UPSC Paper 1 Mock Test - 27 - UPSC MCQ

President of India has the power to dissolve the Lok Sabha in accordance with the Article 85 (2)(b) of the Constitution of India. In this matter, the President acts on the advice of the outgoing Union Cabinet. Article 85 of the Constitution relates to the Sessions of Parliament, prorogation and dissolution.

The Atomic Energy Commission is the governing body of the Department of Atomic Energy , Government of India. The DAE is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister.

The Indian Atomic Energy Commission was set up on 10 August 1948 under the late Department of Scientific Research. A resolution passed by the Government of India later replaced the commission by "Atomic Energy Commission of India" on 1 March 1958 under the Department of Atomic Energy with more financial and executive powers.

Governors power with regard to ordinary bills-

Every ordinary bill, after it is passed by the state legislative assembly in case of a unicameral legislature or by both the houses in case of a bicameral legislature either in the first instance or in the second instance, is presented to the governor for his assent. He has 4 alternatives:

1. He may give his assent to the bill, the bill then becomes an act.
2. He may withhold his assent to the bill, the bill then ends and does not become an act.
3. He may return the bill for reconsideration of the house or houses. If the bill is passed by the house or houses again with or without amendments and presented to the governor for his assent, the governor must give his assent to the bill. Thus , the governor enjoys only a “suspensive veto”.
4. He may reserve the bill for the consideration of the president. ( After choosing 4th option , governor will not have further role and president can give his assent to bill , or president can return the bill for reconsideration of house and if passed again by house / houses , the bill must be presented again for presidential assent only. If president gives his assent, the bill becones act. Means assent of governor is no longer required.

Article 78-Duties of Prime Minister
a. 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
b. If the President so requires, to submit for the consideration of the Council of Ministers any matter on which a decision has been taken by a Minister but which has not been considered by the Council.

Indian President is a constitutional head like the King or Queen of Britain — that is, all executive powers are constitutionally vested in him, actually those are actually exercised and executed by the Union Cabinet of ministers. 

The correct option is B.
 The Union cabinet with the Prime Minister as its head, should aid and advise the President in performing his functions. As per Article 74 (2), the council of ministers or Prime Minister are not accountable legally to the advice tendered to the President but it is the sole responsibility of the President to ensure compliance with the constitution in performing his duties.
 

Any such Proclamation may be revoked or varied by a subsequent Proclamation

Every Proclamation issued under this article except where it is a Proclamation revoking a previous Proclamation, cease to operate at the expiration of two months unless before the expiration of that period it has been approved by resolutions of both Houses of Parliament Provided that if any such Proclamation (not being a Proclamation revoking a previous Proclamation) is issued at a time when the House of the People is dissolved or the dissolution of the House of the People takes place during the period of two months referred to in this clause, and if a resolution approving the Proclamation has been passed by the Council of States, but no resolution with respect to such Proclamation has been passed by the House of the People before the expiration of that period, the Proclamation Shall cease to operate at the expiration of thirty days from the date on which the House of the People first sits after its reconstitution unless before the expiration of the said period of thirty days a resolution approving the Proclamation has been also passed by the House of the People.

The Vice-President is elected by an Electoral College, which consists of the members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha (both elected and nominated members).

The resignation becomes effective from the day it is accepted. The Vice-President can be removed from office by a resolution of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), passed by a majority of its members at that time and agreed to by the House of the People (Lok Sabha).

The Vice-President may be removed from his office by a resolution of the Council of States by a majority of all the members of the Council and agreed to by the House of the People. No such resolution shall be moved unless at least fourteen days' notice has been given of the intention to move the resolution.
In the case of an election to fill a vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of office of the President or Vice-President, the notification under sub-section shall be issued on, or as soon as conveniently may be after, the sixtieth day before the expiration of the term of office of the outgoing President.
The Vice-President shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office provided that a Vice-President shall, notwithstanding the expiration of his term, continue to hold office until his successor enters upon his office.
 

(1) In the event of the occurrence of any vacancy in the office of the President by reason of his death, resignation or removal, or otherwise, the Vice-President shall act as President until the date on which a new President elected in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter to fill such vacancy enters upon his office.

(2) When the President is unable to discharge his functions owing to absence, illness or any other cause, the Vice-President shall discharge his functions until the date on which the President resumes his duties.  

(3) The Vice-President shall, during, and in respect of, the period while he is so acting as, or discharging the functions of, President, have all the powers and immunities of the President and be entitled to such emoluments, allowances and privileges as may be determined by Parliament by law and, until provision in that behalf is so made, such emoluments, allowances and privileges as are specified in the Second Schedule.

Every state in India has a High Court which operates within its territorial jurisdiction.  Every High Court is a court of record which has all the powers of such as court including the power to punish for contempt of itself.

A person to be appointed as a judge of a high court, should be a citizen of India. Further,

• He should have held a judicial office in the territory of India for ten years or
• should have been an advocate of high court(s) for ten years.

There is no minimum age fixed for high Court judges, and unlike in Supreme Court, there is no provision for appointment of a distinguished jurist as a judge of a high court.

The Constitution of India does not describe the office of the Prime Minister in detail. It is, therefore, difficult to State what is the exact position of the Prime Minister. The general accepted theory is that the Prime Minister is just like “primus inter pares” or “first among equals”. This is the phrase, which is used to describe the office of the Prime Minister ship in a parliamentary system.

The Prime Minister is to take the support of his Cabinet colleagues and thus among the Cabinet colleagues the Prime Minister is first among equals.
However, this phrase is too modest to describe a great office of a parliamentary system.

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are co-partners in the functioning of the government. Thus, except in financial matters they enjoy equal power and status in all matters/ subjects. These matters involve impeachment of the President, removal of Vice-President, Constitutional amendments, removal of Judges of Supreme Court or High Courts.

The correct option is D.

1.  The Parliament has exclusive powers to make laws with respect to any of the matters.

2.  Article 248 vests the residuary powers in the parliament. ... The Union List also lay down that Parliament has exclusive power to make laws.

3. Article 248 (2) of the Constitution of India says that the Parliament has exclusive power to make any law with respect to any matter not enumerated in list II and III. Such power shall include the power of making any law imposing a tax not mentioned in either of those lists.

Article 248 of the Indian Constitution states that the Parliament has the sole power to make laws regarding any item not mentioned in the Union and State lists respectively. Article 143 provides for an advisory jurisdiction for the Supreme Court.

The correct option is C.
By Simple Majority of Parliament

A number of provisions in the Constitution can be amended by a simple majority of the two houses of Parliament outside the scope of Article 368. These provisions include:

Admission or establishment of new states.
Formation of new states and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing states.
Abolition or creation of legislative councils in states.
Second Schedule-emoluments,
Allowances, privileges and so on of the president, the governors, the Speakers, judges, etc.
Quorum in Parliament.
Salaries and allowances of the members of Parliament.
Rules of procedure in Parliament.
Privileges of the Parliament, its members and its committees.
Use of the English language in Parliament.
Number of puisne judges in the Supreme Court.
Conferment of more jurisdiction on the Supreme Court.
Conferment of more jurisdiction on the Supreme Court.
Citizenship-acquisition and termination.
Elections to Parliament and state legislatures.
Delimitation of constituencies.
Union territories
Fifth Schedule-administration of scheduled areas and scheduled tribes.
Sixth Schedule-administration of tribal areas.
 

Disqualification on Ground of Defection

Apart from article 102, the Tenth Schedule to Constitution provides for disqualification of the members on ground of defection. Defection refers to desertion of one’s party in favor of an opposing one. As per the provisions of the Tenth Schedule, a member may be disqualified if he:

• Voluntarily gives up the membership of his political party which gave him ticket to contest and win
• Votes or abstains from voting in the House contrary to any direction issued by the political party to which he belongs, unless such voting or abstention has been condoned by the political party within fifteen days.
• A member elected as an independent candidate shall be disqualified if he joins any political party after his election.
• However, a nominated member is allowed to join a political party provided he joins such political party of his choices within a period of six months. After that period, joining a political party would lead to defection and disqualification.

Rajya Sabha in India’s Parliament has certain exclusive powers with respect to the following:

• Enable the parliament to make law on a matter of state list
• Creation of new All India Services
• Enforcing proclamation of emergency when Lok Sabha is dissolved

Rajya Sabha being a federal chamber enjoys certain special powers under the Constitution. All the subjects/areas regarding legislation have been divided into three Lists – Union List, State List and concurrent List. Union and State Lists are mutually exclusive – one cannot legislate on a matter placed in the sphere of the other. However, if Rajya Sabha passes a resolution by a majority of not less than two-thirds of members present and voting saying that it is “necessary or expedient in the national interest” that Parliament should make a law on a matter enumerated in the State List, Parliament becomes empowered to make a law on the subject specified in the resolution, for the whole or any part of the territory of India. Such a resolution remains in force for a maximum period of one year but this period can be extended by one year at a time by passing a similar resolution further.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is one of the standing parliamentary committees, which was first established in 1921 under the Government of India Act 1919 provisions. This committee examines the manners and results of spending the public funds.

The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa.It was promulgated by President Nelson Mandela on 18 December 1996 and came into effect on 4 February 1997, replacing the Interim Constitution of 1993. Since 1996, the Constitution has been amended by seventeen amendment acts.Members of a state's Legislative Assembly vote in the Rajya Sabha elections in what is called proportional representation with the single transferable vote (STV) system. The political party that has a majority in the state Assembly normally gets to send the maximum number of MPs to the Rajya Sabha.

The Vice President of India is the ex-officio chairman of Rajya Sabha. He is elected by the members of an electoral college consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament. Rajya Sabha also elects one of its members to be the Deputy Chairman.

The joint sitting of the Parliament is called by the President (Article 108) and is presided over by the Speaker or, in his absence, by the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha or in his absence, the Deputy-Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

In South Asia, FDI inflows increased by 6% to USD 54 billion and outflows declined by 29% to USD 6 billion.

FDI inflows into India remained stagnant at USD 44 billion. India’s outward foreign flows declined by about one third. Cross-border merger and acquisition deals have become important tools in the hands of the foreign multinational enterprises to foray into the rapidly-growing Indian market. The report has also noted that signing of tax treaty with Mauritius would have contributed to decline in instances of round tripping of FDI.

Liability of customer in such cases would be upto Rs. 25,000/

India’s largest commercial bank State Bank of India (SBI) launched SBI Realty, a dedicated portal that will help home buyers to choose flats from its 3,000 approved projects across the country.
SBI Realty will be a one stop integrated website for home buyers. It will help customers to choose their dream home from 3,000 SBI approved projects, which are spread across 13 states/UTs covering 30 cities.
The SBI Realty portal has been developed by SBICAP Securities in association with PropEquity in terms of data support, project information, etc. At present, the website has 9.5 lakh home units available on it.
Using the portal, customers can compare current and past trends of prices for properties in various localities in the city. It will also assist customers in calculating appropriate loan amount a customer should borrow based on income and credit profile.

D is the correct option.India's positive outlook is driven by a favorable foreign investment environment, strong economic growth, and a consumption boom—factors that are expected to double organized retail and expand online retail by 30 percent a year to reach $48 billion by 2020.

According to the ‘One Family at a Time’ study conducted by the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Indians working across the world had sent home USD 62.7 billion in 2016 making India the top remittance-receiving country surpassing China.
Around 200 million migrants across the world have sent more than USD 445 million in 2016 as remittances to their families.
Top Remittance Receiving Countries: India (USD 62.7 billion), China (USD 61 billion), the Philippines (USD 30 billion) and Pakistan (USD 20 billion).
Around 80% of the remittances across the world are received by 23 countries such as India, China, the Philippines, Mexico and Pakistan.