Preamble and Salient Features Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The incorrect statement is the one placing the anti-defection law in the 42nd Amendment.

The anti-defection law is indeed in the Tenth Schedule, but it was added by the 52nd Amendment Act, 1985, in Rajiv Gandhi's time, not by the 42nd Amendment of 1976.

The other three statements are correct. The Constitution has twelve Schedules. The Eleventh Schedule (29 subjects for Panchayats) came with the 73rd Amendment and the Twelfth Schedule (18 subjects for municipalities) with the 74th Amendment, both in 1992. The Ninth Schedule, which protects land reform laws from challenge, was added by the First Amendment in 1951.

Answer: A

The correct code is A-2, B-3, C-4, D-1.

• The Government of India Act, 1858 transferred power from the Company to the Crown and gave the Secretary of State for India complete control over the Indian administration.
• The Indian Councils Act, 1861 added nominated non-official members, including Indians, to the Governor-General's council when it met for legislation, for the first time.
• The Indian Councils Act, 1909 (Morley-Minto Reforms) introduced separate electorates for Muslims.
• The Government of India Act, 1919 created a bicameral central legislature for the first time.

Answer: D

The correct statement is that the Preamble embodies the objective of economic justice but not of economic liberty.

The Preamble promises Justice, social, economic and political, but Liberty only of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship. Economic liberty is not named.

The others are wrong. The Preamble is not justiciable: its provisions cannot be enforced in a court. It has been amended only once, by the 42nd Amendment of 1976, which added 'socialist', 'secular' and 'integrity'. And in the Kesavananda Bharati case (1973) the Supreme Court held that the Preamble is a part of the Constitution, reversing the Berubari view.

Answer: A

The language not added by the 92nd Amendment is Odia.

The 92nd Amendment Act, 2003, added four languages to the Eighth Schedule: Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali, taking the total to 22. Odia (then spelt Oriya) has been in the Eighth Schedule since the Constitution came into force in 1950; the 96th Amendment of 2011 only changed its spelling from Oriya to Odia.

Bodo and Maithili are named in the amendment, and the paper's 'Dongri' is Dogri, the language of Jammu, also added in 2003.

Answer: A

Statements 1 and 4 are true, so the answer is 1 and 4 only.

The Preamble is based on the Objectives Resolution moved by Jawaharlal Nehru in the Constituent Assembly in December 1946 (1). In Kesavananda Bharati (1973) the Supreme Court held that the Preamble can be amended under Article 368, provided the basic features are not altered (4).

Statement 2 is false: the 42nd Amendment (1976) added Socialist, Secular and Integrity; 'Sovereign' was there from the start. Statement 3 is false: in the Berubari Union case (1960) the Court held that the Preamble is not part of the Constitution, a view reversed in Kesavananda Bharati. Options with 2 or 3 are therefore wrong.

Answer: D

The correct statement is the one about public health and family planning.

'Public health and sanitation; hospitals and dispensaries' is Entry 6 of the State List, while 'population control and family planning' is Entry 20A of the Concurrent List, added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976.

The others fail. An ordinance is an executive law-making power, not a device of direct democracy, so it is not only the plebiscite that is excluded. Article 22 deals with protection against arrest and detention and says nothing about secularism, so Article 26 is not the only one. Article 15 prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex and place of birth.

Answer: D

The feature that does not reflect Indian secularism is a completely rigid separation between religion and state.

A wall of separation, in which the state keeps wholly out of religion, describes the Western, especially American, model. Indian secularism is positive: the state respects all religions equally (sarva dharma sambhava), protects them all, and keeps a 'principled distance', intervening where needed, for example to reform practices such as untouchability or to regulate temple administration.

The first three options describe the Indian model, so they do reflect it.

Answer: B

P and Q are the 4th and 5th Schedules.

The Fourth Schedule allocates seats in the Rajya Sabha to the states and union territories. The Fifth Schedule deals with the administration of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes in states other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, and the PESA Act of 1996 extended Part IX (Panchayats) to these Fifth Schedule areas.

The Third Schedule contains forms of oaths, and the Sixth Schedule covers tribal areas of the four north-eastern states, to which PESA does not apply.

Answer: B

The words were inserted by the Forty Second amendment.

The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 added 'SOCIALIST SECULAR' to the description of India in the Preamble and changed 'unity of the Nation' to 'unity and integrity of the Nation'.

The Forty-fourth Amendment (1978) undid several Emergency-era changes and removed the right to property as a fundamental right, but left these words in place. The Forty-first and Forty-sixth Amendments dealt with other subjects.

Answer: C

The Preamble names Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

The Preamble resolves to secure to all citizens Justice (social, economic and political), Liberty (of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship), Equality (of status and of opportunity), and to promote among them all Fraternity, assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.

'Equity' is not one of the Preamble's words, and 'Empowerment' does not appear in it at all, so every option using either term is wrong, and the options listing only three ideals leave out Equality or Fraternity.