Indian Politics Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: Article 112

Article 112 requires the President to cause to be laid before both Houses of Parliament, for every financial year, a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India. That statement is the Annual Financial Statement; Budget is its popular name, and the Constitution nowhere uses the word. The statement must show expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund - the salaries of the President, the Speaker, judges, the CAG, and debt charges - separately from other expenditure. Charged expenditure may be discussed but not voted on, which protects those offices from parliamentary pressure. Everything else is put to the vote as demands for grants, and the corresponding Appropriation Bill and Finance Bill then give legal effect to the withdrawals and the taxes. The related articles are worth knowing together: Article 110 defines a Money Bill, Article 266 establishes the Consolidated Fund, and Article 280 provides for the Finance Commission.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Article 356

Article 356 allows the President, on receipt of a report from the Governor or otherwise, to assume the government of a state where the constitutional machinery has failed. It is commonly called President’s Rule or state emergency. The state assembly is then dissolved or suspended and the state is administered by the Governor on the President’s behalf, with Parliament legislating for it. The proclamation must be approved by both Houses within two months and lasts six months at a time, up to a maximum of three years. It was used very freely - over a hundred times - often to remove opposition governments, until the Supreme Court’s judgment in S. R. Bommai in 1994 made the proclamation subject to judicial review and held that a government’s majority must be tested on the floor of the House, not assessed in the Governor’s report. Its use has been far rarer since. Article 352 covers national emergency, Article 360 financial emergency - never yet declared - and Article 370 the former special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Impeachment for violation of the Constitution

The President can be removed only by impeachment, under Article 61, and only on the ground of violation of the Constitution - a phrase the Constitution nowhere defines. The procedure is deliberately difficult. The charge may originate in either House. The proposal must be signed by at least one quarter of that House’s total membership, with fourteen days’ notice, and must be passed by a majority of not less than two thirds of the total membership of that House. The other House then investigates the charge, and the President has the right to appear and be represented. If that House also passes the resolution by a two-thirds majority of its total membership, the President is removed from the date of the resolution. Notably, the nominated members of both Houses take part in impeachment, though they have no part in the election - while the state assemblies, which do elect the President, have no part in removal. No Indian President has ever been impeached.

Answer: B

The quorum for a sitting is one-tenth of the total membership of the House, including the presiding officer.

For the Lok Sabha that is 55 members. If there is no quorum, the presiding officer must adjourn the House or suspend the sitting until there is.

Answer: C

The duty to protect and improve the natural environment is in Article 51A, among the fundamental duties.

Clause (g) covers forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and requires compassion for living creatures. The duties were added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976 and, like the directive principles, are not enforceable in court.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was never a member of the Constituent Assembly. He did not stand for election to it and took no part in its proceedings, though his influence on it - on the Directive Principles concerning village panchayats, prohibition and cottage industries in particular - was considerable. He was assassinated in January 1948, while the Assembly was still at work. The Assembly had 389 members initially, reduced to 299 after partition, elected indirectly by the provincial assemblies under the Cabinet Mission Plan. It included fifteen women, among them Sarojini Naidu, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Durgabai Deshmukh and Hansa Mehta. Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee, Patel chaired the Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights and Minorities, Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution, and Rajendra Prasad presided. Another figure often wrongly assumed to have been a member is Jayaprakash Narayan, who was elected but declined to serve.

Answer: A

Correct answer: 12

The President nominates 12 members to the Rajya Sabha under Article 80, chosen for special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art and social service. The provision was borrowed from Ireland, and its purpose is to bring into the legislature people of distinction who would not ordinarily contest an election. Among those nominated over the years have been Zakir Husain, Rukmini Devi Arundale, Lata Mangeshkar, M. S. Swaminathan, Sachin Tendulkar and Mary Kom. Nominated members have almost the same rights as elected ones. They may vote on ordinary legislation and on constitutional amendments, and they take part in the impeachment of the President. They may not vote in the presidential election, since that electoral college is confined to elected members. They may join a political party within six months of taking their seat. The parallel provision for the Lok Sabha, which allowed two Anglo-Indian members to be nominated under Article 331, was discontinued by the 104th Amendment in 2019.

Answer: C

Correct answer: An ordinary bill

Article 108 permits the President to summon a joint sitting where an ordinary bill has been rejected by the other House, or the Houses have disagreed on amendments, or more than six months have passed without the other House disposing of it. The bill is then decided by a majority of the total members present and voting at the joint sitting, and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha presides. Because the Lok Sabha is more than twice the size of the Rajya Sabha, a joint sitting effectively favours the lower House. It is not available for a money bill, since the Rajya Sabha cannot reject one and no deadlock can arise; nor for a constitutional amendment bill, which must be passed by each House separately by the prescribed special majority. It has been used only three times: for the Dowry Prohibition Bill in 1961, the Banking Service Commission (Repeal) Bill in 1978, and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill in 2002.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Article 32

Article 32 lets a citizen move the Supreme Court directly for the enforcement of fundamental rights, and Ambedkar called it the heart and soul of the Constitution. Article 226 gives the High Courts a wider but non-fundamental writ jurisdiction.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Made a very large number of changes to the Constitution at once

The 42nd Amendment, passed during the Emergency in 1976, altered so many provisions at once - some fifty - that it is commonly called the mini-Constitution. Among its changes: it added socialist, secular and integrity to the Preamble; inserted the Fundamental Duties as Part IV-A; gave the Directive Principles precedence over certain Fundamental Rights; moved education, forests, weights and measures, and the protection of wild animals from the State List to the Concurrent List; extended the term of the Lok Sabha and state assemblies from five years to six; and curtailed judicial review. Much of it was undone. The Supreme Court struck down parts in Minerva Mills in 1980 as violating the basic structure, and the 44th Amendment of 1978, passed by the Janata government, reversed most of the rest - restoring the five-year term, tightening the emergency provisions, and making Articles 20 and 21 non-suspendable. What survived includes the Preamble changes, the Fundamental Duties and the transfers to the Concurrent List.