A Bill to form a new State under Article 3 can be introduced in Parliament only

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 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.