Which of the following features of the Indian Constitution is NOT drawn from the United States?

The correct answer is A, the Government of India Act, 1935. About two-thirds of the provisions of the Constitution follow that Act, which supplied the federal scheme with its lists of subjects, the office of the Governor, the structure and powers of the judiciary, the public service commissions, the emergency provisions and most of the administrative detail. The Act was already in force, so its machinery could be carried forward without disturbing a freshly partitioned administration. B introduced separate electorates and a limited elective element and contributed almost nothing to the final text. C gave the Fundamental Rights and judicial review, and D the Directive Principles, but each of those is one chapter rather than the bulk of the document. Note also that the Act of 1935 provided for a federation of provinces and princely states which never actually came into being.

The correct answer is B, Ireland. The Irish constitution of 1937 carried a chapter of directive principles of social policy, non-justiciable goals addressed to the legislature, and the Constituent Assembly adopted that device as Part IV of our Constitution, along with the nomination of members to the Rajya Sabha and the method of electing the President. A supplied the justiciable Fundamental Rights and judicial review, and it is the commonest wrong answer here because candidates group all rights and principles together. C supplied a federation with a strong Centre and residuary powers with the Centre. D supplied the Concurrent List, the freedom of trade and commerce, and the joint sitting of the two Houses. Article 37 states that the principles are not enforceable by any court but are fundamental in the governance of the country.

The correct answer is A, the Soviet Union, whose constitution listed the duties of citizens alongside their rights. India had no such chapter at first; ten Fundamental Duties were added in 1976 by the Forty-second Amendment on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee, and an eleventh, the duty of a parent to provide education to a child, was added later. Like the Directive Principles, the duties are not enforceable by a court. B contributed the expression procedure established by law in Article 21. C contributed the republic and the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. D contributed the amendment procedure and the election of members of the Rajya Sabha. An easy way to hold the pair is that the rights came from the West and the duties from the socialist bloc.

The correct answer is C, South Africa. Two features are traced to the South African constitution: the procedure for amending the Constitution, which combines a special majority with the consent of States for some provisions, and the election of members of the Rajya Sabha by the elected members of the State legislative assemblies through proportional representation by a single transferable vote. A gave the parliamentary system, the rule of law, single citizenship and the writs. B gave a strong Centre, Centre-appointed Governors and the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. D gave only one feature, the suspension of Fundamental Rights during an emergency, and that is the pairing most often asked about the Weimar constitution. When an option mentions the single transferable vote, it almost always points to the election of the Rajya Sabha.

The correct answer is A, Australia. The Australian constitution has a list of subjects on which both the federal and the state legislatures may make law, and India adopted the device as the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule, with central law prevailing in case of conflict. The guarantee of free trade, commerce and intercourse throughout the territory, now in Article 301, and the joint sitting of the two Houses to resolve a deadlock over an ordinary bill, now in Article 108, come from the same source. B gave the Directive Principles. C gave the Fundamental Rights and judicial review. D gave the phrase procedure established by law used in Article 21. A useful hook is that in both Australia and India central law prevails over state law on a concurrent subject.