Indian Polity & Constitution MCQs

Notes:
61st Amendment Act, 1989 reduced the voting age from 21 years to 18 years for the Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly elections.

Notes:
Ad hoc judges can be appointed in the Supreme Court by “Chief Justice of India” with the prior consent of the President, if there is no quorum of judges available to hold and continue the session of the court. Only the persons who are qualified as to be appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court can be appointed as ad hoc judge of the Supreme Court. (Article 127). Further, as per provisions of the Article 128, Chief Justice of India, with the previous consent of the President, request a retired Judge of the Supreme Court High Court, who is duly qualified for appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court, to sit and act as a Judge of the Supreme Court. The salary & allowance of such judge are decided by the president. The retired Judge who sits in such a session of the Supreme Court has all the jurisdiction, powers and privileges of the Judges BUT are NOT deemed to be a Judge.

Notes:
Article 71 of the Constitution says that all doubts and disputes arising out of or in connection with the election of a President or Vice-President shall be inquired into and decided by the Supreme Court. Further, according to Article 14 of the Presidential and Vice -Presidential Elections Act,1952, an election petition can be filed in Supreme Court.

Notes:
Habeas Corpus literally means ‘to have the body of’. Via this writ, the court can cause any person who has been detained or imprisoned to be physically brought before the court. The court then examines the reason of his detention and if there is no legal justification of his detention, he can be set free. Such a writ can be issued in following example cases:

• When the person is detained and not produced before the magistrate within 24 hours
• When the person is arrested without any violation of a law.
• When a person is arrested under a law which is unconstitutional
• When detention is done to harm the person or is malafide.

Thus, Habeas corpus writ is called bulwark of individual liberty against arbitrary detention. A general rule of filing the petition is that a person whose right has been infringed must file a petition. But Habeas corpus is an exception and anybody on behalf of the detainee can file a petition. Habeas corpus writ is applicable to preventive detention also. This writ can be issued against both public authorities as well as individuals.

Notes:
Article 32 has given original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court for matters regarding the enforcement of Fundamental Rights. The Supreme Court is empowered to issue directions, orders or writs, including writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari to enforce them. Article 32 also empowers an individual to approach directly to Supreme Court for enforcement of his fundamental rights.

Notes:
Punjab was the first state in India where emergency was imposed due to failure of Constitutional Machinery of the state.

Notes:
First Lok Sabha had two speakers. Ganesh Vasudev Mavlankar remained speaker between 8 May 1952 and 8 Mar 1956 and M. A. Ayyangar between 27 Feb 1956 and 10 May 1957

Notes:
If the finance bill presented in the parliament is not passed or it is rejected by the Lok Sabha the Government in the Centre has to resign.

Notes:
The Constitution listed fourteen languages — Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu — in Eighth Schedule, in 1950.
Since then, the list has been expanded thrice, once to include Sindhi, second time to include Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali and yet again to add four more languages — Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri — bringing total to 22 scheduled languages. The claims of many more languages for inclusion is under consideration.

Notes:
 The Election Commission has the power of superintendence, direction and control of elections to the Parliament, State legislatures, President and Vice President.