1. A federal structure for India was first put forward by the :
(1) Act of 1909 (2) Act of 1919
(3) Act of 1935 (4) Act of 1947
The Government of India Act 1935, the voluminous
and final constitutional effort at governing British
India, articulated three major goals: establishing a
loose federal structure, achieving provincial autonomy,
and safeguarding minority interests through separate
electorates. The federal provisions, intended to unite
princely states and British India at the centre, were
not implemented because of ambiguities in
safeguarding the existing privileges of princes. In
February 1937, however, provincial autonomy became
a reality when elections were held.
2. Which of the following exercised the most profound influence in framing the Indian Constitution?
(1) British Constitution
(2) US Constitution
(3) Irish Constitution
(4) The Government of India Act, 1935
(4) The most profound influence was exercised by
the Government of India Act of 1935. Such features
as the federal scheme, office of governor, power of
federal judiciary, emergency powers etc were drawn
from this Act. The British practice influenced the
lawmaking procedures, rule of law, system of single
citizenship, besides, of course, the model of a
parliamentary government. The US Constitution
inspired details on the independence of judiciary,
judicial review, fundamental rights, and the removal
of Supreme Court and High Court judges. The Irish
Constitution was the source of the Directive
Principles, method of Presidential elections, and the
nomination of members of Rajya Sabha by the
President.
3. How does the Constitution of India describe India as?
(1) A federation of States and Union Territories
(2) A Union of States
(3) Bharatvarsh
(4) A federated nation
(2) With its adoption, the Union of India officially
became the modern and contemporary Republic of
India and it replaced the Government of India Act
1935 as the country’s fundamental governing
document. The Constitution declares India to be a
sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic,
assuring its citizens of justice, equality, and liberty,
and endeavours to promote fraternity among them.
4. The system of judicial review originated in
(1) India (2) Gemany
(3) Russia (4) U.S.A.
(4) Judicial review is the doctrine under which
legislative and executive actions are subject to review
(and possible invalidation) by the judiciary. It is an
example of the separation of powers in a modern
governmental system (where the judiciary is one of
three branches of government). Is is one of the main
characteristics of government in the Republic of the
United States. In the United States, federal and state
courts (at all levels, both appellate and trial) are able
to review and declare the “constitutionality”, or
agreement with the Constitution (or lack there of) of
legislation that is relevant to any case properly within
their jurisdiction. In American legal language, “judicial
review” refers primarily to the adjudication of
constitutionality of statutes, especially by the Supreme
Court of the United States.
5. Preventive detention means–
(1) detention for interrogation
(2) detention after interrogation
(3) detention without interrogation
(4) detention for cognisable offence.
(3) Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is
putatively justified for non-punitive purposes. In
contrast to this, under preventive detention the
government can imprison a person for some time
without a criminal charge. It means that if the
government feels that a person being at liberty can be a threat to the law and order or the unity and
integrity of the nation, it can detain or arrest that
person to prevent him from doing this possible harm
6. What was the basis for constituting the Constituent Assembly of India ?
(1) The Resolution of the Indian National Congress
(2) The Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946
(3) The Indian Independence Act, 1947
(4) The resolutions of the Provincial/State Legislatures of the Dominion of India
(2) The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to
write the Constitution of India. The Constituent
Assembly was set up while India was still under
British rule, following negotiations between Indian
leaders and members of the 1946 Cabinet Mission
to India from the United Kingdom. The Assembly
members were elected to it indirectly by the members
of the individual provincial legislative assemblies, and
initially included representatives for those provinces
which came to form part of Pakistan, some of which
are now within Bangladesh.
7. From the Constitution of which country the provision of Federation was borrowed while framing the Constitution of India ?
(1) USA (2) UK
(3) Canada (4) Switzerland
(3) Though the basic features of Indian Constitution
are based on the Government of India Act, 1935, it
has many features which were borrowed from many
foreign constitutions. It was from the Canadian
Constitution that India borrowed a quasi-federal form
of government (a federal system with a strong central
government) and the idea of Residual Powers.
8. Who among the following was not a member of the Consti-tuent Assembly established in July 1946 ?
(1) Dr. Rajendra Prasad
(2) K M Munshi
(3) Mahatma Gandhi
(4) Abul Kalam Azad
(3) The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to
write the Constitution of India. Some of its prominent
members were Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Acharya
J.B. Kriplani, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Smt. Sarojini
Naidu, Shri Hare-Krushna Mahatab, Pandit Govind
Ballabh Pant, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Shri Sarat Chandra
Bose, Shri C. Rajagopalachari and Shri M. Asaf Ali.
9. Who was the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution ?
(1) J. B. Kripalani
(2) Rajendra Prasad
(3) J. L. Nehru
(4) B. R. Ambedkar
(4) On 29 August, 1947, the Drafting Committee was
appointed, with Dr B. R. Ambedkar as the Chairman
along with six other members assisted by a
constitutional advisor. These members were
Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi (K M Munshi, Ex- Home
Minister, Bombay), Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer (ExAdvocate General, Madras State), N Gopalaswami
Ayengar (Ex-Prime Minister, J&K and later member
of Nehru Cabinet), B L Mitter (Ex-Advocate General,
India), Md. Saadullah (Ex- Chief Minister of Assam,
Muslim League member) and D P Khaitan (Scion of
Khaitan Business family and a renowned lawyer). The
constitutional advisor was Sir Benegal Narsing Rau
(who became First Indian Judge in International Court
of Justice, 1950–54)
10. India is a republic because—
(1) it is democratic country
(2) It is a parliamentary democracy
(3) the head of the state is elected
for a definite period
(4) All of these
(3) India is a republic because India elects its supreme
head. It is called a republic because of the applicable
definition of a republic: a form of government in which
representatives are entitled to act on behalf of the
people whom they represent.
11. Who was the Constitutional Advisor to the Constituent Assembly of India ?
(1) Dr. Rajendra Prasad
(2) Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
(3) Sir B.N. Rao
(4) Shri K.M. Munshi
(3) Benegal Narsing Rau was an Indian bureaucrat,
jurist, diplomat and statesman known for his key
role in drafting the Constitution of India. He was also
India’s representative to the United Nations Security
Council from 1950 to 1952. B.N. Rau was appointed
as the Constitutional Adviser to the Constituent
Assembly in formulating the Indian Constitution. He
was responsible for the general structure of the its
democratic framework of the Constitution and
prepared its original draft. The President of the
Constituent Assembly Dr. Rajendra Prasad, before
signing the Constitution on 26 November, 1949,
thanked Rau for having ‘worked honorarily all the time that he was here, assisting the assembly not
only with his knowledge and erudition but also
enabled the other members to perform their duties
with thoroughness and intelligence by supplying them
with the material on which they could work.’
12. Which of the following countries has introduced “direct democracy”?
(1) Russia (2) India
(3) France (4) Switzerland
(4) Direct democracy is a form of democracy in which
people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed
to a representative democracy in which people vote
for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives.
Many countries that are representative democracies
allow for three forms of political action that provide
limited direct democracy: referendum (plebiscite),
initiative, and recall. Referendums can include the
ability to hold a binding vote on whether a given law
should be rejected. This effectively grants the
populace which holds suffrage a veto on a law adopted
by the elected legislature (one nation to use this
system is Switzerland).
13. Who was the President of the Republic of India who consistently described Indian Secularism as ‘Sarva Dharma Samabhav’?
(1) Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
(2) Dr. Zakir Hussain
(3) Dr. Rajendra Prasad
(4) Gaini Zail Singh
(1) The slogan “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava” was coined
by Mahatma Gandhi in pursuit of his dream of HinduMuslim unity. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan was the
President of the Republic of India who consistently
described Indian Secularism as ‘Sarva Dharma
Samabhav’.
14. Which of the following countries have an Unwritten Constitution?
(1) U.S.A (2) U.K.
(3) Pakistan (4) India
(2) An uncodified or unwritten constitution is a type
of constitution where the fundamental rules of
government take the form of customs, usage,
precedent and a variety of statutes and legal
instruments. Current example of such a constitution
is United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland where there is no defining document that
can be termed “the constitution”. Because the political
system evolved over time, rather than being changed
suddenly in an event such as a revolution, it is
continuously being defined by acts of Parliament and
decisions of the Law Courts
15. The Constitution of India was adopted on
(1) 26 January, 1950
(2) 26 January, 1949
(3) 26 November, 1949
(4) 31 December, 1949
(3) The Constitution was enacted/adopted by the
Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, and
came into effect on 26 January 1950. The date 26
January was chosen to commemorate the Purna
Swaraj declaration of independence of 1930. With
its adoption, the Union of India officially became the
modern and contemporary Republic of India and it
replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as the
country’s fundamental governing document.
16. Which of the following is a feature to both the Indian Federation and the American Federation ?
(1) A single citizenship
(2) Dual judiciary
(3) Three Lists in the Constitution
(4) A Federal Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution
(4) According to the Constitution of India, the role of
the Supreme Court is that of a federal court and
guardian of the Constitution. The Federal Court of
India was a judicial body, established in India in 1937
under the provisions of the Government of India Act
1935, with original, appellate and advisory
jurisdiction. It functioned until 1950, when the
Supreme Court of India was established.
17. The constitution of India describes India as
(1) A Union of States
(2) Quasi-federal
(3) A federation of state and union territories
(4) A Unitary State
(1) Article 1 of the Constitution declares that India,
that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.
18. Who among the following was the President of the Constituent Assembly of India ?
(1) Dr. Rajendra Prasad
(2) Jawaharlal Nehru
(3) M.A. Jinnah
(4) Lal Bahadur Shastri
(1) Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected the President of
Constituent Assembly on 11 December, 1946. On
January 26, 1950, the Constitution of independent
India was ratified and Dr. Rajendra Prasad was
elected the nation’s first President. He served as the
President of constituent assembly.
19. The convention that “once a speaker always a speaker” is followed in
(1) UK (2) USA
(3) France (4) India
(1) The British Speaker is elected at the beginning of
the Parliament by and from among the members of
the House of Commons. If the Speaker of outgoing
Parliament is still a member of the house and is willing
to be re-elected, he can do so. usually, he is reelected as many times as he wants. A change of party
does not make any difference. He is elected
unanimously by the house. So in Great Britain there
goes a saying, “Once a speaker always a speaker.”
20. Indian Penal Code came into operation in
(1) 1858 (2) 1860
(3) 1859 (4) 1862
(4) Indian Penal Code is the main criminal code of
India. It is a comprehensive code, intended to cover
all substantive aspects of criminal law. It was drafted
in 1860 and came into force in colonial India during
the British Raj in 1862. It has since been amended
several times and is now supplemented by other
criminal provisions.
21. How many Articles are there in the Indian Constitution ?
(1) 395 (2) 396
(3) 398 (4) 399
. (1) It is the longest written constitution of any
sovereign country in the world, containing 448
articles in 22 parts, 12 schedules and 100
amendments. Although the last article of the
Constitution is Article 395, the total number, as of
March 2012 is 448. New articles added through
amendments have been inserted in the relevant
location in the original constitution. In order not to
disturb the original numbering, the new articles are
inserted with alphanumberic enumerations. For
example, Article 21A pertaining to Right to Education
was inserted by the 86th Amendment Act.
22. A federal structure for India was first put forward by the
(1) Act of 1861
(2) Act of 1909
(3) Act of 1919
(4) Act of 1939
(4) The Government of India Act 1935 provided for
the establishment of a “Federation of India”, to be
made up of both British India and some or all of the
“princely states”. The parts of the Act intended to
establish the Federation of India never came into
operation, due to opposition from rulers of the princely
states. It also provided for the establishment of a
Federal Court.
23. When was our National Anthem first sung and where ?
(1) 24th January, 1950 in Allahabad
(2) 24th January, 1950 in Delhi
(3) 26th December, 1942 in Calcutta
(4) 27th December, 1911 in Calcutta
(4) Written in highly Sanskritised (Tatsama) Bengali,
it is the first of five stanzas of a Brahmo hymn
composed and scored by Nobel laureate Rabindranath
Tagore. It was first sung in Calcutta Session of the
Indian National Congress on 27 December, 1911.
24. The Constitution of India came into force on
(1) 26 January, 1950
(2) 26 January, 1952
(3) 15 August, 1948
(4) 26 November, 1949
(1) India is governed in terms of the Constitution of
India which was adopted by the Constituent Assembly
on 26th November 1949 and came into force on 26th
January 1950.
25. The term ‘Caste’ was derived from
(1) Portuguese (2) Dutch
(3) German (4) English
. (1) The English word “caste” derives from the Spanish
and Portuguese casta, which the Oxford English
Dictionary quotes John Minsheu’s Spanish dictionary
(1599) to mean, “race, lineage, or breed.” When the
Spanish colonized the New World, they used the word
to mean a “clan or lineage.” However, it was the
Portuguese who employed casta in the primary
modern sense when they applied it to the many inmarrying hereditary Hindu social groups they
encountered upon their arrival in India in 1498. The
use of the spelling “caste,” with this latter meaning,
is first attested to in English in 1613.
