Which of the following Union Territories is given partial statehood in India?

The correct answer is D, The Comptroller and Auditor General. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India heads the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, the organisation through which the audit of Union and State accounts is actually carried out. The office is created by Article 148. The CAG is appointed by the President by warrant under hand and seal, holds office for six years or until the age of sixty five, whichever comes first, and can be removed only in the manner laid down for a judge of the Supreme Court. Article 149 sets out the duties, and the audit reports go to the President or the Governor, who lays them before the legislature, where the Public Accounts Committee takes them up. A is wrong because an Accountant General heads a state level office under the CAG. B is wrong because Principal Accountant General is a senior rank of the same kind. C is wrong because a Director General serves inside the department rather than at its head. Exam tip: Article 148, the CAG heads the audit department, six years or age sixty five.

The correct answer is C, Five. Five writs can be issued: habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, certiorari and quo warranto. Habeas corpus asks that a detained person be produced before the court. Mandamus commands a public authority to perform a duty it has refused to perform. Prohibition stops a lower court from going beyond its jurisdiction, while certiorari quashes an order such a court has already passed. Quo warranto questions a person’s claim to hold a public office. The Supreme Court issues these under Article 32, but only to enforce fundamental rights, and the right to move the Court under Article 32 is itself a fundamental right. A High Court’s power under Article 226 is wider, because it covers both fundamental rights and other legal rights. All five were borrowed from English common law. A, B and D are wrong because the Constitution provides exactly five, no more and no fewer. Exam tip: Article 32 for the Supreme Court and Article 226 for High Courts, five writs in both.

The correct answer is B, Tenth Schedule. The anti-defection law sits in the Tenth Schedule, which sets out when a member of Parliament or of a State legislature loses the seat for defecting. It was inserted by the 52nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1985, after a decade in which governments were toppled by floor crossing. A member is disqualified for voluntarily giving up the membership of the party on whose ticket the seat was won, or for voting against the party whip. The Speaker or the Chairman of the House decides such a case, and courts can review that decision. The 91st Amendment of 2003 removed the old one third split defence, so only a merger supported by two thirds of a party’s legislators is now protected. A is wrong because the Second Schedule fixes the salaries and allowances of the President, Governors, Speakers and judges. C is wrong because the Third Schedule carries the forms of oath and affirmation. D is wrong because the Fourth Schedule allots Rajya Sabha seats to states and union territories. Exam tip: Tenth Schedule, anti-defection, 52nd Amendment of 1985.

The correct answer is C, Police. The Seventh Schedule of the Constitution divides subjects into three lists, and public order and police are the first two entries of the State List, so each state makes its own laws on them and runs its own force. That is why policing is called a state subject, and why central armed police forces go into a state mainly at its request or in a Union Territory. A is wrong because banking is in the Union List, which is why the Reserve Bank and the regulation of banks rest with the Centre. B is wrong because defence is the first entry of the Union List. D is wrong because forests, which were once a State List subject, were moved to the Concurrent List by the 42nd Amendment of 1976, along with education, weights and measures, and the protection of wild animals and birds. Exam tip: police and public order are State List subjects; forests and education moved to the Concurrent List in 1976.

The correct answer is D, Conduct local elections. Article 324 places the superintendence, direction and control of elections to Parliament, to the State Legislatures and to the offices of President and Vice-President in the hands of the Election Commission of India. Elections to panchayats and municipalities are not on that list. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments of 1992 added Articles 243K and 243ZA, which give that work to a State Election Commission headed by a State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor. Local body polls are therefore run by the states, and the ECI has no role in them. A, B and C are wrong as answers here because controlling, supervising and directing elections are the very words Article 324 uses for the Commission's own duties, so each of them is a main duty rather than an exception. Exam tip: ECI under Article 324 for Parliament, Assemblies, President and Vice-President; State Election Commission under Article 243K for panchayat and municipal polls.