Indian Polity & Constitution MCQs

Notes:
Article 58 of the constitution lays down the qualifications of a president in India. These qualifications are:

• He should be a citizen of India,
• He must have completed the age of 35 years
• He must be qualified to become a Lok Sabha member.
• He should not hold any office of profit under Union or state government.

Notes:
The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 makes the following salient provisions:

• To provide 3-tier system of Panchayati Raj for all the States having population of over 20 Lakhs.
• To hold Panchayat Elections regularly every 5 years.
• To provide reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Women (not less than 33%)
• To appoint State Finance Commission to make recommendations as regards the financial powers of the Panchayats.
• To constitute District Planning Committee to prepare draft development plan for the district as a whole.

Notes:
Prime Minister of India heads the central government / Central Council of Ministers in India. He is also the chief of the central government, chief advisor of the President and leader of majority party / coalition in Parliament of India. He is also leader of the executive branch of the government of India. On the other hand, President is the “head of the state” in India under whose name, all the business of the government is transacted.

Notes:
The 22 languages in Eighth schedule are: 1. Assamese 2. Bengali 3. Bodo 4. Dogri 5. Gujarati 6. Hindi 7. Kannada 8. Kashmiri 9. Konkani 10. Maithili 11. Malayalam 12. Manipuri 13. Marathi 14. Nepali 15. Odia 16. Punjabi 17. Sanskrit 18. Santali 19. Sindhi 20. Tamil 21. Telugu 22. Urdu

Notes:
The Constitution was then finally signed by members of the Constituent Assembly on 24th January 1950 and came into effect on the 26th of January, 1950.

Notes:
The Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance is responsible for producing the Union Budget and not the President of India.

Notes:
Constitution of India did not codify permanent laws for citizenship and put this onus on parliament. Using the powers of article 10 and 11, the parliament enacted Citizenship Act 1955 which has been amended from time to time. This act mentions four ways in which a person may be Indian citizen viz. by birth, by descent, by registration and by naturalization. Citizenship by birth and descent are called natural citizens. 

Notes:
55th : statehood to Arunachal Pradesh,
56th: setting up new state of Goa and separation of Daman & Diu ,
57th : special arrangements with regard to reservation for scheduled tribes in NE states Arunachal, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya. Article 332 amended for this reason,
58th: authorizes president to publish an authoritative translation of constitution, 59th : empowered the government to impose emergency in Punjab

Notes:
The concept of judicial review, which gives the judiciary the power to review the constitutionality of legislative and executive acts, is borrowed in the Indian Constitution from the United States. Article 13 and Article 32 specifically provide for judicial review and are inspired by the 1803 landmark case of Marbury v. Madison in the US Supreme Court. This laid down judicial review allowing American courts to examine the constitutional validity of acts by the legislature and executive. Thus, the power of courts to judicially review laws and actions to check their alignment with the Constitution comes from legal principles established in the American constitutional system.

Notes:
According to the Government of India Act 1919, the life of the Council of State was 5 years and the life of Legislative Assembly was 3 years.