Indian Polity: previous-year questions

Answer: (A) Part V

Part V of the Constitution, 'The Union' (Articles 52 to 151), opens with Chapter I, The Executive (Articles 52 to 78): the President, Vice-President, Council of Ministers and Attorney-General. Its later chapters cover Parliament (79 to 122), the President's ordinance power (123), the Supreme Court (124 to 147) and the CAG (148 to 151). Part III (Articles 12 to 35) contains the Fundamental Rights; Part VI (152 to 237) deals with the States, including the State Executive, which makes it the closest distractor; and Part XI (245 to 263) covers Union-State relations. Others worth knowing: Part IV, Directive Principles; Part IVA, Fundamental Duties; Part XVIII, Emergency provisions; Part XX, Amendment.

Answer: (A) Finance Commission – Article 324

The Finance Commission is constituted under Article 280, not Article 324; Article 324 provides for the Election Commission, so pair A is the wrong match while D is correct. Article 148 deals with the Comptroller and Auditor-General and Article 315 with the Public Service Commissions for the Union and the States. More body-article pairs to memorise: Attorney-General, 76; Advocate-General, 165; State Finance Commission, 243-I; State Election Commission, 243K; Inter-State Council, 263; GST Council, 279A; National Commissions for SCs, STs and Backward Classes, 338, 338A and 338B. The Finance Commission is appointed by the President every five years to recommend how central taxes are shared with the States.

Answer: (B) Judicial Activism

Public Interest Litigation (PIL) is the best-known product of judicial activism in India. In the late 1970s and 1980s Justices P.N. Bhagwati and V.R. Krishna Iyer relaxed the rule of locus standi so that any public-spirited person, even by a letter, could move the Supreme Court (Article 32) or a High Court (Article 226) on behalf of those unable to do so. Landmark cases: Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar (1979, undertrial prisoners), often called the first PIL, and S.P. Gupta v. Union of India (1981). Judicial review (A) is the older and wider power of courts to test the constitutionality of laws and executive acts; PIL is a procedure that widened access to it. Federalism and NITI Aayog are unrelated.

Answer: (C) Article 9

Article 9 says that a person who voluntarily acquires the citizenship of a foreign state ceases to be a citizen of India, which is why India does not permit dual citizenship. Part II of the Constitution (Articles 5 to 11) in order: Article 5, citizenship at the commencement of the Constitution; 6, migrants from Pakistan to India; 7, migrants to Pakistan; 8, persons of Indian origin living abroad; 9, voluntary acquisition of foreign citizenship; 10, continuance of citizenship rights; 11, Parliament's power to regulate citizenship, used to pass the Citizenship Act, 1955. That Act provides five ways of acquiring citizenship (birth, descent, registration, naturalisation, incorporation of territory) and three of losing it (renunciation, termination, deprivation).

Answer: (A) Article 17

Article 17 abolishes untouchability and forbids its practice in any form; it is one of the few Fundamental Rights enforceable against private individuals as well as the State. Parliament gave effect to it through the Untouchability (Offences) Act, 1955, renamed the Protection of Civil Rights Act in 1976, and later the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The Right to Equality runs from Article 14 to 18: 14, equality before law; 15, no discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth; 16, equality of opportunity in public employment; 17, abolition of untouchability; 18, abolition of titles (option C). Article 19 guarantees the six freedoms and Article 21 protects life and personal liberty.

Answer: (D) 44th Amendment

The 44th Amendment Act, 1978, passed by the Janata government to prevent a repeat of the 1975-77 Emergency, provides that the President can proclaim a National Emergency under Article 352 only on the written advice of the Union Cabinet. It also replaced 'internal disturbance' with 'armed rebellion', required parliamentary approval within one month by a special majority and renewal every six months, protected Articles 20 and 21 from suspension, and removed the right to property from the Fundamental Rights (now Article 300A). The distractors: the 42nd Amendment (1976), the 'mini-Constitution' that added Socialist, Secular and Integrity to the Preamble and the Fundamental Duties; the 52nd (1985), the anti-defection law; the 86th (2002), the right to education (Article 21A).

Answer: (A) E. V. Chinnaiah Vs. State of Andhra Pradesh

On 1 August 2024 a seven-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud held by 6:1 (Justice Bela Trivedi dissenting) that States may sub-classify Scheduled Castes so as to give preference to the more backward among them. The judgment was delivered in State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh and overruled the five-judge decision in E.V. Chinnaiah v. State of Andhra Pradesh (2004), which had treated the Scheduled Castes notified under Article 341 as one homogeneous class; hence PSC's answer (A), Chinnaiah being the litigation whose correctness the larger bench examined. Four judges also favoured applying a 'creamy layer' test to SCs and STs. Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992) is the Mandal case (OBC reservation, 50% ceiling), and Association for Democratic Reforms v. Union of India (2024) struck down the Electoral Bonds scheme; option D is a made-up title.

Answer: (C) Both (I) and (II)

Both statements are correct. A constitutional body is created by the Constitution itself: the Finance Commission is provided for in Article 280. A statutory body is created by an Act of Parliament: the National Commission for Women was set up in January 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990. More examples: constitutional, Election Commission (324), UPSC (315), CAG (148), National Commissions for SCs (338), STs (338A) and Backward Classes (338B), GST Council (279A); statutory, NHRC (1993 Act), Central Information Commission (RTI Act, 2005), Central Vigilance Commission (2003 Act), Lokpal (2013 Act) and the National Green Tribunal (2010 Act). NITI Aayog is neither, being created by an executive resolution.

Answer: (C) India has a quasi-federal system with a strong Centre.

India's Constitution is federal in form with a strong unitary bias, which K.C. Wheare described as 'quasi-federal'; Article 1 calls India a 'Union of States'. Federal features: a written Constitution, division of powers through the Union, State and Concurrent Lists of the Seventh Schedule, an independent judiciary and a bicameral Parliament. Unitary features: single citizenship, an integrated judiciary, All-India Services, Governors appointed by the Centre, residuary powers with Parliament (Article 248), Parliament's power to alter state boundaries (Article 3) and the emergency provisions. So it is neither completely federal (A) nor completely unitary (B), and the States are not stronger than the Centre (D). In S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994) the Supreme Court held federalism to be part of the basic structure.

Answer: (C) It is a fundamental right confirmed by the Supreme Court of India.

In Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India (24 August 2017) a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right, part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and of the freedoms in Part III. It overruled M.P. Sharma (1954) and Kharak Singh (1962) to the extent that they had denied such a right, so option B states the old position. Any restriction must satisfy the tests of legality, legitimate aim and proportionality. It is not merely statutory (A): the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 regulates data protection, but the right itself flows from the Constitution. Other rights read into Article 21 include livelihood, a clean environment, speedy trial and legal aid.

Answer: (C) Articles 20 and 21

Article 359 empowers the President, during a National Emergency, to suspend the right to move courts for the enforcement of Fundamental Rights named in the order, except Articles 20 (protection in respect of conviction for offences) and 21 (life and personal liberty). This exception was added by the 44th Amendment, 1978, in reaction to ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla (1976), in which the Supreme Court had upheld the suspension of habeas corpus during the Emergency. Compare Article 358, under which Article 19 is suspended automatically, but only when the emergency is declared on the ground of war or external aggression. So Articles 19, 32, 14 and 15 (options A, B) can all be affected, and D is wrong.

Answer: (B) 395 Articles and 8 Schedules

As adopted in 1949, the Constitution had 395 Articles (in 22 Parts) and 8 Schedules. The Schedules grew to 12 only through later amendments, so 7, 6 or 4 Schedules are all wrong, and 392 or 396 Articles do not match the original text.

Answer: (D) 73rd Amendment

The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 (in force April 1993) added Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule, giving constitutional status to Panchayati Raj. The 74th Amendment, not the 72nd, did the same for municipalities; the 65th and 68th amendments deal with unrelated matters.

Answer: (B) Prem Behari Narain Raizada.

The original English Constitution was hand-written in flowing italic calligraphy by Prem Behari Narain Raizada, while its pages were decorated by artists of Santiniketan under Nandalal Bose. K. M. Munshi was a member of the Drafting Committee, and Kidwai and Katju were political leaders, not the calligrapher.

Answer: (C) 6 months and 6 weeks

An ordinance under Article 123 lapses six weeks after Parliament reassembles, and the gap between two sessions cannot exceed six months, so its maximum life is six months and six weeks. The other durations have no basis in the Constitution.

Answer: (A) 1987

Goa was separated from the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu and made the 25th State on 30 May 1987 by the Goa, Daman and Diu Reorganisation Act, 1987. The later years are wrong; no new State was created in 1988–1990.

Answer: (D) The President of India gives his assent to the Bill.

Under Article 111 a Bill passed by Parliament becomes an Act only when the President gives assent. Passage by one or both Houses is necessary but not sufficient, so options (A)–(C) describe intermediate stages, not the final condition.

Answer: (C) Article 338

Article 338 provides for the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (originally a combined commission for SCs and STs; the ST commission was separated into Article 338A by the 89th Amendment, 2003). Article 334 deals with the period of reservation of seats, Article 337 with grants for the Anglo-Indian community and Article 339 with control over the administration of Scheduled Areas.

Answer: (C) Article 310.

Article 310 states that civil servants of the Union and the States hold office during the pleasure of the President or the Governor — the doctrine of pleasure. Article 312 deals with All-India Services, Article 317 with removal of PSC members and Article 318 with regulations for PSC members' conditions of service.

Answer: (C) in either House of Parliament

Under Article 61 the charge for impeaching the President may be preferred by either House of Parliament, after 14 days' notice signed by one-fourth of its members; the other House then investigates. It is not restricted to one House, and the Supreme Court has no role in initiating it.