Indian Polity Quiz: The Union and Its Territory

The correct answer is D, Admission of new States. Article 3 deals only with territory that is already part of India. Under it Parliament may form a new State by separating territory from a State or by uniting two or more States, increase or diminish the area of any State, and alter the boundaries or the name of any State. The admission of a new State into the Union is a separate power and belongs to Article 2, which covers territory that is not yet part of India, such as a territory being taken in from outside. Option A is wrong because the formation of new States is the first clause of Article 3 itself. Option B is wrong because altering the area of a State is expressly listed in Article 3. Option C is wrong for the same reason: alteration of boundaries is one of the five powers the Article grants. Remember the pair: Article 2 looks outward, Article 3 looks inward.

The correct answer is B, Union of States. Article 1 says that India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States, and the Drafting Committee chose that phrase with care. Dr B. R. Ambedkar told the Constituent Assembly that the word Union shows that the Indian federation is not the result of an agreement among the States and that no State has the right to secede from it. Option A is wrong because the Constitution nowhere calls India a Federation of States, even though the structure is federal in content. Option C is wrong because a confederation is a loose league of sovereign units that may leave it, which is the opposite of the Indian scheme. Option D is wrong because quasi-federal is a description used by writers such as K. C. Wheare, not the text of Article 1. Papers often test the exact words, so learn them as they stand.

The correct answer is B, Article 2. Article 2 provides that Parliament may by law admit into the Union, or establish, new States on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit. The power is meant for territory that is not part of India at present, which is why the terms are left entirely to Parliament. Option A is wrong because Article 1 only names the country and divides its territory into the territories of the States, the Union territories in the First Schedule and territories that may be acquired. Option C is wrong because Article 3 covers the internal rearrangement of existing States, their areas, boundaries and names. Option D is wrong because Article 4 merely says that laws made under Articles 2 and 3 may amend the First and Fourth Schedules and are not amendments under Article 368. A clean way to recall it is admission outside under Article 2, reorganisation inside under Article 3.

The correct answer is B, on the recommendation of the President. The proviso to Article 3 lays down two conditions. First, such a Bill may be introduced in either House only on the recommendation of the President. Second, the President must refer the Bill to the legislature of the State concerned for its views within a period specified by the President. Option A is wrong because a resolution of the State legislature is not needed at all; the State is only asked for its views, and those views do not bind Parliament, which may accept or reject them wholly or in part. Option C is wrong because no special consent of the Rajya Sabha is required; the Bill is passed by a simple majority in both Houses. Option D is wrong because the Inter-State Council under Article 263 is an advisory body with no role in creating States. Telangana in 2014 is the standard example of Parliament proceeding despite a State legislature opposing the Bill.

The correct answer is A. Article 4 states that a law made under Article 2 or Article 3 may contain provisions for amending the First Schedule, which lists the States and Union territories, and the Fourth Schedule, which allots Rajya Sabha seats, and that no such law shall be deemed to be an amendment of the Constitution for the purposes of Article 368. The result is that States are created, merged or renamed by ordinary legislation passed by a simple majority. Option B is wrong because the special majority of Article 368 is reserved for amendments to the Constitution itself. Option C is wrong because ratification by the legislatures of half the States applies to federal provisions such as the election of the President or the powers of the High Courts, not to reorganisation. Option D is wrong because the Rajya Sabha cannot pass such a law by itself. This is a favourite question because it looks like an amendment but is not one.

The correct answer is B, a constitutional amendment. The President sought the advisory opinion of the Supreme Court on whether the agreement to transfer part of the Berubari Union to Pakistan could be carried out under Article 3. The Court held that giving away Indian territory to a foreign country is not a mere diminution of the area of a State under Article 3, because it reduces the territory of India itself, and so it needs an amendment of the Constitution. Option A is wrong for exactly that reason. Option C is wrong because the views of a State legislature are advisory even in an ordinary reorganisation. Option D is wrong because the Inter-State Council has no such power. Parliament accordingly passed the Ninth Constitutional Amendment Act in 1960, and used the same route in 2015 through the Hundredth Constitutional Amendment Act for the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh.

The correct answer is B, Fazl Ali. The States Reorganisation Commission was appointed in 1953 under the chairmanship of Fazl Ali and submitted its report in 1955. Its recommendations led to the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 and the Seventh Constitutional Amendment, which gave the country fourteen States and six Union territories. Option A is wrong because S. K. Dhar headed the earlier Linguistic Provinces Commission, usually called the Dhar Commission, set up in 1948, which preferred administrative convenience to language. Options C and D are wrong because K. M. Panikkar and H. N. Kunzru were the two other members of the Fazl Ali Commission, not its chairman; a question that offers all three names together is testing exactly this. Also remember the JVP Committee of 1949, named after Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya.

The correct answer is A, Andhra State. It was carved out of the Madras Presidency in 1953 for Telugu speakers, after the death of Potti Sriramulu on a fast unto death pressed the demand to a point the government could not resist. Andhra State therefore came before the general reorganisation of 1956 and is the standard answer to this question. Option B and option C are wrong because Maharashtra and Gujarat were created only in 1960, when the bilingual State of Bombay was divided after the Samyukta Maharashtra and Mahagujarat movements. Option D is wrong because Haryana was separated from Punjab in 1966 on the recommendation of the Shah Commission, which was also a language-based division but much later. A common trap is to offer Andhra Pradesh in place of Andhra State; the State formed in 1953 was Andhra State, which became Andhra Pradesh in 1956.

The correct answer is C, the Seventh Amendment. The Seventh Constitutional Amendment Act of 1956 accompanied the States Reorganisation Act, abolished the old classification of States into Parts A, B, C and D, and reorganised the country into fourteen States and six Union territories. It also allowed a common High Court for two or more States. Option A is wrong because the Fifth Amendment dealt with the time allowed to State legislatures to express their views on a Bill under Article 3. Option B is wrong because the Sixth Amendment concerned taxes on inter-State sales and purchases. Option D is wrong because the Ninth Amendment of 1960 was passed to cede part of the Berubari Union to Pakistan after the Supreme Court held that an amendment was necessary. Pair each amendment with its subject rather than its number alone.

The correct answer is B, 2 June 2014. Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014 and came into existence on 2 June 2014, which is observed as its formation day. Option A is wrong because 1 November 2000 is the formation day of Chhattisgarh, which was separated from Madhya Pradesh in the same year that Uttaranchal and Jharkhand were created. Option C is wrong because 31 October 2019 is the day the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act came into force and two Union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, came into being. Option D is wrong because 26 January 2020 is the date on which Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu were merged into a single Union territory. Formation dates of recent States are asked almost every year, so learn them as a set.

The correct answer is C, the Hundredth Amendment Act of 2015. It amended the First Schedule to give effect to the acquiring of territories by India and the transfer of certain territories to Bangladesh under the Land Boundary Agreement, settling a dispute that had lasted since Partition. An amendment was needed because, as the Berubari Union opinion held, Indian territory cannot be ceded to a foreign State by an ordinary law under Article 3. Option A is wrong because the Ninth Amendment of 1960 dealt with the transfer of the Berubari Union to Pakistan. Option B is wrong because the Thirty-sixth Amendment of 1975 made Sikkim a full-fledged State of India. Option D is wrong because the Hundred and First Amendment of 2016 introduced the Goods and Services Tax. Note the pattern: boundary settlements with neighbours travel through Article 368.

The correct answer is B, the Thirty-sixth Amendment Act of 1975. It admitted Sikkim as the twenty-second State of the Indian Union, inserted it into the First Schedule and omitted the earlier provisions that had given it a special status. Option A is wrong because the Thirty-fifth Amendment of 1974 had only made Sikkim an associate State of India, a status created for it and given up a year later; the two amendments appear together in questions precisely because the steps were taken in quick succession. Option C is wrong because the Fortieth Amendment of 1976 dealt with the exclusive economic zone and placed certain laws in the Ninth Schedule. Option D is wrong because the Forty-second Amendment of 1976 is the wide-ranging amendment that added the Fundamental Duties and the words socialist and secular to the Preamble. Remember associate State in 1974, full State in 1975.