Indian Polity - 5 - UPSC MCQ

Section 3 of the National Human Rights Commission Act,1993 provides for the constitution of the Commission. The Chairman must be a retired Chief Justice of India. The Commission consists of five members. The orders of the Commission are recommendatory in nature.

G. S. Dhillon – 1969 to 1975 Baliram Bhagat – 1976 to 1977 Hukam Singh – 1962 to 1967 K V K Sundaram was the first Law Secretary and the second Chief Election   Commissioner of India. G. V. Mavalankar was the first speaker of Lok Sabha. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha conducts the business in the house. He/She maintains discipline and decorum in the house and can punish a member for their unruly behaviour by suspending them. He/She decides whether a bill is a money bill or not. By convention, the Speaker is elected from the members of the ruling party.

State of Haryana was formed in 1966. Fourth general elections were held in 1967. Meghalaya and Tripura got full statehood in 1972. Mysore was named as Karnataka in 1973.

As per the official table of precedence of the President’s secretariat, Judges of Supreme Court are placed at ninth position, Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha at the tenth, Attorney General of India at the eleventh and members of Parliament at the twenty first. The first three positions in India in the order of precedence are –
(i) President
(ii) Vice – President
(iii) Prime Minister.

The receipts under Public accounts mainly consists of the receipts of National Savings Certificate, Provident funds and other deposits where the Govt. acts as a banker and returns the fund after completion of the contract. Therefore, the disbursement out of this account does not need authorization of the Parliament. Art.266 provides for the Consolidated fund of India/States and also the public account of India and the States. Art.267 authorizes the Parliament and the State Legislature to establish a Contingency fund of India and the States respectively.

There are 25 High Courts in India. The Bombay, Punjab & Haryana and Guwahati High Courts have jurisdiction over more than one State. Punjab & Haryana High Court and the Delhi High Court, both, were established in 1966. Delhi is the only UT which has its own separate HC.

Art. 138 empowers the Parliament to enlarge the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court by making a law for the same.
The statement (1) is not correct as according to Article 138(1) of the Constitution, Parliament can enlarge the jurisdiction and powers of the SC w.r.t. to any of the matters in the Union List. Whereas SC’s jurisdiction w.r.t. to any other matter can be enlarged by a special agreement between Government of India and government of the concerned State.

Article 301 pertains to Freedom of Trade, Commerce and Intercourse. In the original constitution right to property was a Fundamental Right under Article 19(1) (f). But 44th Amendment Act, 1978 omitted sub clause f, and inserted Article 300A to make right to property a legal right. The Government at that time was Janta Party government.

Articles 371 A to 371 I were added to the Constitution by the Constitution (Thirteenth Amendment) Act, 1962. They contain special provisions with respect to North-Eastern States. Constitutions of India and the USA are federal in nature but unlike India, there is dual citizenship (of the country and of the State) in the USA. It is provided in the Citizenship Act, 1955, that any citizen of India who by naturalization, registration or otherwise voluntarily acquires citizenship of another country, shall upon such acquisition, cease to be a citizen of India.

Part IX A contains provisions for municipalities but Art.243Q envisages three types of municipalities in every State. They are –
(i) Nagar Panchayat, for an area in transition from a rural area to an urban area;
(ii) Municipal Council for a smaller urban area; and
(iii) Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area Municipalities were given constitutional status by the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992.

Lok Adalats have been given the authority to deal with cases falling within the jurisdiction of any Court and not brought before it for which the Lok Adalat is organized under Chapter VI of the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987. Disputes with cellular mobile companies are service related problems. Therefore, the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum is the appropriate Court in this case. Pension related cases are dealt with by the concerned department where the employee last served and then the civil courts.

The Constitution of India consists of 25 parts, 448 articles and 12 schedules at present. Originally it had 22 parts, 395 articles and 8 schedules.The ninth schedule was added by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951, tenth schedule by the Constitution (fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985, the eleventh schedule by the Constitution (seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 and the twelfth schedule by the Constitution (seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992.

The work of the Constituent Assembly was divided into various committees. The names of the Committees and their Chairmen are given below:
· Drafting Committee – Dr. B R Ambedkar
· Union Constitution Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
· Union Powers Committee - Jawaharlal Nehru
· Committee on the rules of procedure – Dr. Rajendra Prasad
· Order of Business Committee – K.M. Munshi
· States Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
· Fundamental rights sub-committee – J B Kriplani
· House Committee – B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya
· Credential Committee – Alladi Krishna Swami
· Steering Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad
· Finance and Staff Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad
· Committee on the functions of the Constituent Assembly – G V Mavalankar.

The Constitution (Ninety Ninth Amendment) Act, 2014 provides for the composition and the functions of the proposed National Judicial Appointments Commission(NJAC).The Act provides for a transparent and broad-based process of selection of Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts by the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). The NJAC would be chaired by the Chief Justice of India as in the earlier collegium system. The NJAC membership would include two senior most Judges of the Supreme Court, the Union Minister of Law and Justice, two eminent persons to be nominated by a committee of the Prime Minister of India, the Chief Justice of India, and the Leader of the Opposition in the House of the People, or if there is no Leader of the Opposition, then the Leader of the single largest Opposition Party in the House of the People. With a view to ensuring that the composition of the National Judicial Appointments Commission is inclusive, the Act provides that one of the eminent persons shall be nominated from amongst persons belonging to the Scheduled Caste, the Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Minorities or Women. Present status of NJAC: The Supreme Court of India in its judgment in the case Supreme Court Advocates-onRecord Association Vs Union of India (2015) declared the NJAC as unconstitutional and repealed the 99th Constitution Amendment Act which proposed to bring a change in the method of appointment of Judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court.

Entry 55 in the Union List of the Seventh Schedule provides for the regulation of labour and safety mines and oilfields as a subject. The Union Parliament has the exclusive power to make laws on the subjects mentioned in the Union List. Agriculture – Entry 14, State List Fisheries – Entry 21, State List Public Health – Entry 6, State List.

Art.39(d), as a part of the Directive Principles of State Policy, directs the State to secure equal pay for equal work for both men and women.The Constitution of India does not define the term “backward classes” but contains  provisions such as Art.15, 16, 340 etc. which provide for reservation in certain matters for these classes and direct the State to take steps for their upliftment. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment maintains the list of these backward classes.

Art.249 empowers the Rajya Sabha to declare by a resolution that the Parliament should make laws with respect to any matter enumerated in the State List if it is in national interest. Such a resolution is passed by a two-thirds majority and remains in force for a period of one year unless another resolution is passed for its continuance. Resolutions approving the Proclamation of Emergency are to be passed by both the Houses of the Parliament as provided in Art.352.

Although the Constitution of India by Art.214 provides for a High Court to be constituted in each State but the exceptions to this are the Bombay High Court, Punjab & Haryana High Court and Guwahati High Court as these High Courts have more than one state under their jurisdiction.

The 104th Constitution Amendment Bill proposed reservation for socially and educationally backward classes in private and unaided institutions. In pursuance of this, Clause (5) to Art.15 was added by the 93rd Amendment Act, 2005. Article 15(5) empowers the Govt. to provide reservation for SCs, STs, and OBCs in educational institutions, including private, aided or unaided by the State other than minority educational institutions mentioned in Art.30 (1).

Art. 324 provides for the constitution of a body known as the Election Commission of India. All the remaining authorities in the options have been created under different laws of the Parliament such as the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, the Central Vigilance Commission, 2003 and the National Human Rights Commission under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.