Article 338A of the Constitution, which provides for the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, was inserted by which amendment?

The correct answer is C, Article 324. Article 324 vests in the Election Commission the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and of the conduct of all elections to Parliament, to the legislature of every State, and to the offices of President and Vice-President of India. Because the body stands on an article, it cannot be wound up by an ordinary law of Parliament. Option A, Article 280, creates the Finance Commission, which the President constitutes every fifth year to recommend the distribution of taxes between the Union and the States. Option B, Article 315, creates the Union Public Service Commission and a Public Service Commission for each State, which conduct recruitment examinations. Option D, Article 338, creates the National Commission for Scheduled Castes; the companion commission for the Scheduled Tribes sits in Article 338A. Candidates lose this mark by confusing 324 with 325, which bars exclusion from the electoral roll on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex.

The correct answer is B, the National Human Rights Commission. It is a statutory body created by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, and no article of the Constitution mentions it, so Parliament could alter or repeal its parent Act by an ordinary majority. Option A, the Finance Commission, is constitutional under Article 280, and the President constitutes it every fifth year or earlier if he thinks it necessary. Option C, the Comptroller and Auditor General, is constitutional under Article 148, with a removal procedure borrowed from that of a Supreme Court judge and a salary charged on the Consolidated Fund of India. Option D, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, became constitutional when the 89th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003 inserted Article 338A and separated it from the Scheduled Castes commission. The lesson to carry into the examination hall is that the three commissions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes are constitutional, while the commissions for human rights, women and minorities are statutory.

The correct answer is B, Article 279A. The article was inserted by the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2016, the amendment that introduced the goods and services tax, and it requires the President to constitute a Council of the Union Finance Minister, the Union Minister of State in charge of revenue or finance, and the Minister in charge of finance or taxation of each State. The Council recommends the rates, the exemptions, the threshold limits and the model laws. Option A, Article 263, empowers the President to establish an Inter-State Council to inquire into and advise upon disputes between States. Option C, Article 280, is the Finance Commission, which deals with the sharing of tax revenue and grants-in-aid, a different subject altogether. Option D, Article 282, allows the Union or a State to make any grant for a public purpose even outside its own legislative competence, and is the article behind many centrally sponsored schemes. Note the number: 279A, not 279.

The correct answer is C, the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003. The Commission was first set up in 1964 by a resolution of the Government of India on the recommendation of the Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption, and for nearly four decades it worked as an executive body. The Act of 2003 turned it into a statutory, multi-member body with a Central Vigilance Commissioner and Vigilance Commissioners. Option A, the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, defines the offences of bribery and criminal misconduct by public servants but creates no commission. Option B, the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, is the law from which the Central Bureau of Investigation draws its powers of investigation; the CBI itself was created by a Home Ministry resolution in 1963. Option D, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, created the Lokpal at the Union level and required States to set up Lokayuktas. The examiner likes this question because the body has two dates, 1964 and 2003.

The correct answer is C. NITI Aayog, the National Institution for Transforming India, was created by a resolution of the Union Cabinet dated 1 January 2015, and it therefore has neither constitutional nor statutory standing. Option A is wrong because Article 282 merely permits the Union or a State to make grants for a public purpose and creates no institution; no article of the Constitution names NITI Aayog. Option B is wrong because Parliament passed no Act for it, which is exactly why the earlier Planning Commission could be replaced without legislation; the Planning Commission too rested on a Cabinet resolution of March 1950. Option D is wrong both in the instrument and in the year. The practical consequence is worth remembering: an executive body can be reorganised or dissolved by the next Cabinet resolution, so its independence rests on convention rather than on law, unlike the Election Commission or the Comptroller and Auditor General.