Indian Polity and Constitution Mixed Practice — MCQs with Answers (Set 19)

The Sixth Schedule, under Articles 244(2) and 275(1), applies only to Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram. Tribal areas in states like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand instead fall under the Fifth Schedule.

PESA extends Panchayati Raj self-governance to Scheduled Areas. It gives tribal communities a formal say in local decisions. Its implementation has been uneven across states. This has limited how much it strengthened self-governance in practice.

IEPFA functions under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. It administers the Investor Education and Protection Fund, refunding unclaimed shares, dividends, matured deposits, and debentures to investors.

Nominations are submitted online at awards.gov.in, with a description of the achievement in under 1,000 words.

The other, the Bal Shakti Puraskar, traces back to the National Child Award, which the Government of India instituted in 1996. It is separate from the ICCW’s National Bravery Awards (1957).

Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fateh Singh were aged just 9 and 7 when martyred.

The ceremony is held in New Delhi, and each award comprises a medal, a certificate, and a citation.

Prasar Bharati is the public service broadcaster, not a regulator. It runs Doordarshan and All India Radio as an autonomous statutory corporation. Tariffs are TRAI’s remit, and news-content complaints go first to the broadcaster, then escalate to the industry self-regulatory body and the Government oversight mechanism.

After a split verdict in January 2024, the tie-breaker judge, Justice A.S. Chandurkar, gave his opinion on 20 September 2024 that the amendment was unconstitutional. The Division Bench’s final judgment striking it down followed on 26 September 2024, in the challenge brought by Kunal Kamra and others. The Supreme Court has agreed to examine the Government’s appeal but declined to stay the judgment. Note that the rule empowering the unit fell; PIB’s fact-checking as an activity continues.

TRAI regulates carriage and tariffs — broadly, what viewers pay for channels — not what those channels may broadcast. Content codes and uplinking/downlinking permissions sit with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Confusing the two is a common error.

The cap was 12 minutes per clock hour — 10 minutes of commercial advertising plus 2 minutes of channel self-promotion. It was introduced in 2006 under the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, when India had about 62 channels; there are now more than 900.

The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, working alongside the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, carries the Programme Code and the Advertisement Code. The other three are real statutes, but govern the press, the public broadcaster and online intermediaries respectively.

The standard objection runs through Article 14’s guarantee of equality before the law, on the argument that visible markers of rank create a class of citizen the Constitution does not recognise. Article 18’s abolition of titles reflects the same instinct against conferred status.

The Court framed three questions: the lawfulness of beacons and sirens used by those who are not high constitutional functionaries, security cover given without a specific threat assessment, and the closure of roads to facilitate VIP movement. It directed governments to publish definite lists of who qualified, holding that any and every officer could not be given a beacon.

The ban carried no exemption at the top — the President, Prime Minister and Chief Justice lost the red beacon as well, which is what made it hard to dismiss as symbolic. Emergency vehicles such as ambulances, fire services, police and army may still use blue flashing beacons.

Rule 108(1)(iii) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 — the provision allowing specified high dignitaries to use a red beacon — was deleted. The other three are real instruments, but none governs vehicle beacons.

The Union Cabinet decided on 19 April 2017 and the ban took effect on 1 May 2017. 10 December 2013 is a real and related date, but it is the Supreme Court’s Abhay Singh judgment, which restricted beacons rather than abolishing them.

Pant died on 7 March 1961, in New Delhi, from a stroke. He was still serving as Union Home Minister at the time, a post he had held since 1955.

The States Reorganisation Act, 1956, redrew India’s internal state boundaries along linguistic lines. It was Pant’s signature achievement as Home Minister.

Pant helped pass the UP Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, ending the zamindari system and giving land rights to tenant farmers.

Pant was badly injured protesting the Simon Commission in 1928. He never fully recovered, and could not fully straighten his back again.

Govind Ballabh Pant was born on 10 September 1887, in Almora, then part of the United Provinces.

The NMC sets fee guidelines for 50% of seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities, matching government-college fees.

The Act created four boards: Under-Graduate, Post-Graduate, Medical Assessment and Rating, and Ethics and Medical Registration.

The Act took effect on 25 September 2020, dissolving the Medical Council of India and creating the NMC.