Preamble and Salient Features Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Only Conclusion II follows. The Constituent Assembly was formed in 1946, under the Cabinet Mission Plan, before independence on 15 August 1947, so Conclusion II is true and is consistent with Statement II, which says it was formed before independence.

Conclusion I does not follow from either statement and is not correct: the Indian Parliament does not need the approval of members of the British Parliament to legislate on foreign affairs, since India is a sovereign nation, as Statement I says, and the Commonwealth is a voluntary association. So the answer is the option saying only Conclusion II follows.

Answer: B

Only Conclusion II follows. Statement II says there are 12 schedules, so the Twelfth Schedule is the last and newest schedule in the list, which is Conclusion II. The Twelfth Schedule was added by the 74th Amendment in 1992.

Conclusion I, that the articles cannot be amended, does not follow from the statements, which only give the number of articles, and it is also incorrect, as Article 368 allows amendment. The options saying that I follows, or both follow, or neither follows are wrong.

Answer: A

The Assertion is false but the Reason is true, so the answer is A is false, but R is true. The Eighth Schedule contains 22 languages, not 29, as at August 2023, after Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali were added by the 92nd Amendment in 2003.

Maithili is one of the scheduled languages, so the Reason is correct. The options that treat the Assertion as true are therefore wrong, whichever way they rate the Reason.

Answer: A

The leader who was not a member is Jawaharlal Nehru.

The Drafting Committee set up on 29 August 1947 had seven members: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (chairman), N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar, K.M. Munshi, Syed Mohammad Saadulla, B.L. Mitter and D.P. Khaitan. Mitter was later replaced by N. Madhava Rau, and T.T. Krishnamachari came in after Khaitan's death.

Nehru chaired other committees of the Constituent Assembly, namely the Union Powers Committee, the Union Constitution Committee and the States Committee, and he moved the Objectives Resolution. He did not sit on the Drafting Committee.

Answer: D

Only statements (1) and (2) are correct, so the answer is (1) and (2) only.

The Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly was set up on 29 August 1947 with seven members: B.R. Ambedkar as chairman, N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar, K.M. Munshi, Mohammad Saadulla, B.L. Mitter and D.P. Khaitan. Mitter and Khaitan were later replaced by N. Madhava Rau and T.T. Krishnamachari. Statements (1) and (2) are therefore true.

Statement (3) is false because Jawaharlal Nehru was never on this committee. Statement (4) is false because Mohammad Saadulla was a member. That removes options A, B and C, each of which contains a false statement.

Answer: C

The chairman of the Drafting Committee was Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

The Drafting Committee was set up by the Constituent Assembly on 29 August 1947 with seven members and Dr. Ambedkar as chairman. It prepared the Draft Constitution published in February 1948, which Ambedkar piloted through the Assembly.

Dr. Rajendra Prasad was President of the Constituent Assembly, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution and chaired the Union Powers and Union Constitution Committees, and Sardar Patel chaired the Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights and Minorities.

Answer: C

Pairs 1 and 3 are correct, so the answer is 1 and 3 only.

The Fifth Schedule deals with the administration and control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes. The Ninth Schedule holds Acts, mainly land reform and zamindari abolition laws, protected from challenge on the ground of fundamental rights.

Pair 2 is wrong: allocation of Rajya Sabha seats is in the Fourth Schedule; the Sixth Schedule deals with tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Pair 4 is wrong for the same reason: that description belongs to the Sixth Schedule, while the Tenth Schedule contains the anti-defection law.

Answer: C

The correct match is 1 (a), 2 (b), 3 (c), 4 (d), 5 (e).

• The Concurrent List was borrowed from Australia.
• Suspension of Fundamental Rights during emergency came from the Weimar Constitution of Germany.
• The method of election of the President follows Ireland.
• Vesting residuary powers in the Centre follows Canada.
• The procedure for amending the Constitution follows South Africa.

The other codes assign the Concurrent List to Canada, Germany or South Africa, which is the first point at which each fails.

Answer: C

The answer is the Government of India Act, 1935.

About 250 provisions of the Constitution were taken from or modelled on the 1935 Act, including the federal scheme, the office of Governor, the judiciary, the public service commissions, emergency provisions and much administrative detail. That is why it is called the Constitution's main material source.

The Indian Independence Act, 1947 transferred power and set up the Constituent Assembly as a legislature, but supplied little of the Constitution's content. The Acts of 1919 and 1909 were earlier, more limited reforms.

Answer: C

The wrongly matched pair is U. S. Constitution - Single Citizenship.

Single citizenship was borrowed from the British (U.K.) Constitution. The United States in fact has dual citizenship, of the federation and of the state.

The other pairs are correct: law-making procedure and parliamentary government came from the U.K.; a federation with a strong centre from Canada; and the Directive Principles of State Policy from Ireland. From the U.S. Constitution India took fundamental rights, judicial review and the independence of the judiciary.