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• Statement IV: This was done in the Act of 1919.

7. Ans: C

• The Act abolished the office of viceroy and provided, for each dominion, a governor-general, who was to be appointed by the British King on the advice of the dominion cabinet.

• His Majesty’s Government in Britain was to have no responsibility with respect to the Government of India or Pakistan.

• It also abolished the office of the secretary of state for India and transferred his functions to the secretary of state for Commonwealth Affairs.

8. Ans: D

Explanation :The ideals of Justice and Fundamental duties were borrowed from the USSR constitution.

9. Ans: D

• The Constituent Assembly appointed a number of committees to deal with different tasks of constitution making.

• Out of these, eight were major committees and the others were minor committees. The names of these committees and their chairmen are given below:

Major Committees:• Union Powers Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru• Union Constitution Committee – Jawaharlal

Nehru• Provincial Constitution Committee – Sardar Patel• Drafting Committee – Dr. B.R. Ambedkar• Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights,

Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas- Sardar Patel.

• Rules of Procedure Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad

• States Committee (Committee for Negotiating with States) – Jawaharlal Nehru

• Steering Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad

10. Ans: B

• Part I deals with Union and the states• Part II deals with Citizenship• Part III deals with Fundamental rights• Part IV deals with DPSPs

11. Ans: A

The amendment seeks to allow select “persecuted minorities” (Hindus, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhist and Jains) from the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan citizenship status in India after six years of residency. Other groups must wait 11 years to become naturalised citizens.

12. Ans: D

• The amendment seeks to allow select “persecuted minorities” (Hindus, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhist and Jains) from the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan citizenship status in India after six years of residency.

• In the north-eastern states, the fear is that this amendment would legitimise migration of Hindus from neighbouring Bangladesh in particular, potentially affecting the demographic make-up of the region as well as “destroy their culture” in the region.

• When India achieved independence, its citizenship regime was established on the basis of jus soli (birth within a territory), meaning that people were members of the political community regardless of their religion or ethnicity. While mistrust of Muslims has persisted into present-day India, particularly in recent years with growing Hindu right-wing populism, the law has so far upheld the secular, non-religious character of the Indian state. The Citizenship Amendment Bill would fundamentally alter this basic tenet, shifting the basis of citizenship towards jus sanguinis (by right of blood).

13. Ans: B

• Statement 1: The Indian Parliament is not a sovereign body even though it is based on British Parliamentary model where the Parliament is sovereign.

• Statement 2: The parliamentary system is based on the principle of cooperation and co-ordination between the legislative and executive organs and the collective responsibility of the latter to the former. It is not accountable to the Judiciary. Judiciary only reviews the actions of the executive when challenged.

• Statement 3: Ministers are mostly chosen from the legislature. They act as the members of the particular house.

• Statement 4: President and Governor are nominal executives, whereas the PM and CMs are real executives wielding de facto powers.

• Statement 5: The Chairman of the house resolves all major disputes within the Parliament including the charges of political defection under anti-defection law.

• However, in some cases like investigation of scams and election related disputes, Judiciary resolves the disputes.

14. Ans: C

• Option (a): They do recognize. For e.g. certain laws that violate Article 14 of the constitution can be declared legitimate if they fulfil DPSP under parts of Article 39. In the Minerva Mills case (1980), the Supreme Court held that ‘the Indian

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Constitution is founded on the bedrock of the balance between the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles’.

• Option (b): DPSP like organizing village panchayats, cheap legal remedies for the poor have already been implemented by law.

• Option (c): For e.g. if adequate steps are not taken to stop circulation of intoxicants like liquors (a DPSP), the courts cannot dictate the government to do so.

15. Ans: D

• 10th schedule to the Indian constitution deals with vacation of seats & disqualification from membership of parliament & the state Legislature on account of defection .It is added to the constitution by the 52nd Amendment Act (1985), popularly known as Anti-defection law.

16. Ans: C

• Article 39A of the Constitution of India provides for free legal aid to the poor and weaker sections of the society and ensures justice for all.

17. Ans: A

• Citizens are full members of the Indian State and owe allegiance to it.

• They enjoy all civil and political rights.• Aliens are the citizens of some other state.• Friendly aliens are the subjects of those countries

that have cordial relations with India.• Enemy aliens are the subjects of that country that is

at war with India. They enjoy lesser rights than the friendly aliens, e.g., they do not enjoy protection against arrest and detention (Article 22).

The Constitution confers the following rights and privileges on the citizens of India and denies the same to aliens:

1. Article 15 - Right against discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

2. Article 16 -Right to equality of opportunity in the matter of public employment.

3. Article 19 - Right to freedom of speech and expression, assembly, association, movement, residence and profession.

4. Articles 29 and 30 - Cultural and educational rights.

5. Right to vote in elections to the Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly.

6. Right to contest for the membership of the Parliament and the state legislature.

7. Eligibility to hold certain public offices, that is, President of India, Vice-President of India, judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts, governor of states, attorney general of India and advocate general of states.

• Citizens also owe certain duties towards the Indian State.

• In India both a citizen by birth as well as a naturalized citizen is eligible for the office of President while in USA, only a citizen by birth is eligible for the office of President.

18. Ans: B

• The Constitution deals with the citizenship from Articles 5 to 11 under Part II.

• But it has neither any permanent nor any elaborate provisions for it.

• It only identifies the persons who became citizens of India at commencement of Constitution (i.e., on January 26, 1950).

• It empowers the Parliament to enact a law on any matter relating to citizenship.

• The Parliament has enacted the Citizenship Act, 1955, which has been amended in 1986, 1992, 2003 and 2005.

• According to the Constitution, the following 4 categories of persons became the citizens of India at its commencement i.e., on 26 January, 1950.

19. Ans: C

• Eleventh Schedule contains 29 functional items which are placed under the ambit of Panchayats.They are –

1) Agriculture, including agricultural extension.2) Land improvement, implementation of land

reforms, land consolidation and soil conservation.3) Minor irrigation, water management and

watershed development.4) Animal husbandry, dairying and poultry.5) Fisheries.6) Social forestry and farm forestry.7) Minor forest produce.8) Small-scale industries, including food processing

industries.9) Khadi, village and cottage industries.10) Rural housing.11) Drinking water.12) Fuel and fodder.13) Roads, culverts, bridges, ferries, waterways and

other means of communication.14) Rural electrification, including distribution of

electricity.15) Non-conventional energy sources.16) Poverty alleviation programme.17) Education, including primary and secondary

schools.18) Technical training and vocational education.19) Adult and non-formal education.

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20) Libraries.21) Cultural activities.22) Markets and fairs.23) Health and sanitation including hospitals, primary

health centres and dispensaries.24) Family welfare.25) Women and child development.26) Social welfare, including welfare of the

handicapped and mentally retarded.27) Welfare of the weaker sections, and in particular,

of the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes.28) Public distribution system.29) Maintenance of community assets.

20. Ans: B

• The validity of Constitutional Amendments is decided by SC, so it is also known as the Guardian of the Constitution.

21. Ans: B

• Charter act 1833 made the Governor –General of Bengal as the Governor – General of India and vested in him all civil and military powers. Thus the act created for the first time, a Government of India having authority over the entire territorial are possessed by the British in India. It also deprived the governor of Bombay and Madras of their legislative powers.

• The Governor- General of India was given exclusive legislative owners for the entire British India.

22. Ans: C

• Objectives Resolution (the resolution that defined the aims of the Assembly) was moved by Nehru in 1946. This resolution enshrined the aspirations and values behind the Constitution making.

• On the basis of the Objectives Resolution, India’s Constitution gave institutional expression to the fundamental commitments: equality, liberty, democracy, sovereignty and a cosmopolitan identity. This made the moral commitment to establish a government that will fulfill the many promises that the nationalist movement held before the people of India.

23. Ans: D

• The India Independence act of 1947 made three important changes in the position of assembly. Firstly it was made a fully sovereign body. Thus it could alter or abrogate any law made by the British parliament in relation to India

• Secondly, the assembly was also made a legislative body. In other word two separate functions were assigned to the assembly- a) making of constitution- b) enacting of ordinary laws for the country

• Thirdly, the total strength of the assembly came down to 299 from 389 fixed originally due to withdrawal from Muslim league, specifically those hailing from areas included in Pakistan.

• One of the important criticisms against the assembly is’ it is not a representative body’. It consisted of indirectly elected representatives and those from princely states who are nominated .They were indirectly elected by the members of the provincial assemblies by method of single transferable vote system of proportional representation. These included 229 members from provinces and 70 from princely states. There were total nine women members also.

24. Ans: C

• The term Justice in the preamble embraces three distinct forms- social, economic and political. Thus ideal has been taken from the Russian Revolution.

• Political justice implies all the three above objectives.

25. Ans: C

• Constitution does not deal with the problem of acquisition or loss of citizenship subsequent to the commencement. It empowers the parliament to enact a law to provide for such matters and any other matter relating to citizenship.

• Fraternity means a sense of brotherhood. The constitution promotes the felling of fraternity by the system of single citizenship. Fundamental duties also promote the ideal of fraternity by instilling spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic, regional or sectional diversities.

26. Ans: D

Government of India Act 1935 included Federation and Provincial autonomy, Diarchy at centre, Abolition of Diarchy in provinces.

27. Ans: A

• The reforms introduced separate electorates.

28. Ans: B

• Under GOI Act 1919. Provincial subjects had two parts - transferred and reserved. The transferred subjects were to be administered by the governor with the aid of ministers responsible to the legislative Council. The reserved subjects were to bead ministered by the governor and his executive council without being responsible to the legislative Council. This was known as ‘dyarchy’ - term derived from the Greek word di-arche which means double rule. However, this experiment failed.

29. Ans: D

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The concept of federation where center was more powerful in comparison to states was adopted from Canadian constitution.

30. Ans: (c)

Indian polity provides for Supremacy of Constitution instead of supremacy of Parliament as seen in British system.

31. Ans. A

The Drafting Committee had seven members: AlladiKrishnaswamiAyyar, N. Gopalaswami; B.R. Ambedkar, K.M Munshi, Mohammad Saadulla, B.L. Mitter and D.P. Khaitan.

32. Ans. A

Secularism in Indian context means that state recognizes and respects each religion as equal and unique.

33. Ans. C

The language of Preamble of Indian constitution is borrowed from the Australian constitution.

34. Ans: B

Majority of Indian constitution was borrowed from Major constitutions of the world, but major influencer was Government of India Act 1935.

35. Ans: D

All of them are mentioned in the preamble.

36. Ans: D

All the statements are true.

37. Ans: B

• It recognized the ‘portfolio’ system, introduced by Lord Canning in 1859.

38. Ans: C

Explanation: Fundamental duties were borrowed from USSR constitution. They were added by 42nd constitutional amendment act 1976, after the recommendations made by Swarn Singh committee.

39. Ans: D

Explanation: Rule of law- British Residuary powers- CanadaConcurrent list- AustraliaRepublic, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity – France

40. Ans: D

• It is union of states.

41. Ans: B

• The 1919 Act also called has Montagu-Chelmsford Act introduced bicameralism and direct elections in India for the first time. The majority of members of both the houses i.e., Council of states and Legislative assembly were chosen by direct elections. The Act also granted franchise to limited number of people on the basis of property, tax or education.

42. Ans: A

• Option a is correct since all three committees were headed by Jawaharlal Nehru. The fourth committee was headed by B. PattabhiSitaramayya.

43. Ans: B

• The Constitution has envisaged Election Commission, CAG, UPSC and SPSC as the bulwarks of the democratic system of Government of India. The Constitution ensures the independence of these bodies through various provisions like security of tenure, fixed service conditions, expense being charged on the Consolidated fund of India and so on.

44. Ans: A

• Renunciation: any citizen of India of full age and capacity can make a declaration renouncing has Indian citizenship. Upon the registration of that declaration, that person ceases to be a citizen of India.

• Termination: When an Indian citizen voluntarily (consciously, knowingly and without duress, undue influence or compulsion) acquires the citizenship of another country, his Indian citizenship will automatically gets terminated.

• Deprivation: It is compulsory termination of Indian citizenship by Indian government if:

a) The citizen has obtained the citizenship by fraud,b) The citizen has shown disloyalty to the Constitution

of India,c) The citizen has unlawfully traded or communicated

with the enemy during a war,d) The citizen has, within five years after registration

or naturalization, been imprisoned in any country for two years and

e) The citizen has been ordinarily resident out of India for seven years continuously.

45. Ans: D

• The Supreme Court in Berubari Union case held that the power of the Parliament to diminish the area of a state (under Article 3) does not cover cession of Indian Territory to a foreign country. Hence, Indian Territory can be ceded to a foreign state only by amending the Constitution under Article 368.

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nature, aims at union of states of states.Flexibility of the Constitution: Constitution

amendment in some cases can be done by simple majority without any approval of states.

Emergency Provisions: in times of turmoil, change the nature of polity into unitary form, where centre becomes all powerful.

Single Citizenship: suppresses the sub nationalism in the certain cases.

Integrated Judiciary: Supreme court at the top has various powers to regulate and control the behavior of lower courts.

7th schedule: provides for maximum no of subjects under central list, residual powers in the hands of centre.

Some of the federal features include:Written Constitution: avoids the discretionary

interpretation of the centre. Supremacy of the Constitution: protects the rule

of law and the law of the land.Rigid Constitution: which requires both centre’s

and states’ consent for constitution amendment.Division of Powers: between the centre and the

states.Independent Judiciary: Protects the states’

autonomy from centre’s illegal intervention (Appellate jurisdiction).

Hence from the above provisions we can conclude that power centre is more tilted towards union government. Hence the present structure is in the line of maintaining the diversity on one hand and preserving the unity of the nation.

3. The Preamble to Indian Constitution is based on the ‘Objective resolutions’ as put forth by J.L.Nehru on 9thdec, 1946. It was referred as ‘the soul of the Constitution’ by the constitutional expert SubhashKashyap.

Preamble is the key to open the minds of the founder of constitution (Berubari Union case 1960) the preamble successfully provides the link to understand and analyze our constitution. It also reflects the objectives of our constitution. Wherever there is confusion among meaning and analysis of any provision of constitution the preamble provide broad guidance for it. So preamble is not only the part of the constitution (Keshvanand Bharti case 1973) but it is also the soul and essence of our constitution.Broadly preamble provides three facts :-1. Where lies the political sovereignty?2. What is the nature of constitution?3. What are the objective of constitution?

Premble to Indian Consitution contains ideals and aspirations that India as a nation should aim to attain. They include the nature of the polity:Sovereign: Indian people are the ultimate

authority.

Socialist: India to be a welfare stateSecular: Equal respect to all religionsDemocratic: by/for/of the peopleRepublic: Any citizen can become the elected

head of the stateIt provides for objectives like:Justice: political, social and economicLiberty: of thought, expression, belief, faith and

worship.Equality: of status and of opportunityFraternity: assuring the dignity of the individual

and the unity and integrity of the Nation. Though Preamble is not enforceable in a court

of law, nor does it confer any substantive power to the government. Even Preamble cannot place any limitations on the powers of any wing of the government. It cannot override any specific provisions of the Constitution. Nevertheless it is the soul of the Constitution that keeps the body alive.

4. Indian union is a combination of indestructible union with destructible states. It means that states do not have the power to secede away from the union, but the centre can rearrange the state boundaries at will.

Time and again various states have been carved out since 1953. The first chapter of Indian Constitution provides for creation of new states within the nation.

Article 3 of the Indian Constitution provides for the creation of a new state through a bill tabled in Parliament on the President’s recommendation after consultations with the legislatures of the affected states. The states are required to refer their reservations within 14 days, but the reservations tendered by states are not binding on the centre.

Article 4 also states that in order to change the boundaries of states, Constitutional amendment under the article 368 is not required, hence only a simple majority in both the houses of Parliament will suffice.

In the present scenario, where increasing number of the regions are rooting for separate statehood like that of Bodoland, Gorkhaland, Twipraland.Vidarbha etc., it is not feasible to keep on dividing the nation until it reaches a stage of pre-independence, when India comprised of 565 pieces.

Instead of creating new states, government should try to satisfy the basic aspirations and needs of the dissenting regions through more autonomy, fiscal devolution, capacity building etc. India is a land of diverse cultures, languages, religions, races etc., but these should not become the reasons for division of the country. It nullifies the tagline of Indian nation-state: Unity in Diversity. Hence Centre has to let go some of its control, in order to gain confidence of the people, thereby retaining the unity and integrity of the country.

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5. Citizenship (amendment) Bill, 2016 has been introduced in the LokSabha, that aims to amend the 1955 Citizenship Act. The ruling party had promised to grant citizenship to Hindus persecuted in the neighbouring countries during the 2014 General Election.

Highlights of the Bill• The Bill amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make

illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship.

• Under the Act, one of the requirements for citizenship by naturalisation is that the applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, and for 11 of the previous 14 years. The Bill relaxes this 11 year requirement to six years for persons belonging to the same six religions and three countries.

• The Bill provides that the registration of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders may be cancelled if they violate any law.

But there are some controversial issues involved in the Bill.• The Bill makes illegal migrants eligible for

citizenship on the basis of religion. This may violate Article 14 of the Constitution which guarantees right to equality.

• The Bill allows cancellation of OCI registration for violation of any law. This is a wide ground that may cover a range of violations, including minor offences (eg. parking in a no parking zone).

• It contravenes with the aim of National Citizen registry of Assam, that aims to deport illegal immigrants irrespective of their religion.

• The bordering states like west Bengal, Tripura, Mizoram, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir etc, have to bear the burden.

Hence government has to give it a due thought before proceeding, because at the outlook it seems to be a communally driven legislation. Hence makes India vulnerable to communal clashes and deterioration of relations with other countries.