[Mission 2022] QUIZ – 2022: INSIGHTS STATIC QUIZ, 27 December 2021 – Polity

Solution: a)

• This Act is also known as Morley-Minto Reforms.

• The Indian Councils Act 1909 empowered the Governor General to nominate one Indian member to the Executive Council leading to the appointment of Satyendra Prasanna Sinha as the first Indian member. The Government of India Act 1919 increased the number of Indians in the council to three.
• It introduced a system of communal representation for Muslims by accepting the concept of ‘separate electorate’. Under this, the Muslim members were to be elected only by Muslim voters. Thus, the Act ‘legalised communalism’ and Lord Minto came to be known as the Father of Communal Electorate.

Solution: a)

The Government of India (GoI) Act of 1935 provided for a three-fold enumeration, viz., federal, provincial and concurrent. 

The present Constitution follows the scheme of this act but with one difference, that is, under this act, the residuary powers were given neither to the federal legislature nor to the provincial legislature but to the governor-general of India. In this respect, India follows the Canadian precedent.

Solution: a)

Features of Government of India Act of 1919

• 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). 

• It relaxed the central control over the provinces by demarcating and separating the central and provincial subjects.

• It separated, for the first time, provincial budgets from the Central budget and authorized the provincial legislatures to enact their budgets.

Solution: b)

• The total strength of the Constituent Assembly was to be 389. Of these, 296 seats were to be allotted to British India and 93 seats to the Princely States. Out of 296 seats allotted to the British India, 292 members were to be drawn from the eleven governors’ provinces and four from the four chief commissioners’ provinces, one from each.
• Each province and princely state (or group of states in case of small states) were to be allotted seats in proportion to their respective population. Roughly, one seat was to be allotted for every million population.
• Seats allocated to each British province were to be decided among the three principal communities—Muslims, Sikhs and general, in proportion to their population.
• The representatives of each community were to be elected by members of that community in the provincial legislative assembly and voting was to be by the method of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.
• There was no communal representation. 
• It included all important personalities of India at that time, with the exception of Mahatma Gandhi and M A Jinnah. 

Solution: c)

• With the commencement of the Constitution, the Indian Independence Act of 1947 and the Government of India Act of 1935, with all enactments amending or supplementing the latter Act, were repealed.
  The Abolition of Privy Council Jurisdiction Act (1949) was however continued.
• Some provisions of the Constitution pertaining to citizenship, elections, provisional parliament, temporary and transitional provisions, and short title contained in Articles 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 60, 324, 366, 367, 379, 380, 388, 391, 392 and 393 came into force on November 26, 1949 itself. The remaining provisions (the major part) of the Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950.