Indian Politics Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Correct answer: Reserving a bill for the consideration of the President

The Governor may reserve a bill for the President’s consideration under Article 200 in his own discretion, and this is one of the few genuinely discretionary powers the office carries. Reservation is obligatory where a bill would derogate from the powers of the High Court. The other discretionary powers are recommending President’s Rule under Article 356, appointing a Chief Minister where no party has a clear majority, dismissing a ministry that has lost confidence and refuses to resign, and seeking information from the Chief Minister under Article 167. Governors of certain states have further special responsibilities under Article 371 and the Sixth Schedule. In everything else the Governor acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers - appointing the Advocate General, summoning and proroguing the legislature, and granting pardons under Article 161. Note that Article 163 makes the Governor the judge of whether a matter falls within his discretion, and that decision is not to be called in question - a wider latitude than the President enjoys under Article 74.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India

Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978) transformed Article 21. The Court held that a procedure depriving a person of life or personal liberty must not merely exist in law but must be fair, just and reasonable - importing the substance of American due process into a text that deliberately avoided the phrase. It also held that Articles 14, 19 and 21 are not watertight compartments but must be read together, so that any law affecting personal liberty must satisfy all three. This overruled the narrow reading of A. K. Gopalan (1950), which had held that any procedure enacted by a competent legislature would do. The consequences have been extensive. Article 21 has since been read to include the right to livelihood, to a clean environment, to privacy, to education, to legal aid, to a speedy trial and to die with dignity - making it the most generative provision in the Constitution. Kesavananda and Golaknath concern the amending power, a separate line of cases.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Shall act in accordance with the advice of the Council of Ministers

Article 74(1) provides that there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at its head to aid and advise the President, who shall act in accordance with such advice. The words in italics were not in the original text. The 42nd Amendment of 1976 added them, making the advice binding and settling a question the framers had left to convention. The 44th Amendment of 1978 then added a proviso allowing the President to require the Council to reconsider its advice - but the President must act in accordance with the advice tendered after such reconsideration. So the President has a suspensive check, exercisable once, and no more. Article 74(2) adds that the question whether any advice was tendered, and what it was, shall not be inquired into by any court, which keeps the deliberations confidential. This is what makes the President a nominal executive and the Prime Minister the real one, in the parliamentary manner.

Answer: D

Correct answer: The President

The Governor is appointed by the President under Article 155, by warrant under hand and seal, and holds office during the President’s pleasure for a term of five years. This is a deliberate departure from the American model, where state governors are elected. It was borrowed from Canada, and it makes the Governor an agent of the centre as well as the constitutional head of the state - a dual role that is the source of most controversy about the office. The Governor acts on the advice of the state Council of Ministers in almost all matters, but retains discretion in a few: reserving a bill for the President’s consideration, recommending President’s Rule under Article 356, and appointing a Chief Minister where no party has a clear majority. Because there is no fixed security of tenure, governors have often been replaced when the government at the centre changes. The Sarkaria and Punchhi Commissions both recommended safeguards, including consultation with the Chief Minister before appointment.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Article 19(1)(a)

Freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a), one of six freedoms in Article 19 - the others being assembly, association, movement, residence, and profession or trade. All six are available to citizens only. The Constitution nowhere mentions freedom of the press. The Supreme Court has held it to be included within Article 19(1)(a), a reading settled as early as Romesh Thappar in 1950. The article has since been held to cover the right to information, the right to remain silent, commercial speech and the right to fly the national flag. None of the freedoms is absolute. Article 19(2) permits reasonable restrictions on eight grounds: the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, contempt of court, defamation and incitement to an offence. The word reasonable is what makes such restrictions justiciable. The original article had no reference to public order or the sovereignty of India; both were added by the First Amendment in 1951.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Part IV

The Directive Principles of State Policy are set out in Part IV, Articles 36 to 51. They were borrowed from the Constitution of Ireland. Article 37 states plainly that they are not enforceable by any court, but that they are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country and that it is the duty of the State to apply them in making laws. They set goals - a uniform civil code, the organisation of village panchayats, free legal aid, a living wage, the protection of the environment and of monuments, and the separation of the judiciary from the executive. The distinction from Part III, the Fundamental Rights, is the one to hold on to: rights are justiciable and are largely negative, restraining the State, while directives are non-justiciable and positive, directing what the State should pursue. Where the two conflicted the courts long favoured rights, but the trend since Kesavananda Bharati has been to read them harmoniously, and several directives have been given effect through Article 21. Part V deals with the Union and Part IX with panchayats.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The division of powers between the Union and the states

The Seventh Schedule distributes legislative powers between the Union and the states through three lists. The Union List covers subjects on which only Parliament may legislate - defence, foreign affairs, currency, railways, atomic energy, banking. The State List covers subjects reserved to the state legislatures - police, public health, agriculture, local government. The Concurrent List covers subjects on which both may legislate - criminal law, marriage, education, forests, electricity. Where a Union and a state law on a concurrent subject conflict, the Union law prevails, unless the state law received presidential assent. Residuary powers - anything not listed - belong to Parliament, following the Canadian rather than the American model, which is one of the features that makes Indian federalism centre-heavy. Education and forests were moved from the State to the Concurrent List by the 42nd Amendment in 1976.

Answer: B

G.V. Mavalankar was the first Speaker against whom a motion of no-confidence was moved, in December 1954.

The motion was defeated. Mavalankar was also the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, and it was he who established most of the conventions the office follows.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Changing the distribution of legislative powers between the Union and the states

Amendments touching the federal structure require, in addition to the special majority in each House, ratification by the legislatures of not less than half the states, by simple majority. The provisions concerned are listed in the proviso to Article 368: the election of the President and the manner of that election; the extent of the executive power of the Union and of the states; the Supreme Court and the High Courts; the distribution of legislative powers; any of the Lists in the Seventh Schedule; the representation of states in Parliament; and Article 368 itself. There is no time limit for ratification and no requirement that the states ratify in any order. The other three options fall in the categories that do not need it. Creating a new state and changing citizenship provisions can be done by ordinary law under Articles 3 and 11 respectively, and are not amendments at all. Changing judges’ salaries requires the special majority alone.

Answer: B

Correct answer: The members of the Lok Sabha from among themselves

The Speaker is elected by the members of the Lok Sabha from among themselves, usually at the first sitting after a general election, on a date fixed by the President. The office carries considerable authority: the Speaker presides over sittings, decides points of order, certifies whether a bill is a Money Bill - a decision that is final - presides over joint sittings of the two Houses, and decides disqualification cases under the anti-defection law. The Speaker votes only in the case of a tie, exercising a casting vote, which preserves the appearance of impartiality. Two features protect the office. The Speaker continues in office after the Lok Sabha is dissolved, until immediately before the first sitting of the next House, so the chair is never vacant. And removal requires a resolution passed by an effective majority of the House after fourteen days’ notice; while such a resolution is pending, the Speaker may not preside but may speak and vote.