21A, making free and compulsory education for children aged six to fourteen a fundamental right. Keep the ladder in order, fourteen at the start, then fifteen, then eighteen, then twenty-two, and remember that a language in the Eighth Schedule is not for that reason an official language of the Union.

The correct answer is C, Fourth Schedule. The Fourth Schedule, read with Article 80 and Article 4, is the table of seats allotted to each State and Union Territory in the Council of States. Because Article 4 lets Parliament amend the First and Fourth Schedules by an ordinary law, the table is revised whenever a State is created, divided or renamed, without recourse to Article 368. Option A is wrong because the Second Schedule deals with the emoluments, allowances and privileges of the President, the Governors, the Speakers and Chairmen of the Houses, the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts and the Comptroller and Auditor General. Option B is wrong because the Third Schedule gives the forms of oath and affirmation. Option D is wrong because the Fifth Schedule deals with the administration of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes.

The correct answer is A, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. The Sixth Schedule, read with Article 244(2) and Article 275(1), provides autonomous district councils and regional councils with powers to make laws on land, forests, village administration, inheritance and social custom in the tribal areas of these four States. Option B is wrong because Nagaland and Manipur are not Sixth Schedule States; Nagaland has its own special provision in Article 371A. Option C is wrong for the same reason, as Arunachal Pradesh is covered by Article 371H and not by the Sixth Schedule. Option D is wrong because the tribal areas of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh are Scheduled Areas governed by the Fifth Schedule, where the instrument is the Tribes Advisory Council and the Governor's report to the President.

The correct answer is C, Article 246. Article 246 distributes legislative power with reference to the three lists of the Seventh Schedule: Parliament has exclusive power over the Union List, State legislatures over the State List, and both may legislate on the Concurrent List. Option A is wrong because Article 243 is the definition clause of Part IX on panchayats, whose attached Schedule is the Eleventh. Option B is wrong because Article 244 is the article for the Fifth and Sixth Schedules on Scheduled and tribal areas. Option D is wrong because Article 248 deals with residuary powers of legislation, which belong to Parliament, and is tested separately. As enacted, the Union List had ninety-seven entries, the State List sixty-six and the Concurrent List forty-seven, and the Forty-second Amendment of 1976 moved five subjects, including education and forests, from the State List to the Concurrent List.

The correct answer is C, Third Schedule. The Third Schedule sets out the texts of the oath or affirmation for a Union Minister, a candidate for and a member of Parliament, the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, the Comptroller and Auditor General, a State Minister and a member of a State legislature. Option A is wrong because the First Schedule lists the names of the States and Union Territories with their territorial extent. Option B is wrong because the Second Schedule fixes the salaries, allowances and privileges of the high constitutional functionaries, all charged on the Consolidated Fund of India or of the State. Option D is wrong because the Fourth Schedule allocates Rajya Sabha seats. Note the exception examiners like: the oaths of the President and the Governor are not in the Third Schedule but in Articles 60 and 159 themselves.

The correct answer is B, 18. The Twelfth Schedule was added by the Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992 and lists eighteen functions that a State legislature may entrust to urban local bodies under Article 243W, among them urban planning including town planning, water supply, public health and sanitation, fire services, slum improvement, urban poverty alleviation and the regulation of slaughter houses and tanneries. Option A is wrong because twelve is the number of Schedules in the Constitution, not the number of entries in this one, a confusion the question is built on. Option C is wrong because twenty-one matches no Schedule count. Option D is wrong because twenty-nine is the number of subjects in the Eleventh Schedule for panchayats. The safe way to remember it is rural twenty-nine under Article 243G and urban eighteen under Article 243W.

The correct answer is B, Eight. The Constitution as adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949 had eight Schedules, along with twenty-two Parts and three hundred and ninety-five articles. Option A is wrong because seven is the count of the Schedule that carries the three legislative lists, not of the Schedules themselves. Option C is wrong because ten was never the number at commencement; the Tenth Schedule came only in 1985, after a short-lived Tenth Schedule on Sikkim between 1974 and 1975. Option D is wrong because twelve is the present number, reached in 1992 when the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Amendments added the Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules. The sequence to memorise is eight at the start, nine in 1951, ten in 1985, and eleven and twelve together in 1992.

The correct answer is B, Article 244(1). Article 244(1) says that the provisions of the Fifth Schedule apply to the administration and control of the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes in any State other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Under it the Governor makes regulations for a Scheduled Area, a Tribes Advisory Council is constituted, and the Governor reports annually to the President on the administration of such areas. Option A is wrong because Article 243G is the article on the powers of panchayats, attached to the Eleventh Schedule. Option C is wrong because Article 244(2) carries the Sixth Schedule for the tribal areas of the four north-eastern States. Option D is wrong because Article 371A contains the special provisions for Nagaland, which stand outside both the Fifth and the Sixth Schedule systems.