Indian Polity Quiz: Union Territories and Delhi's Special Status

The correct answer is B, Article 239. Article 239(1) provides that every Union Territory shall be administered by the President acting, to such extent as he thinks fit, through an administrator appointed by him with such designation as he may specify. This is why a Union Territory has a Lieutenant Governor or an Administrator and not a Governor of its own. Option A is wrong because Article 238, which dealt with the application of Part VI to the old Part B states, was repealed by the Seventh Amendment of 1956 and no longer operates. Option C is wrong because Article 240 is a different power altogether: it lets the President make regulations for certain named Union Territories such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. Option D is wrong because Article 241 deals with High Courts for Union Territories and empowers Parliament to constitute a High Court for such a territory, as it did for Delhi in 1966.

The correct answer is C, the 69th Amendment, 1991. The Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991 inserted Articles 239AA and 239AB, renamed the Union Territory of Delhi as the National Capital Territory of Delhi and provided it with a Legislative Assembly and a Council of Ministers. Option A is wrong because the Fourteenth Amendment of 1962 inserted Article 239A, which allowed Parliament to create a legislature or a Council of Ministers for certain Union Territories, and it is the basis of Puducherry's assembly, not Delhi's. Option B is wrong because the Sixty-first Amendment of 1988 lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen years. Option D is wrong because the Seventy-fourth Amendment of 1992 added Part IXA on municipalities and the Twelfth Schedule; it strengthened urban local bodies across the country and had nothing to do with Delhi's status as a capital territory.

The correct answer is B, public order, police and land. Article 239AA(3)(a) lets the Delhi assembly make laws on the State List and the Concurrent List as they apply to the territory, but excludes Entries 1, 2 and 18 of the State List, which are public order, police and land, along with Entries 64, 65 and 66 so far as they relate to those three. Option A is wrong because public health, education and local government are with the Delhi government, which runs hospitals, schools and municipal matters. Option C is wrong because, although police is indeed excluded, prisons and agriculture are not: prisons were brought within the territory's competence and agriculture was never a reserved subject. Option D is wrong because only land is excluded of the three named; water supply and electricity are handled by the Delhi government through its own boards and utilities.

The correct answer is B, seven. Article 239AA(4) says the Council of Ministers of Delhi shall consist of not more than ten per cent of the total number of members of its Legislative Assembly. The assembly has seventy directly elected seats, so ten per cent of seventy gives seven ministers, a figure that includes the Chief Minister. Option A is wrong because five is not derived from any provision; it is a plausible-looking but invented number. Option C is wrong because ten is the percentage figure in the article, not the number of ministers, and this is the trap the question is built on. Option D is wrong because twelve exceeds the ceiling; a fifteen per cent cap applies to the states under Article 164(1A), but Delhi is governed by the stricter ten per cent rule written into Article 239AA itself.

The correct answer is A, the Governor of Punjab. Article 239(2) allows the President to appoint the Governor of a state as the administrator of an adjoining Union Territory, and under it the Governor of Punjab has been given additional charge as the Administrator of Chandigarh. Option B is wrong because, although Chandigarh is the shared capital of both Punjab and Haryana, it is the Governor of Punjab and not of Haryana who holds the charge. Option C is wrong because a judge of a High Court performs judicial functions and cannot hold an executive office of this kind; such an appointment would offend the separation of powers. Option D is wrong because, while senior civil servants serve as administrators of some Union Territories such as Lakshadweep, Chandigarh is administered under the Article 239(2) arrangement with the Governor of Punjab.

The correct answer is B, Puducherry, by the 14th Amendment of 1962. The Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Act, 1962 absorbed the former French settlements into India and inserted Article 239A so that Parliament could give such a territory a legislature and a Council of Ministers; Parliament then passed the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, under which the Puducherry assembly of thirty elected members works. Option A is wrong because Delhi's assembly comes from Article 239AA, inserted by the 69th Amendment. Option C is wrong because the Seventh Amendment of 1956 created the category of Union Territories but gave none of them a legislature, and Lakshadweep has no assembly even today. Option D is wrong because the assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir rests on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, an ordinary law of Parliament, and the 103rd Amendment dealt with reservation for the economically weaker sections.

The correct answer is C, 31 October 2019. The Act was passed in August 2019 but the appointed day on which the former state was reorganised into the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, with a legislative assembly, and the Union Territory of Ladakh, without one, was 31 October 2019. Option A is wrong because 5 August 2019 is the date of the Presidential Order and the resolution on Article 370; the reorganisation itself took effect later. Option B is wrong because 9 August 2019 is the date the Act received the President's assent, which is not the same as the appointed day named in the Act. Option D is wrong because 26 January 2020 is the day the merger of Dadra and Nagar Haveli with Daman and Diu into a single Union Territory took effect, a separate reorganisation under its own Act of 2019.

The correct answer is C, Chandigarh. Article 240(1) names the territories for which the President may make regulations for peace, progress and good government: the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Puducherry, the last only while its assembly stands dissolved or suspended. Chandigarh is not in that list, so laws for it are made by Parliament and by notifications extending Punjab and Haryana laws to it. Options A, B and D are therefore wrong as answers to a question asking which is left out, because all three are expressly named in the article. A regulation made under Article 240 has the same force as an Act of Parliament and may even repeal a parliamentary law that applies to the territory, which makes this power unusually wide.

The correct answer is B, the 7th Amendment, 1956. Acting on the report of the States Reorganisation Commission, Parliament passed the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 and the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956, which ended the four-fold classification of Part A, B, C and D states and left a single class of states together with a new class called Union Territories. Option A is wrong because the First Amendment of 1951 added the Ninth Schedule and reasonable restrictions on free speech. Option C is wrong because the Fourteenth Amendment of 1962 inserted Article 239A and brought the French settlements in as a Union Territory, which came after the category already existed. Option D is wrong because the Forty-second Amendment of 1976 added the Fundamental Duties and the words socialist, secular and integrity to the Preamble.

The correct answer is C, Article 241. It provides that Parliament may by law constitute a High Court for a Union Territory or declare any court in such a territory to be a High Court, and it is under this article that the Delhi High Court Act, 1966 set up the only High Court a Union Territory has of its own. Option A is wrong because Article 214 says there shall be a High Court for each state, which is the general provision for states and not for Union Territories. Option B is wrong because Article 231 allows Parliament to establish a common High Court for two or more states, as with the Punjab and Haryana High Court or the Gauhati High Court. Option D is wrong because Article 247 lets Parliament establish additional courts for the better administration of Union laws, a different power altogether.

The correct answer is A, the Kerala High Court. Lakshadweep lies off the Malabar coast and is within the jurisdiction of the High Court of Kerala, whose seat is at Ernakulam. Option B is wrong because the Madras High Court has jurisdiction over Puducherry, the former French territory on the Coromandel coast, and not over Lakshadweep. Option C is wrong because the Karnataka High Court has no Union Territory within its jurisdiction, even though the islands lie in the Arabian Sea off the western coast. Option D is wrong because the Bombay High Court covers Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Candidates should also remember that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands come under the Calcutta High Court through its circuit bench at Port Blair, and Chandigarh under the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The correct answer is B. The five-judge Bench read Article 239AA as a scheme of representative government and held that the Lieutenant Governor has no independent decision-making power; he must act on the aid and advice of the elected Council of Ministers except on public order, police and land, and where a law requires him to act in his discretion. Option A is wrong because the judgment rejected exactly that claim of a general power to differ, holding that the proviso to Article 239AA(4) is an exception to be used sparingly on substantial issues, not a routine veto. Option C is wrong because Delhi remains a Union Territory with a special status and the Lieutenant Governor is an administrator under Article 239, not a Governor appointed under Article 155. Option D is wrong because the dissolution of the assembly and the failure of constitutional machinery in Delhi are dealt with under Article 239AB by the President.