Indian Polity - 4 - UPSC MCQ

Art.143 which provides for the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court gives the President the power to refer a question of law or a matter of public importance to the Supreme and seek its advice on the same. The President may also refer a dispute arising out of any treaty, agreement, covenant or other similar instrument entered into or executed before the commencement of the Constitution (as given in Art.131), to the Supreme Court for its opinion.

 For the Committees on Public Accounts and Public Undertakings, 15 members are elected from the Lok Sabha and 7 members from the Rajya Sabha.  In case of Committee on Estimates, all the 30 members are elected from the Lok Sabha.  The Lok Sabha has a privileged position compared to the Rajya Sabha in financial matters (Money Bill). Estimates Committee provides recommendations regarding Budget matters. Thus only members of the Lok Sabha become part of the Estimates Committee. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs renders secretarial assistance to the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, which recommends prorogation of both the Houses of the Parliament and the Govt.'s stand on Private Members' Bills and Resolutions.

 As per the official table of precedence of the President’s secretariat, the Governors of States are placed at the fourth position, former Presidents at the fifth, Deputy Prime Minister at 5A and the Speaker of Lok Sabha at the sixth position. So, the highest position among the options is of the Governors of States. The first three positions in India in the order of precedence are –
(i) President  
(ii) Vice – President
(iii) Prime Minister.

Art.355, under Part XIII-Emergency Provisions, imposes a duty upon the Union to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance and ensure that the Govt. of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

As per Art.268, stamp duties that are mentioned in the Union list are levied by the Govt. of India but collected in two ways:
(i) in case such duties are leviable within any Union Territory, by the Govt. of India and  
(ii) in case such duties are leviable within a State, by the State. 
In the Union list of the Seventh schedule, entry 91 mentions stamp duties in respect of various financial instruments. Hence, stamp duties on financial transactions are levied by the Govt. of India and collected by the State/UT, as the case may be.

The Indian Constitution has a few borrowed features from the Constitutions of several nations. Prominent among them are –
(i) United Kingdom – Parliamentary system of Govt., Bicameral Legislature (ii) United States of America – Written Constitution, Fundamental rights, Supreme Court
(iii) Australia – Preamble, Concurrent list (iv) Germany – Suspension of fundamental rights during emergency (v) Canada – Federation with a strong Centre, residuary powers of the Union (vi) Ireland – DPSPs, method of election of the President.

Art. 368 provides that a Constitutional Amendment Bill has to be passed by each House by a majority of the total membership of the House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting. This process of double majority is also known as special majority. There is no provision of joint sitting in case of a Constitution Amendment Bill. A money bill is not required to be passed by the Rajya Sabha. It is sent to the Rajya Sabha just for its recommendations, if any, and then is deemed to be passed by both the Houses according to the provisions of Art.110.

 As per Art. 280, the duty of the Finance Commission is to make recommendations to the President on –
1) The distribution between the Union and the States of the net proceeds of taxes and the allocation between the States of the respective shares of such proceeds;
2) the principles which should govern the grants-in-aid of the revenues of the States out of the Consolidated Fund of India;
3) the measures needed to augment the Consolidated Fund of a State to supplement the resources of the – (i) Panchayats in the State and (ii) Municipalities in the State, on the basis of the recommendations made by the Finance Commission of the State;
4) Any other matter referred to the Commission by the President in the interests of sound finance

The value of votes of an MLA and MP in the election of the President is determined by Art.55 of the Constitution. As per the provision,  Value of vote of an MLA = State Population/ (Number of Elected MLAs of the state X 1000) Value of vote of an MP = Total value of the votes of the elected MLAs/ Total Number of elected MPs. There were total 4896 members in the latest presidential elections held in 2012.

The First Schedule lists all the States and their territories as provided by Art.1, Part I, of the Constitution which talks about the name and territory of the Union.

The District & Sessions Court stands at the top of the hierarchy of Criminal Courts in a district. Art.233 provides that the appointment of District Judges shall be made by the Governor in consultation with the State High Court and as regards the eligibility, he must have been an advocate for not less than seven years. Section 366 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 provides that when a Court of Sessions passes a death sentence, the proceedings shall be submitted to the High Court and the sentence shall not be executed unless it is confirmed by the High Court.

According to the rules of conduct of business in the Lok Sabha, the Speaker may adjourn the House sine die (without assigning the date for resumption of proceedings) and as for the rules regarding prorogation, only the President has the power to prorogue (discontinue without dissolving) and summon the House (Art.85). As per Art.83, the Lok Sabha is automatically considered dissolved after the expiration of 5 years term unless the term is extended by the Parliament in case of emergency. As per Art.94, the Speaker shall not vacate his office before the first meeting of the House after the dissolution.

 According to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, the member, in order to move a no-confidence motion, has to ask for leave of the House from the Speaker. If the leave is granted, the noconfidence motion has to be taken up within 10 days of the date of the grant of leave. Regarding the conditions of admissibility, the member asking for the leave has to submit a written notice of the proposed motion and the Speaker has to ascertain that the motion is in order. According to Art.75 (3), the Council of Ministers is responsible to the House of the People (Lok Sabha) and a no-confidence motion is moved against the Govt. which consists of the Council of ministers. Hence, the motion is to be moved only in the Lok Sabha.

The Fourth Schedule lists all the States and Union territories and the seats allocated to them in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha).

As per Art.67(b), a resolution for removing the Vice-President of India shall be moved in the Rajya Sabha and has to be passed by majority. Further, this resolution should be agreed by the Lok Sabha. A notice of at least 14 days must be given before moving any such resolution.

The principal subjects of the Union List are: War and Peace, Atomic Energy, Citizenship Defense, Foreign Affairs, Currency and Coinage, Navigation and Shipping, National Resources, Railways, Post and Telegraph, Foreign Trade, Inter-State Trade and Commerce, Banking, Insurance, National Highways.

Public health is a State subject, the primary responsibility to provide quality health care services to the people including in rural, tribal and hilly areas lies with State/UT Governments. The healthcare services in tribal areas of the country vary from state to state.

The Constitution of India, under Art.324, gives the Election Commission of India all the powers related to conduct of elections to the offices of the President, Vice-President, Parliament and State Legislatures but election disputes are not decided by the Commission. An election petition is to be filed in the High Court of the particular State in which the election was conducted. Section 100 of the Representation of People Act, 1951 provides the grounds on which an election can be declared void by the High Court.

An Appropriation Bill is a law authorizing the Govt. to incur expenditure from and out of the consolidated fund of India. Art. 114 provides the procedure to be followed for introducing the Bill and the procedure to be followed thereafter. Like any other Bill, it has to be passed by both the Houses in order to become a law. Art.117 provides that any bill which would involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of India shall not be passed by either House unless the President has recommended the consideration of the Bill. Finance Bills are also money bills and they are required for proposing new taxes as well as for making alterations in the regulation of any tax as mandated by Art.110.

All the above provisions come under the fundamental Right to Equality.

Art.24 is a fundamental right which addresses the problem of child labour and directs the Govt. to make laws against the same. Like all other fundamental rights, this also can be enforced in a Court of Law. Article 45 provides for free and compulsory education for children. Article 330 talks about reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha. Article 368 is one of the most important articles of Indian Constitution. It defines power of the Parliament to amend the Constitution and the procedure to be followed for the same.