Indian Polity and Constitution Mixed Practice — MCQs with Answers (Set 23)

Correct: it struck down the anonymous funding scheme. The Court held the scheme unconstitutional on 15 February 2024.

Shayara Bano extended the manifest arbitrariness test to legislation for the first time, striking down instant triple talaq.

The correct answer is that arbitrariness itself is antithetical to equality. Justice Bhagwati called equality and arbitrariness sworn enemies. Memory hook: Royappa means arbitrariness.

The correct answer is arbitrariness itself. An arbitrary State act is unequal and can break Article 14. Memory hook: arbitrary means unequal.

The NHRC has civil-court-like powers to investigate, but cannot force any government to act on its findings.

The same amendment also raised human-rights-knowledge Members from two to three, with at least one required to be a woman.

The 2019 amendment broadened this to also include a sitting or retired Supreme Court judge.

This recommendation came decades before either the 2011 movement or the 2013 Act that eventually created the Lokpal.

At least 50% of Members must also come from SC, ST, OBC, minority, or women backgrounds.

Without a Leader of Opposition, the Lokpal’s own selection committee could not function, until a 2016 amendment fixed this.

The correct answer is Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose. He is a former Supreme Court judge. He was named Chairperson of the first Lokpal in March 2019, five years after the Act was notified.

The Court held that a bail condition banning political activity was invalid, since it effectively forced the accused to waive a Fundamental Right.

Behram Khurshid Pesikaka v. State of Bombay (1954) first raised the waiver question, with one judge floating a possible individual-benefit exception later rejected.

The Bench settled the question decisively: Fundamental Rights cannot be waived, a deliberate departure from the American constitutional tradition.

The 42nd Amendment, 1976, added the Fundamental Duties, based on the Swaran Singh Committee’s recommendations during the Emergency.

Abolition of titles (Article 18) is a constitutional provision related to equality, not one of the 11 Fundamental Duties listed under Article 51A.

The Swaran Singh Committee (1976) included members such as A R Antulay, S S Ray, and Haridev Joshi among others tasked with recommending constitutional amendments including the Fundamental Duties.

The EC applied a ‘legislative majority’ test in both cases, looking at which faction commanded more elected MLAs and MPs.

The Act was amended in 2006 to align with the Supreme Court’s L. Chandra Kumar ruling.