Constitution, Social Justice and Human Rights Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The application goes to the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities in the Centre/State.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 provides for a Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities at the Centre and a State Commissioner in each state. They can inquire into complaints of deprivation of the rights of persons with disabilities, on their own or on a complaint, and take up the matter with the authorities concerned.

A state commissioner of social welfare and a district social welfare officer are administrative officials, not the grievance authorities under the Act. There is no National Commission for Divyangjan; the disabilities law created commissioners, not a commission.

Answer: C

Article 44 deals with the Uniform Civil Code.

Article 44, a Directive Principle of State Policy in Part IV, says that the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India. Being a directive principle, it is not enforceable by courts.

Fundamental Rights are in Part III (Articles 12 to 35), not Article 44. 'Uniform State Code' is not a constitutional term, and the right to life and survival is protected under Article 21.

Answer: B

The NHRC was established on 12th October, 1993.

The National Human Rights Commission was set up under the Protection of Human Rights Ordinance of 28 September 1993, which was replaced by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. The commission came into being on 12 October 1993, with Justice Ranganath Misra as its first chairperson.

The other dates keep the day and month but change the year; in 1987 and 1990 there was no such commission, and by 1997 it had already been working for four years.

Answer: A

Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.

Human rights belong to every person simply by being human, regardless of nationality, sex, religion or any other status. They are universal, inalienable and indivisible, and cover civil and political rights such as life, liberty and expression as well as economic, social and cultural rights such as work, health and education, as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

Free and fair elections, education and freedom of movement are particular rights within that whole. The options describing them are each too narrow, and the unlimited right to settle anywhere in the world is not recognised at all.

Answer: A

The right against exploitation is in Articles 23 and 24.

Article 23 prohibits traffic in human beings, begar and other forms of forced labour. Article 24 prohibits the employment of children below 14 years in factories, mines or other hazardous employment. Together they form the Right against Exploitation in Part III.

Articles 19 and 20 deal with freedoms and protection in respect of conviction for offences; Article 31 dealt with the right to property (repealed in 1978) and Article 32 is the right to constitutional remedies; Articles 37 and 38 are in the Directive Principles.

Answer: D

Social justice is not defined in the Constitution.

The Preamble promises citizens justice, social, economic and political, and Article 38 directs the State to secure a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all institutions of national life. But no Article defines what social justice means; its content has been worked out by the courts and through legislation.

Article 19 guarantees six freedoms, Article 24 prohibits child labour in hazardous work, and Article 31 was the property article, so none of them defines social justice.

Answer: D

The branches are the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

The Constitution creates the three organs of the State, the legislature (Parliament and the state legislatures), the executive (the President, the Council of Ministers and the administration) and the judiciary. Each draws its powers from the Constitution and must act within its limits, which is why laws and executive actions that exceed those limits can be struck down.

'Parliamentary', 'provincial' and 'bureaucratic' are not the third organ of government; they describe a form of government, a level of government and the administrative machinery.

Answer: A

The Constituent Assembly took almost three years to draft the Constitution.

The Assembly first met on 9 December 1946 and adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949, a period of 2 years, 11 months and 18 days. After partition its membership was 299.

Four, five and six years all overstate the time taken.

Answer: B

The Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India.

The Constituent Assembly, elected indirectly by the provincial legislatures in 1946, framed the Constitution and adopted it on 26 November 1949, now observed as Constitution Day. It came fully into force on 26 January 1950.

The Drafting Committee under B. R. Ambedkar prepared the draft but could not adopt it; adoption was by the Assembly as a whole. The Supreme Court and Parliament were themselves created by the Constitution and came into being only after it took effect.

Answer: A

The correct matching is a-iv, b-i, c-ii, d-iii.

• (a) The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 covers women in a 'relationship in the nature of marriage', so it includes live-in relationships (iv).
• (b) Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code punishes cruelty to a married woman by her husband or his relatives (i).
• (c) Sexual harassment of women at the workplace was first addressed by the Supreme Court's Vishaka guidelines (1997), later replaced by the 2013 Act (ii).
• (d) Section 377 was read down in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018), decriminalising consensual sex between adults of the same sex (iii).

The other codes misplace at least two of these well-known pairings.