Practice Test: Indian Polity - 16 - UPSC MCQ

Under Government of India Act, 1935, the bicameral federal legislature consisted of two houses viz. Council of states and Federal Assembly:

The Council of States was to be upper house and a permanent body with one-third of its members retiring every 3rd year. It was to be composed of 260 members of which 156 were to be representatives of British India while 101 of the Indian states.

The Federal Assembly was the lower house with a tenure of five years. It was to be made of 375 members who which 250 representatives of British India and not more than 125 members from princely states. While the seats reserved for princely states were to be filled by nominated members, the provinces were given different numbers of seats. Election to the Federal assembly was to be indirect. The term of the assembly was five years but it could be dissolved earlier also.

1. The representatives were to be elected from 3 principal communities: Muslims, Sikhs & others.
2. Chairman of the Union Constituent Committee was J. L. Nehru.
3. The Constitution making process was organized around the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly. The members of the Constituent Assembly were elected on a limited franchise. The Cabinet Mission Plan, which set up the Constituent Assembly of India, discarded full adult franchise for elections to the Constituent Assembly and instead suggested indirect elections by members of the recently elected Provincial Legislative Assemblies. In addition to members elected by the Provincial Legislative Assembly (292), the Princely States and the Chief Commissioner’s Provinces contributed 93 and 4 members of the Constituent Assembly taking the total membership to 389. After partition, the total number of seats came down to 299 as some Provinces and Princely States became part of Pakistan. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly.
4. The Drafting Committee comprised of 7 members, not 8.

Hence, option 3 is the correct answer. 

Part II of the Constitution of India (Articles 5-11) deals with the Citizenship of India. Article 5 speaks about citizenship of India at the commencement of the Constitution (Nov 26, 1949). Article 11 gave powers to the Parliament of India to regulate the right of citizenship by law. Thus Citizenship Act 1955 was enacted by the Parliament. It is an act to provide for the acquisition and termination of Indian citizenship, and the same acts speaks about citizenship of India after the commencement of the Constitution.

The Constitution (Sixteenth Amendment) Bill, 1963 (hereinafter, the ‘Bill’) was informally referred to as the ‘Anti-Secession Bill’. It was designed to prevent local political leaders in different regions within India from using the electoral process to peacefully propagate secession from the Union. In the past, the Muslim League in British India had used the electoral process to demand Partition. It was now feared that local political parties with regional, not religious, affiliations were getting elected to office on the promise that they would advocate secession for their region from India.

The Finance Commission was established by the President of India in 1951 under Article 280 of the Indian Constitution. It was formed to define the financial relations between the central government of India and the individual state governments.

The Finance Commission (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act of 1951 additionally defines the terms of qualification, appointment and disqualification, the term, eligibility and powers of the Finance Commission. As per the Constitution, the Commission is appointed every five years and consists of a chairman and four other members.

A proclamation of Financial Emergency may be revoked by the President anytime without any Parliamentary approval. During the financial emergency, the executive authority of the Center expands and it can give financial orders to any state according to its own.

The Right to constitutional Remedy is given under Article 32, the Protection of Interest Of Minorities is given Under Article 29 and Abolition of Untouchability under Article 17, Equality of opportunities in matters of public Importance under Article 16 . The Fundamental Rights are enshrined under Part III of Indian Constitution and the rights can be enforced against the state.

When a state bill is reserved by the governor for the consideration of the President, the President has three alternatives: He may give his assent to the bill; the bill then becomes an act. He may withhold his assent to the bill, the bill then ends and does not become an Act.
The President can assent or withhold his assent to a Bill or he can return a Bill, other than a Money Bill, for reconsideration. If the Bill is again passed by the Houses, with or without amendment made by the President, he shall not withhold assent there from.
The power of the President to refuse to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevent its enactment into law is the veto. The president has ten days (excluding Sundays) to sign a bill passed by Congress.
According to Article 200, when a Bill passed by the Legislature of a State is presented to the Governor, he has four options, namely, 
(a) he assents to the Bill; 
(b) he withholds assent; 
(c) he reserves the Bill for the consideration of the President; or 
(d) he returns the Bill to the Legislature for 
reconsideration. 
The first proviso says that as soon as the Bill is presented to him, he may return the Bill to the Legislature (if it is not a Money Bill) together with a message requesting the Legislature to reconsider the Bill. He can also suggest the desirability of introducing such amendments or changes as 
he thinks appropriate. If, on such reconsideration, the Bill is passed again, with or without amendments, and is presented to the Governor for assent, he has to accord his assent. The second proviso says that if the Bill presented to him derogates, in the opinion of Governor, from the powers of the High Court so as to endanger the position which the High court is designed to fill by the Constitution, he is bound to reserve the Bill for the consideration of the President.
 

The President is the Chief Executive of the Union and integral part of the Parliament and enjoys certain legislative Powers.
The Prime Minister of India has a duty to communicate to the President all decisions of the Council of Ministers relating to the administration of the affairs of the Union and proposals for legislation; and
If the President requires, to submit for the consideration of the council of ministers any matter on which a decision has been taken but not considered by the council. (Article 78)
He can send messages to the Houses of Parliament relating to bills pending or otherwise (Article 86)
 

Option 1 is correct as the president took a decision on the advice of the council of ministers

Option 2 is wrong as attorney general is the highest legal authority of the center and solicitor general work on behalf of attorney general as he is unable to present at many places in a single day.

Option 3 is wrong because the council of minister works under the leadership of prime minister if he dies or resigns the council of ministers dissolves.

Option 4 emergency meetings of the council in the absence of prime minister is headed by the seniormost person by rank in the council right now the second rank is of the home minister.

During the course of replies to questions or participating in the debates on Bills, Resolutions, Motions, etc., Ministers often use expressions like 'The matter is under consideration', 'I shall look into it', 'I shall consider it', 'Information is being collected and will be laid on the Table of the House', 'I shall supply it to the Hon'ble Member’, etc. It was in 1949 that the Government at the center for the first time made arrangements to extract such assurances from the proceedings and to report to the House regarding action taken on them from time to time. Since there was no machinery of the House to ascertain whether all the assurances given by the Ministers on the floor of the House had been extracted and fulfilled, it was left to the individual member to watch the progress of implementation of assurances given by Ministers. It was in 1953, the first Committee on Government Assurances was constituted by the Speaker in the Lok Sabha for systematic follow-up of Ministerial assurances.

Only those financial bills which contain provisions exclusively on matters listed in article 110 of the constitution are called Money Bills. The question of whether a financial bill is a money bill or not is decided by Speaker. Such bill needs to be endorsed by Speaker when passed by Lok Sabha and sent to Rajya Sabha.

The correct option is 

(A)(2), (B)(1), (C)(3), (D)(5)

 A) The Constitution (37th Amendment) Act, 1975. 1. It was passed by Parliament on April 26, 1975, to provide for a Legislative Assembly and a Council of Ministers to Arunachal Pradesh, the country's north-easternmost Union Territory.

B) 49th Amendment of the Indian Constitution Act, 1984: the provisions of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution to be made applicable to the tribal areas of the State of Tripura.

C) The 58th amendment of the Indian Constitutional Act,1987:Provision to publish authentic Hindi translation of constitution as on date and provision to publish authentic Hindi translation of future amendments.

D) The 77th amendment of the Indian Constitutional Act, 1995:A technical amendment to protect reservation to SCs and STs Employees in promotions.

(1) Appointments of persons to be, and the posting and promotion of, district judges in any State shall be made by the Governor of the State in consultation with the High Court exercising jurisdiction in relation to such State.

(2) A person not already in the service of the Union or of the State shall only be eligible to be appointed a district judge if he has been for not less than seven years an advocate or a pleader and is recommended by the High Court for an appointment.

It was in the case of Golaknath v. State of Punjab , that the then Chief Justice Subba Rao had first invoked the doctrine of prospective overruling. He had taken import from American Law where Jurists like George F. Canfield, Robert Hill Freeman, John Henry Wigmore and Cardozo had considered this doctrine to be an effective judicial tool. In the words of Canfield, the said expression means:

"........ a court should recognize a duty to announce a new and better rule for future transactions whenever the court has reached the conviction that an old rule (as established by the precedents) is unsound even though feeling compelled by stare decisis to apply the old and condemned rule to the instant case and to transactions which had already taken place".

Taking cue from such formulation, Justice Subba Rao used this doctrine to preserve the constitutional validity of the Constitution (Seventeenth Amendment) Act, legality of which had been challenged. He drew protective cover offered by the doctrine over the impugned amendments while manifestly holding that the impugned amendments abridged the scope of fundamental rights.

Finally the court ruled that the Commission had all the rights under the Act to award compensation not only for deficient services but also for harassment and agony caused to a consumer. Citing various case laws it was held that the State is liable to compensate for loss or injury suffered by a citizendue to arbitrary actions of its functionaries. It is now accepted law that even for bona fide action the State is liable to compensate if that action causes loss or injury to a person.

Public Interest Litigation is also known as Social Action Litigation, which means litigation filed in a court of law, for the protection of “Public Interest”, such as Pollution, Terrorism, Road safety, Constructional hazards etc. Justices V.R. Krishna Iyer and P.N. Bhagwati were the first bench to hear a case filed by PIL. The Supreme Court may act on the receipt of a latter or postcard from a citizen requesting protection of his fundamental rights. A third party can also bring before the courts, issues in the public interests.

The correct option is C.
The State Government’s administrative control over municipalities does not include power to decide over-borrowings
 

(a) All revenues received by the Government by way of taxes like Income Tax, Central Excise, Customs and other receipts flowing to the Government in connection with the conduct of Government business i.e. Non-Tax Revenues are credited into the Consolidated Fund constituted under Article 266 (1) of the Constitution of India. 

(b) The Contingency Fund of India exists for disasters and related unforeseen expenditures.

(c) There are five major heads of accounts under the Public Account — (i) Small Savings, Provident Fund and Other Accounts (ii) Reserve Funds (iii) Deposits and Advances (iv) Suspense and Miscellaneous and (v) Remittances.

(d) The main objective of the National Renewal Fund was to provide a social safety net to the workers who are likely to be affected by technological up-gradation and modernisation in the Indian industry.

D is the correct option.The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is an authority, established by Article 148 of the Constitution of India, which audits all receipts and expenditure of the Government of India and the state governments, including those of bodies and authorities substantially financed by the government. He can comment on correctness or otherwise of financial transactions of the Union and the States.He
point out cases of non-compliance of rules and regulations in expenditure.
 

The correct option is B.
- A budget is an estimation of revenue and expenses over a specified future period of time and is usually compiled and re-evaluated on a periodic basis. Budgets can be made for a person, a group of people, a business, a government, or just about anything else that makes and spends money.

The Demands for Grants are presented to the Lok Sabha along with the Annual Financial Statement. Generally, one Demand for Grant is presented in respect of each Ministry or Department. However, in respect of large Ministries or Departments more than one Demand is presented.

According to Lokayukta sources, under Section 12(6) of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, the Lokayukta has to submit an annual report to the governor, and not to the House Committee. The  governor may seek clarifications, if any, from the Lokayukta and place them before both Houses of the legislature under Section 12(7) of the Act. 

The Delhi right to information Act, 2001
- "electronic form" with reference to information means any information generated, sent, received or stored in media, magnetic, optical, computer memory, microfilm, computer generated micro fiche or similar device ; 
-  "Government" means the "Lt. Governor referred in article 239 AA of the Constitution "; 
- "information" means any material or information relating to the affairs of the National Capital Territory of Delhi except matters with respect to entries 1,2 and 18 of the State List and entries 64, 65 and 66 of that list in so far as they relate to the said entries 1,2 and 18 embodied in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution; 
-  "Lt. Governor" means the Lt. Governor of the National Capital Territory of Delhi appointed by the President under article 239 of the Constitution.
 

Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.