The Lokpal at the Union level was established under which Act?

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 C, the 89th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003. Until that amendment a single National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes worked under Article 338. The 89th Amendment divided the work, keeping the Scheduled Castes commission in Article 338 and inserting a new Article 338A for a separate National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, each with its own chairperson, vice-chairperson and members. Option A, the 73rd Amendment of 1992, added Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule and gave constitutional standing to the panchayats. Option B, the 86th Amendment of 2002, inserted Article 21A making elementary education a fundamental right, along with Article 51A(k) and a change to Article 45. Option D, the 102nd Amendment of 2018, inserted Article 338B and gave the National Commission for Backward Classes its constitutional status. Learning the three commission amendments as a set, 338 with no amendment, 338A with the 89th and 338B with the 102nd, settles a whole family of questions.

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.