How many Schedules did the Constitution of India contain when it was adopted in 1949?

The correct answer is C, 29. The Eleventh Schedule was inserted by the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 and lists twenty-nine subjects, from agriculture and minor irrigation to drinking water, rural housing, poverty alleviation and the public distribution system, which a State legislature may devolve on the panchayats under Article 243G. Option A is wrong because twenty-two is the number of languages in the Eighth Schedule, a figure examiners deliberately place next to this one. Option B is wrong because twenty-four matches nothing in the Schedules and is only a plausible-looking number. Option D is wrong because thirty-two is not the count of any Schedule either; the companion figure to remember is eighteen, the number of subjects in the Twelfth Schedule for municipalities added by the Seventy-fourth Amendment of the same year. Fix the pair in memory as panchayats twenty-nine and municipalities eighteen.

The correct answer is B, Tenth Schedule. The anti-defection law sits in the Tenth Schedule, which was inserted by the Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985 and is read with Articles 102(2) and 191(2). It allows the Speaker or the Chairman of the House to disqualify a member who voluntarily gives up the membership of the party on whose ticket they were elected, or who votes or abstains against the party whip. Option A is wrong because the Ninth Schedule is the list of laws protected by Article 31B. Option C is wrong because the Eleventh Schedule contains the twenty-nine subjects of the panchayats. Option D is wrong because the Twelfth Schedule contains the eighteen subjects of the municipalities. Note the trap: a Tenth Schedule on the association of Sikkim existed from 1974 to 1975 before the present one.

The correct answer is A, the First Amendment, 1951. The very first amendment to the Constitution added Article 31B along with the Ninth Schedule, so that the zamindari abolition and land ceiling laws of the new State governments could not be struck down for violating the fundamental right to property. Option B is wrong because the Seventh Amendment of 1956 carried out the reorganisation of States and rewrote the First and Fourth Schedules, but created no new Schedule. Option C is wrong because the Forty-fourth Amendment of 1978 removed the right to property from the list of fundamental rights and made it a legal right under Article 300A. Option D is wrong because the Fifty-second Amendment of 1985 added the Tenth Schedule on defection. Remember also that after the I. R. Coelho judgment of 2007, laws placed in the Ninth Schedule after 24 April 1973 remain open to a basic structure challenge.

The correct answer is C, the Ninety-second Amendment. Passed in 2003, it added Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali to the Eighth Schedule, taking the number of languages listed there to twenty-two. Option A is wrong because the Twenty-first Amendment of 1967 added only Sindhi, making the list fifteen languages. Option B is wrong because the Seventy-first Amendment of 1992 added Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali, taking the list to eighteen. Option D is wrong because the Eighty-sixth Amendment of 2002 has nothing to do with languages: it inserted Article 21A, making free and compulsory education for children aged six to fourteen a fundamental right. Keep the ladder in order, fourteen at the start, then fifteen, then eighteen, then twenty-two, and remember that a language in the Eighth Schedule is not for that reason an official language of the Union.

The correct answer is C, Fourth Schedule. The Fourth Schedule, read with Article 80 and Article 4, is the table of seats allotted to each State and Union Territory in the Council of States. Because Article 4 lets Parliament amend the First and Fourth Schedules by an ordinary law, the table is revised whenever a State is created, divided or renamed, without recourse to Article 368. Option A is wrong because the Second Schedule deals with the emoluments, allowances and privileges of the President, the Governors, the Speakers and Chairmen of the Houses, the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts and the Comptroller and Auditor General. Option B is wrong because the Third Schedule gives the forms of oath and affirmation. Option D is wrong because the Fifth Schedule deals with the administration of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes.