Election Commission of India: Article 324, Powers and Elections

The correct answer is D, the President of India. Article 324(2) says the Chief Election Commissioner and the other Election Commissioners shall be appointed by the President, and under the Act of 2023 the President acts on the recommendation of a Selection Committee of the Prime Minister, a Union Cabinet Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Option A is wrong because the Central Government only advises or recommends; the warrant of appointment is issued by the President, and the office is a constitutional one, not a departmental post. Option B is wrong because a State Government has no role at all in the Union Election Commission; it appoints nothing beyond its own State Election Commissioner, which is done by the Governor. Option C is wrong because the Chief Justice of India has no part in the appointment, although he is on the collegium for judges; the Supreme Court is relevant here only for removal, because the Chief Election Commissioner can be removed only in the same manner as a judge of the Supreme Court.

The correct answer is C, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail. A VVPAT unit is attached to the balloting unit of an electronic voting machine and prints a slip showing the serial number, name and symbol of the candidate the voter has chosen; the slip is visible through a window for about seven seconds and then drops into a sealed box, so the vote can be audited on paper without being traced to the voter. It was used for the first time in 2013 in the Noksen Assembly constituency of Nagaland. Options A, B and D are wrong because each changes one word of the expansion, and the changed word matters: the machine makes the vote verifiable by the voter, not merely visited or vivid, and what it leaves behind is an audit trail on paper, not an account. Remembering the four words in order, verifiable, paper, audit, trail, is enough to reject all three distractors.

The correct answer is B, Article 324. It is the first article of Part XV and places the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and of the conduct of all elections to Parliament, the State legislatures and the offices of the President and the Vice-President in the Election Commission of India. Option A is wrong because Article 320 is about the functions of the Public Service Commissions, which conduct recruitment examinations and have nothing to do with elections. Option C is wrong because Article 326 lays down that elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies shall be on the basis of adult suffrage; it fixes who may vote, not who runs the election. Option D is wrong because Article 329 bars the courts from interfering in electoral matters and confines a challenge to an election petition before the High Court. Fix 324 for the Commission and 326 for adult suffrage, and this pair of distractors stops working.

The correct answer is C, the 61st Amendment Act, passed in 1988, which amended Article 326 and lowered the voting age for elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies from 21 years to 18, so that the enlarged electorate voted in the general election of 1989. Option A is wrong because the 44th Amendment of 1978 undid several changes of the Emergency, removing the right to property from the Fundamental Rights and restoring safeguards on the proclamation of an emergency. Option B is wrong because the 52nd Amendment of 1985 inserted the Tenth Schedule, the anti-defection law, which disqualifies a legislator for defection. Option D is wrong because the 73rd Amendment of 1992 gave constitutional status to panchayats and added Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule; it is connected with elections only in that it created the State Election Commission under Article 243K.

The correct answer is B, the State Election Commission. Article 243K, inserted by the 73rd Amendment, gives the superintendence, direction and control of panchayat elections to a State Election Commission consisting of a State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor, and Article 243ZA does the same for municipalities. Option A is wrong because the Election Commission of India is confined by Article 324 to elections to Parliament, the State legislatures and the offices of the President and the Vice-President; local body elections were deliberately kept outside its charge. Option C is wrong because a District Collector works as District Election Officer or Returning Officer under whichever commission is holding the poll, but has no authority of his own to conduct an election. Option D is wrong because a ministry frames policy and releases funds; it cannot conduct elections, which must be in the hands of an independent commission.

The correct answer is B, 25,000 rupees. Section 34 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 requires a candidate for a Lok Sabha seat to deposit 25,000 rupees, and a candidate belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe deposits half of it. The deposit is returned after the result unless the candidate fails to poll more than one-sixth of the total valid votes, in which case it is forfeited; the purpose is to discourage candidates who have no real support. Option A is wrong because 10,000 rupees is the deposit for a State Legislative Assembly seat, which is the commonest confusion in this question. Option C is wrong because 5,000 rupees is the halved deposit for an SC or ST candidate contesting an Assembly seat. Option D is wrong because no seat carries a deposit of 50,000 rupees; the figure is simply a plausible-looking distractor.

The correct answer is A, Kerala. The first use of an electronic voting machine in an Indian election was in 1982 at North Paravur in Kerala, in a by-election where the machine was used in a limited number of polling stations. The experiment was extended to selected constituencies through the 1990s, EVMs were used in all the Assembly elections of some States by 2001, and from the general election of 2004 every parliamentary constituency in the country polled on machines. Option B is wrong because Goa has no connection with the first use, though it has polled on machines like every other State since 2004. Option C is wrong because Karnataka is the home of Bharat Electronics Limited at Bengaluru, one of the two public sector makers of the machines, which is why it is offered as a distractor. Option D is wrong because Rajasthan has no claim to the first trial either.

The correct answer is A, Sukumar Sen, an officer of the Indian Civil Service who held office from 1950 to 1958 and conducted the first two general elections, of 1951-52 and 1957, for an electorate that was largely unlettered and had never voted before. Option B is wrong because K. V. K. Sundaram was the third Chief Election Commissioner, in office through the 1960s. Option C is wrong because T. Swaminathan came after him in the 1970s; both names are offered because they belong to the early list and are easy to shuffle. Option D is wrong because T. N. Seshan, who held office from 1990 to 1996, is remembered for the strict enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct and for making the photo identity card general, but he was far from the first; the Commission had been working for forty years by the time he took charge.

The correct answer is B, a judge of the Supreme Court. Article 324(5) says the Chief Election Commissioner shall not be removed from office except in like manner and on the like grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court, so it takes an order of the President after each House of Parliament has passed an address by a special majority on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. Option A is wrong because a High Court judge, although removed by the same parliamentary process, is not the comparison the Constitution draws, and the answer expected is the one the text names. Option C is wrong because the Attorney General holds office at the pleasure of the President and can be asked to go at any time. Option D is wrong because a Governor too holds office during the pleasure of the President and can be transferred or removed without any parliamentary process, which is exactly the insecurity the Commission was protected from.

The correct answer is B, the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Parliament passed it under Article 327 to govern the conduct of elections: the qualifications and disqualifications of candidates, the nomination and the security deposit, corrupt practices such as bribery and undue influence, electoral offences, the filling of casual vacancies by by-election and the trial of election petitions by the High Court. Option A is wrong because the Act of 1950 is the earlier and narrower law, dealing with the allocation of seats, the qualifications of voters and the preparation and revision of electoral rolls. Option C is wrong because the Symbols Order is an order issued by the Commission itself for the recognition of parties and the allotment of symbols, not an Act of Parliament. Option D is wrong because the Delimitation Act, 2002 set up the Delimitation Commission to redraw constituency boundaries on the basis of the census.