Insights Static Quiz -99, 2018 –Polity and Rights issues

Answer – b

• Parliament has specified the qualifications of the chairman and members of the commission. Accordingly, the chairman should be a person having experience in public affairs. Chairman of the 15^th FC is NK Singh who is not a SC judge.
• It is nowhere laid down in the Constitution that the recommendations of the commission shall be binding upon the Government of India or that it would give rise to a legal right in favour of the beneficiary states to receive the money recommended to be offered to them by the Commission. However, Dr. P.V. Rajamannar, the Chairman of the Fourth Finance Commission, “Since the Finance Commission is a constitutional body expected to be quasi-judicial, its recommendations should not be turned down by the Government of India unless there are very compelling reasons”.

Answer – b

On February 20, 1947, the British Prime Minister Clement Atlee declared that the British rule in India would end by June 30,1948; after which the power would be transferred to responsible Indian hands. This announcement was followed by the agitation by the Muslim League demanding partition of the country. Again on June 3, 1947, the British Government made it clear that any Constitution framed by the Constituent Assembly of India (formed in 1946) cannot apply to those parts of the country which were unwilling to accept it. On the same day (June 3, 1947), Lord Mountbatten, the viceroy of India, put forth the partition plan, known as the Mountbatten Plan.

Answer – c

• Morley Minto Reforms which drove 1909 Act retained official majority in the Central Legislative Council but allowed the provincial legislative councils to have non-official majority.
• It enlarged the deliberative functions of the legislative councils at both the levels. For
  example, members were allowed to ask supplementary questions, move resolutions on the budget, and so on.

Answer – c

1909 Act provided (for the first time) for the association of Indians with the executive Councils of the Viceroy and Governors. Satyendra Prasad Sinha became the first Indian to join the Viceroy’s Executive Council. He was appointed as the law member.

Answer – a

• 1919 Act further divided the provincial subjects into 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, on the other hand, were to be administered by the governor and his executive council without being responsible to the legislative Council. This dual scheme of governance was known as ‘dyarchy’
• It introduced, for the first time, bicameralism and direct elections in the country. Thus, the Indian Legislative Council was replaced by a bicameral legislature consisting of an Upper House (Council of State) and a Lower House (Legislative Assembly). The majority of members of both the Houses were chosen by direct election. However, it granted franchise to a limited number of people on the basis of property, tax or education.

Answer – a

• 1919 Act extended the principle of communal representation, which was introduced for Muslims in 1909 Act, by providing separate electorates for Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans.

Answer – d

1919 Act separated, for the first time, provincial budgets from the Central budget and authorised the provincial legislatures to enact their budgets

Answer – a

Simon commission submitted its report in 1930 and recommended the abolition of dyarchy, extension of responsible government in the provinces, establishment of a federation of British India and princely states, continuation of communal electorate and so on. To consider the proposals of the commission, the British Government convened three round table conferences of the representatives of the British Government, British India and Indian princely states. On the basis of these discussions, a ‘White Paper on Consitutional Reforms’ was prepared and submitted for the consideration of the Joint Select Committee of the British Parliament. The recommendations of this committee were incorporated (with certain changes) in the next Government of India Act of 1935

Answer – a

In August 1932, Ramsay MacDonald, the British Prime Minister, announced a scheme of representation of the minorities, which came to be known as the Communal Award. The award not only continued separate electorates for the Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans but also extended it to the depressed classes (scheduled castes).

Answer – c

• It abolished dyarchy in the provinces and introduced ‘provincial autonomy’ in its place. The provinces were allowed to act as autonomous units of administration in their defined spheres. Moreover, the Act introduced responsible governments in provinces, that is, the governor was required to act with the advice of ministers responsible to the provincial legislature.
• It provided for the adoption of dyarchy at the Centre
• It introduced bicameralism in six out of eleven provinces. Thus, the legislatures of Bengal, Bombay, Madras, Bihar, Assam and the United Provinces were made bicameral consisting of a legislative council (upper house) and a legislative assembly (lower house).
• It further extended the principle of communal representation by providing separate electorates for depressed classes (scheduled castes), women and labour (workers).

Answer – c

• It provided for the establishment of a Reserve Bank of India to control the currency and credit of the country.
• It provided for the establishment of not only a Federal Public Service Commission but also a Provincial Public Service Commission and Joint Public Service Commission for two or more