47 Topics.
0 of 34 Concepts Done
What to Study: When and how was the Commission set up? Was it created by an Act, by the Constitution itself or by a Government resolution? Remember its size, its chairman and the office he held earlier, and the year it submitted its report.
What to Study: Remember a few notable members, such as B.P. Jeevan Reddy, R.S. Sarkaria, Soli Sorabjee, Subhash Kashyap and P.A. Sangma.
What to Study: What was the Commission asked to examine, looking back over how many years? Understand the two limits set on its recommendations. Was its task to rewrite the Constitution or to review it? Who was free to accept or reject its recommendations?
What to Study: Did the Commission get a ready agenda, or did it choose its own areas of study? Remember how many areas it chose. Understand their broad spread, from institutions and elections to social change, federalism, local government, rights and duties, public finance and administration.
What to Study: Understand the Commission's worries about loss of public faith in government, the nature of the Indian State and the rising cost of government. Also understand its concerns on criminalisation of politics, misuse of elections, weak representation and instability from defections. How do the general elections from 1989 onwards show the cost of instability?
What to Study: Understand the concerns on the economy (the debt trap and the parallel economy), urbanisation, unemployment and education. Also understand the concerns on the justice system, including alternative dispute resolution and protection of witnesses. Does the Commission treat communal riots as only a law and order problem? Understand its view on social infrastructure and public health.
What to Study: How many recommendations did the Commission make in all? Remember how many needed constitutional amendments, how many needed laws and how many could be carried out by executive action.
What to Study: Which new grounds of discrimination would Articles 15 and 16 cover? What would be written explicitly into the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19, in relation to the press, opinions and information?
What to Study: Remember the nine new Fundamental Rights proposed. Pay special attention to those on torture, privacy, rural wage employment and free legal aid. Is any of them already found in the Constitution in another form?
What to Study: Remember the changes proposed to the right to education (the age for girls, SCs and STs), to preventive detention (maximum period and advisory board) and to Article 25 (the status of Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism). Understand how Article 31-B protection for the Ninth Schedule would be narrowed, and which extra Articles could not be suspended in a national emergency.
What to Study: What conditions would the recast Article 300-A set for depriving a person of property or acquiring it? Understand the special protection proposed for the land of SCs and STs.
What to Study: Remember the proposals on the heading of Part IV, on a new Directive Principle about population, and on the new bodies meant to help carry out the Directive Principles.
What to Study: Why was the Justice Verma Committee appointed, in which year, and when did it report? What did the Commission want done with the Verma Committee's recommendations? What three new duties did the Commission itself propose for Article 51-A?
What to Study: What change was proposed to Articles 105 and 194 on immunity for corrupt acts, and what role would the Speaker or Chairman have in prosecution? Why did the Commission want the domicile requirement for Rajya Sabha maintained? What happened to that requirement in 2003, and how did the Supreme Court rule on the change in 2006? Remember the proposals on MPLADS and on who declares offices of profit.
What to Study: Which new parliamentary committees were proposed? Which existing committees were not to continue? Remember the proposals for a parliamentary ombudsman and for a study group on procedural reform, and the minimum sitting days for state legislatures, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 1997
What to Study: How would a Prime Minister be chosen if no party has a majority in the Lok Sabha, and could states follow the same method? You should be able to explain the constructive vote of no confidence. What share of members must give notice of a no-confidence motion?
What to Study: What ceiling was proposed on the number of ministers, and what ceiling on political offices that carry a minister's rank and perks? Both are shares of the strength of the lower house. Remember both figures. Compare the proposed limit on ministers with the limit the 91st Amendment, 2003 actually enacted.
What to Study: What was proposed for the Lokpal, including the position of the Prime Minister, and for Lokayuktas? Remember the proposals on lateral entry (and at what level), Article 311 and Civil Service Boards. Understand the proposals on the oath of transparency, whistle-blower laws and benami property.
What to Study: Under which List of the Seventh Schedule should disaster management be placed? What did the Commission want the Inter-State Council Order of 1990 to specify? Remember the proposed Inter-State Trade and Commerce Commission, and the proposal on consulting the chief minister before a Governor is appointed.
What to Study: Did the Commission want Article 356 deleted, and how did it want the Article used? Understand its views on the floor test and on a Governor dismissing a ministry. Remember the two proposed amendments to Article 356, on continuing President's Rule and on dissolving the assembly. What time limit did it propose for the President's decision on reserved state bills?
What to Study: Which court should hear river water disputes, and with how many judges? What should replace the River Boards Act, 1956, and whom should Parliament consult first?
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2005
What to Study: Why was a National Judicial Commission proposed, and for appointments to which court or courts would it make recommendations? Remember its five members. Understand the role of its committee in complaints about the behaviour of judges.
What to Study: What retirement ages were proposed for High Court and Supreme Court judges? Which courts alone should have the power to punish for contempt of themselves, and to declare laws unconstitutional?
What to Study: Remember the proposals on Judicial Councils and their purpose, the time within which judgments should be delivered, and the limit on how long a case may stay pending. Also remember the proposals on plea-bargaining and on the structure of the subordinate courts.
What to Study: How did the Commission want SCs, STs and BCs to be represented in the higher judiciary? Remember its proposals on a reservation statute (with Arakshan Nyaya Adalats), Citizens' Charters and residential schools.
What to Study: For tribal areas under the Fifth Schedule, what change did the Commission want? Remember the special courts proposed under the SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and the two other laws the Commission wanted strictly enforced. Also remember its proposals on bonded labour, minorities and women.
What to Study: What changes were proposed to the Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules and to the finances of local bodies? Remember what the Commission wanted to change through each of the five Articles. Also remember the proposals on audit by the CAG and on delimitation.
What to Study: How did the Commission want the 73rd and 74th Amendments applied to the North East, given its local traditions? What role was proposed for the Autonomous District Councils? Remember the proposed National Immigration Council and the Acts it would review.
What to Study: Should a person be disqualified from contesting only on conviction, or already on being charged? Understand the proposal, including the kind of offence it covers. Remember the proposals on permanent debarment, and on special courts and election benches.
What to Study: Why did the Commission want State funding of elections deferred? Remember its proposals on contesting from one constituency, on legal force for the election code of conduct, on independents and on the deposit. How does a 50 per cent plus one system differ from first-past-the-post, and what did the Commission ask to be done about it?
What to Study: Which five office-holders would form the body to recommend the Chief Election Commissioner and the other Election Commissioners? Remember how the same method would apply to State Election Commissioners. How does this body differ from the interim committee set up by the Supreme Court in Anoop Baranwal (2023), and from the committee under the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023?
What to Study: Which high offices did this question cover? How did the Commission suggest the issue be settled? Was the Commission united on it, and what did it mean for P.A. Sangma?
What to Study: Under the proposed law on political parties, what would parties be required to do, including on tickets to candidates facing criminal charges? What change was proposed to the threshold for recognition? Remember the main aims of the proposed law on political funding (transparency, donation limits, accountability, published accounts).
What to Study: What four changes did the Commission propose to the Tenth Schedule? Be clear about what would happen to a defector's seat, to the defector's eligibility for office, and to the vote cast to topple a government. Who would decide disqualification for defection in place of the Speaker or Chairman? Which of these proposals did the 91st Amendment, 2003 partly enact, and which did it leave out?