State Capitals, High Courts and Assemblies of India

The correct answer is B, the Calcutta High Court. It was established in July 1862 under the Indian High Courts Act of 1861, which allowed the Crown to replace the old supreme courts and sadar courts of the Presidency towns with High Courts. Its jurisdiction today extends over West Bengal and the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Option A is wrong because the Bombay High Court, although also created in 1862, was established in August, a few weeks after Calcutta, and it now covers Maharashtra, Goa and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Option C is wrong because the Madras High Court was likewise established in August 1862 and is the third of the group, serving Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Option D is wrong because the Allahabad High Court came later, in 1866, sitting first at Agra and moving to Allahabad, now Prayagraj, in 1875.

The correct answer is C, Kochi. The Kerala High Court sits at Kochi, in the Ernakulam area, although the capital of the state is Thiruvananthapuram. Its territorial jurisdiction covers the state of Kerala and the union territory of Lakshadweep, an arrangement permitted by Article 230, which allows the jurisdiction of a High Court to be extended to a union territory. Option A is wrong because Thiruvananthapuram is the seat of the Governor and the legislature but not of the High Court, and this gap between capital and court is exactly what the question tests. Option B is wrong because Kozhikode, the old Calicut, has no High Court, though it has district courts. Option D is wrong because Thrissur is known as the cultural capital of Kerala and for the Thrissur Pooram festival, not for the High Court.

The correct answer is B, Article 214. It states plainly that there shall be a High Court for each state, and the following articles complete the scheme: Article 215 makes every High Court a court of record, Article 216 leaves the number of judges to the President, Article 217 provides for their appointment, and Article 231 allows a common High Court for two or more states or union territories. Option A is wrong because Article 124 establishes the Supreme Court of India and provides for the appointment of its judges. Option C is wrong because Article 226 confers on a High Court the power to issue writs, which is a power of the court and not the provision creating it. Option D is wrong because Article 239 deals with the administration of union territories by an Administrator appointed by the President.

The correct answer is D, West Bengal. West Bengal had a Legislative Council in the years after independence but abolished it in 1969, and its legislature has been unicameral since then, consisting of the Governor and the Legislative Assembly alone. Proposals to revive the Council have been moved but a revival needs a resolution of the Assembly followed by an Act of Parliament under Article 169. Option A is wrong because Bihar has a Vidhan Parishad, one of the oldest in the country. Option B is wrong because Karnataka has a Vidhan Parishad, as does the southern neighbour Telangana. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra has a Vidhan Parishad, and it is one of the six states with a second chamber along with Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

The correct answer is B, Article 169. It empowers Parliament by law to abolish an existing Legislative Council or to create one where none exists, but only if the Legislative Assembly of the state first passes a resolution supported by a majority of the total membership of the House and by not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting. Such a law is not treated as a constitutional amendment under Article 368. Option A is wrong because Article 168 merely says what a state legislature consists of, the Governor with one house or two. Option C is wrong because Article 171 lays down the size and composition of a Council once it exists. Option D is wrong because Article 172 fixes the duration of the houses, giving the Assembly five years and making the Council a permanent body that is not subject to dissolution.

The correct answer is A, Chandigarh. Chandigarh is the capital of both Punjab and Haryana and is itself a union territory, and the common High Court for the two states and for the union territory sits there. A common High Court of this kind is permitted by Article 231, under which Parliament may establish one High Court for two or more states or union territories; the Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Kerala and Guwahati High Courts cover more than one territory in the same way. Option B is wrong because Amritsar has no High Court, though it is the site of the Harmandir Sahib. Option C is wrong because Gurugram is an industrial and corporate centre of Haryana with district courts only. Option D is wrong because Patiala was once the capital of PEPSU but has no High Court today.

The correct answer is D, Jabalpur. The principal seat of the Madhya Pradesh High Court is at Jabalpur, with benches at Gwalior and Indore, while the capital of the state is Bhopal. The pattern repeats in the neighbouring state carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000: the capital of Chhattisgarh is Raipur but its High Court sits at Bilaspur. Option A is wrong because Bhopal is the capital, where the Governor and the legislature sit, and candidates who assume the court follows the capital lose this mark. Option B is wrong because Indore, the largest city of the state, hosts a bench and not the principal seat. Option C is wrong for the same reason: Gwalior hosts a bench of the High Court, a legacy of the princely state, but the principal seat remains at Jabalpur.

The correct answer is B. Under the Nagpur Pact of 1953, agreed when the Vidarbha region joined the new bilingual Bombay State and later Maharashtra, Nagpur was made the second capital of the state and at least one session of the legislature each year, the winter session, is held there. Option A is wrong because the capital of Maharashtra is Mumbai, where the Governor and the Secretariat sit. Option C is wrong because the principal seat of the Bombay High Court is at Mumbai; Nagpur hosts one of its benches, along with Aurangabad and Panaji. Option D is wrong because Madhya Pradesh has only one capital, Bhopal, and no summer capital; among the states, Himachal Pradesh uses Dharamshala for its winter session and Uttarakhand declared Bhararisain in the Gairsain area its summer capital in 2020.

The correct answer is C, Amaravati. When the old High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad was bifurcated with effect from the first of January 2019, the Telangana High Court continued at Hyderabad and a separate High Court for Andhra Pradesh began functioning at Amaravati. Until then the two states had shared a single High Court, just as they shared Hyderabad as a joint capital under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014. Option A is wrong because Hyderabad is now the seat of the Telangana High Court only. Option B is wrong because Visakhapatnam, the largest city and port of Andhra Pradesh, has no High Court. Option D is wrong because Kurnool was the capital of Andhra State in the years from 1953 to 1956, and the High Court of that short-lived state sat at Guntur, but neither is the position today.

The correct answer is B, the Kerala High Court. The jurisdiction of the Kerala High Court, which sits at Kochi, extends over the state of Kerala and the union territory of Lakshadweep, whose capital is Kavaratti. Article 230 permits Parliament to extend the jurisdiction of a High Court to a union territory in this way, and several union territories are covered by state High Courts on the same basis. Option A is wrong because the Madras High Court covers Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. Option C is wrong because the Karnataka High Court at Bengaluru, with benches at Dharwad and Kalaburagi, covers only that state. Option D is wrong because the Bombay High Court covers Maharashtra, Goa and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

The correct answer is C, 500 members. Article 170 provides that the Legislative Assembly of a state shall consist of not more than five hundred and not fewer than sixty members chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies, with lower minimums permitted by law for small states such as Goa, Sikkim and Mizoram. Uttar Pradesh has the largest Assembly, with four hundred and three seats, and Sikkim the smallest among the states, with thirty-two. Option A is wrong because two hundred and fifty is the maximum strength of the Rajya Sabha under Article 80. Option B is wrong because four hundred is close to the strength of the largest Assembly but is not the constitutional ceiling. Option D is wrong because five hundred and fifty is the maximum strength of the Lok Sabha under Article 81, a figure candidates often transfer here by mistake.

The correct answer is B. Like the Rajya Sabha, a Legislative Council is a continuing body: it is not subject to dissolution, each member holds office for six years, and one-third of the members retire every second year, so the house is renewed in stages. Option A is wrong because only the Assembly is dissolved; its normal term of five years is fixed by Article 172, and the Council survives that dissolution. Option C is wrong because only one-sixth of the members are nominated by the Governor from persons with special knowledge of literature, science, art, the cooperative movement or social service, while the rest are elected by local authorities, graduates, teachers and the members of the Assembly. Option D is wrong because Article 171 caps the Council at one-third of the Assembly, not half, subject to a floor of forty members.