Indian Polity Quiz: Day 80

Answer: (d)

• Article 1 describes India as a ‘Union of States‘ which implies two things: one, Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement by the states; and two, no state has the right to secede from the federation.
  The Constitution of India establishes a federal system of government. It contains all the usual features of a federation, viz., two governments, division of powers, written Constitution, supremacy of Constitution, rigidity of Constitution, independent judiciary and bicameralism.
  However, the Indian Constitution also contains a large number of unitary or non-federal features, viz., a strong Centre, single Constitution, single citizenship, flexibility of Constitution, integrated judiciary, appointment of state governor by the Centre, all India services, emergency provisions, and so on.
• The term ‘Federation’ has nowhere been used in the Constitution. Article 1, on the other hand, describes India as a ‘Union of States’ which implies two things: one, Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement by the states; and two, no state has the right to secede from the federation.

Answer: (b)

• ‘Directive Principles of State Policy’ denotes the ideals that the State should keep in mind while formulating policies and enacting laws. These are the constitutional instructions or recommendations to the State in legislative, executive and administrative matters.
• The Directive Principles, though non-justiciable in nature, help the courts in examining and determining the constitutional validity of a law. The Supreme Court has ruled many times that in determining the constitutionality of any law, if a court finds that the law in question seeks to give effect to a Directive Principle, it may consider such law to be reasonable in relation to Article 14 (equality before law) or Article 19 (six freedoms) and thus save such law from unconstitutionality. Thus, Directive principles require legislation for their implementation and are not automatically enforced.

Answer: (b)

• Like any other written Constitution, the Constitution of India also provides for its amendment in order to adjust itself to the changing conditions and needs. The Constitution can be amended by a simple majority of the two Houses of Parliament outside the scope of Article 368.
• The bill can be introduced either by a minister or by a private member and does not require prior permission of the president.
• An amendment of the Constitution can be initiated only by the introduction of a bill for the purpose in either the House of Parliament (Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha) and not in the state legislatures.

Answer: (c)

Prime Minister of India

• In India the President is the nominal executive authority (de jure executive) and Prime Minister is the real executive authority (de facto executive). In other words, the president is the head of the State while the Prime Minister is the head of the government.
• The Prime Minister enjoys the following powers as head of the Union council of ministers: He recommends persons who can be appointed as ministers by the president.
• The President can appoint only those persons as ministers who are recommended by the Prime Minister.
• He allocates and reshuffles various portfolios among the Ministers.
• He can ask a minister to resign or advise the President to dismiss him in case of difference of opinion.
• The Prime minister of India has full discretion in the choice of persons who are to serve as ministers in his cabinet. A person who is not a member of the Parliament can become the minister and he/she has to be the member of Parliament within six month. The resignation or death of an incumbent Prime Minister automatically dissolves the council of ministers and thereby generates a vacuum.
• According to Article 75, The Prime minister shall be appointed by the president and the other Minister shall be appointed by the president on the advice of the Prime Minister.

Answer: (b)

• Statement 1 is incorrect: Articles 153 to 167 in Part VI of the Constitution deal with the state executive. The state executive consists of the governor, the chief minister, the council of ministers and the advocate general of the state. Thus, there is no office of vice- governor (in the state) like that of Vice-President at the Centre. The governor is the chief executive head of the state. But, like the president, he is a nominal executive head (titular or constitutional head). The governor also acts as an agent of the central government. Therefore, the office of governor has a dual role.
  Statement 2 is correct: Usually, There is a governor for each state, but the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1956 facilitated the appointment of the same person as a governor for two or more states.

Answer: (b)

• Statement 1 is correct: The 24th Amendment modified Articles 13 and 368 to authorise Parliament to freely amend the Fundamental Rights.
• Statement 2 is correct: Under the original Constitution, any constitutional amendment would only come into force if two conditions were met:

1. a)  if two-thirds of the members of each House of Parliament voted in its Favour.
2. b)  if it received the assent of the President, who had the option of withholding \ assent. The Amendment modified the second condition, to provide that the President was bound to give his assent to the constitutional amendment Bill.

• Statement 3 is incorrect: The 42nd Constitutional amendment Act,1976 made the president bound to the advice of the cabinet.
• Statement 4 is correct: In Golaknath’s case, the Supreme Court held that the amendment of the Constitution under article 368 is “law within the meaning of Article 13 of the Constitution so a Constitutional Amendment which takes away or abridges a fundamental right would be void. 24th Amendment Act made clear that provisions in article 13 does not apply to constitutional amendment made under article 368.

Answer: (a)

• Statement 1 is incorrect: The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act provides for mandatory reservation for Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes in every panchayat in the same proportion as the population in the panchayat area under article 243D.
• Statement 2 is correct: The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act granted constitutional status and protection to the Panchayati raj institutions. For this purpose, the amendment added a new Part-IX entitled “the panchayats” and a new Eleventh Schedule containing 29 functional items of the panchayats.
• Statement 3 is incorrect:It provided for the establishment of the State Finance Commission under Article 243I.

Answer: (b)

• The Preamble reveals four ingredients or components
• Source of authority of the Constitution: The Preamble states that the Constitution derives its authority from the people of India.
• Nature of Indian State: It declares India to be of a sovereign, socialist, secular democratic and republican polity.
• Objectives of the Constitution: It specifies justice, liberty, equality and fraternity as the objectives.
• Date of adoption(Not enforcement)of the Constitution: It stipulates November 26, 1949, as the date.

Answer: (d)

The term ‘justice’ in the Preamble embraces three distinct forms– social, economic and political, secured through various provisions of Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles.

• Social justice is another name for equal social rights. Social Justice aims to provide equal opportunities to every individual to develop his inherent qualities. Social justice means ending all kinds of social inequalities and then providing equal opportunities to everyone.
• Economic Justice is indeed closely related to social justice because the economic system is always an integral part of the social system. Economic rights and opportunities available to an individual are always a part of the entire social system.
• Legal Justice means rule of law and not rule of any person. It includes two things: that all men are equal before law, and that law is equally applicable to all. It provides legal security to all. Law does not discriminate between the rich and the poor. Objective and due dispensation of justice by the courts of law is an essential ingredient of legal justice.
• Political justice means giving equal political rights and opportunities to all citizens to take part in the administration of the country. Citizens should have the right to vote without any discrimination on the basis of religion, colour, caste, creed, sex, birth or status. Every citizen should have an equal right to vote and to contest elections.

Answer: (a)

• Statement 1 is incorrect: The Preamble of the Indian Constitution is primarily based on the ‘Objective Resolution’ written by Jawaharlal Nehru. He introduced his objective resolution on December 13, 1946, later it was accepted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 January 1947.
• Statement 2 is correct: The drafting committee observed that the preamble must be limited in defining the important features of the new state and its socio-political objectives and other important matters should be refined further in the Constitution. The committee changed the motto from ‘Sovereign Independent Republic’ to ‘Sovereign Democratic Republic’ as it was mentioned in the ‘Objective Resolution’.
• Statement 3 is correct: The preamble can also be called the soul of the constitution as it has everything about the constitution. It was adopted on 26th November 1949 and it was started from 26th January 1950 also known as the Republic Day.

Answer: (c)

The term ‘Justice’ comprises three elements that complete the definition, which is social, economic, and political. Justice among the citizens is necessary to maintain order in society. Justice is promised through various provisions of Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy provided by the Constitution of India.

• Statement 1 is incorrect: Social Justice – Social justice means that the Constitution wants to create a society without discrimination on any grounds like caste, creed, gender, religion, etc. Where people have equal social status by helping the less privileged people. The Constitution tries to eliminate all the exploitations which harm equality in the society.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: Economic Justice – Economic Justice means no discrimination can be caused by people on the basis of their wealth, income, and economic status. It means wealth must be distributed on the basis of their work, not with any other reason. Every person must be paid equally for an equal position and all people must get opportunities to earn for their living.
• Statement 3 is correct: Political Justice – Political Justice means all the people have an equal, free and fair right without any discrimination to participate in political opportunities. It means everyone has equal rights to access political offices and have equal participation in the processes of the government.

Answer: (a)

About The Term Justice

• The term “justice” is found only in a few places in the entire Constitution namely the Preamble, Article 38, Article 39A & Article 142.
• On one hand Article 38 aims at promoting social order in which justice viz. social, economic and political shall inform all the institutions of the nation as has been enshrined in the Preamble.

Answer: (c)

• Statement 1 is correct and 2 is incorrect: India has a bicameral system of legislature. The states can also have two houses namely Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council just like Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha at Union level. India has 28 states and 8 union territories. At present Six States of India have a Legislative Council. These are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, i.e, 22 states follow a system of Unicameral Legislature.
• Statement 3 is correct: Karnataka Legislative Council was established as the Mysore Legislative Council in 1907.It is a permanent body with one- third of its members retiring every two years.
• Maharashtra Legislative Council: It was established in 1937 in the pre-Independence era as the Bombay Legislative Council.

Answer: (a)

42nd Amendment 1976

• Socialist was added by the 42nd Amendment 1976, the Constitution had a socialist content in the form of certain Directive Principles of State Policy. In other words, what was hitherto implicit in the Constitution has now been made explicit.
• The term ‘secular’ too was added by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976. However, as the Supreme Court said in 1974, although the words ‘secular state’ was not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, there can be no doubt that Constitution Makers wanted to establish such a state and accordingly Articles 25 to 28 have been included in the constitution.
• The Preamble declares that fraternity has to assure two things– the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation. The word ‘integrity’ has been added to the preamble by the 42nd Amendment (1976)

Answer: (c)