Making of the Constitution, Preamble & features

Answer: (b) 2 only

Only statement 2 is correct. It was the 39th Amendment (1975) that inserted Article 329A to shield the Prime Minister's election from the courts, and the 44th Amendment (1978) removed it. The Supreme Court did strike down the 99th Amendment, which created the NJAC, in October 2015.

• ✗ 1. Article 329A, on elections of the Prime Minister and the Speaker, was inserted by the 39th Amendment in 1975. The 44th Amendment, passed after the Emergency, omitted it instead of introducing it.
• ✓ 2. In the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association case (16 October 2015), a five-judge Bench struck down the 99th Amendment and the NJAC scheme, holding that the Union Law Minister's place in the Commission and the 'eminent persons' clause breached judicial independence, part of the basic structure.

Remember · 39th Amendment (1975) inserted Article 329A for the Prime Minister's election; the 44th (1978) omitted it. The 99th Amendment (NJAC) was struck down on 16 October 2015.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Politics in India since Independence, Ch 6 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Jawaharlal Nehru

The Ninth Schedule was added by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951, which came into force on 18 June 1951. Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister from 15 August 1947 to 27 May 1964, so it was introduced in his time.

• ✓ (a) The First Amendment, 1951, inserted Article 31B and the Ninth Schedule so that the listed laws, mainly land-reform laws, could not be declared void for clashing with Fundamental Rights. Nehru was Prime Minister then.
• ✗ (c) This is the tempting option because Indira Gandhi's period saw many later additions to the Schedule, but the Schedule itself dates from 1951.
• ✗ (b) Lal Bahadur Shastri was Prime Minister only from 1964 to 1966, long after 1951.
• ✗ (d) Morarji Desai headed the government from 1977 to 1979, well after the Ninth Schedule had been created.

Remember · Ninth Schedule and Article 31B came with the First Amendment, 1951, under Nehru; the Fourth Amendment, 1955, added entries 14 to 20.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Both statements are wrong. High Courts, like the Supreme Court, can examine any law and declare it unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court can strike down even a constitutional amendment if it violates the basic structure.

• ✗ 1. Judicial review is the power of the Supreme Court or the High Courts to test whether any law conforms to the Constitution. A High Court can therefore hold a central law invalid.
• ✗ 2. In the Kesavananda Bharati case (1973) the Supreme Court held that even Parliament cannot violate the basic structure through an amendment. When the 42nd Amendment tried to assert parliamentary supremacy, the Court repeated its stand in Minerva Mills (1980).

Remember · Judicial review belongs to High Courts as well as the Supreme Court, and after Kesavananda Bharati (1973) the courts can strike down amendments that violate the basic structure.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 6 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 6 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 9 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Opportunity to develop oneself fully

Liberty is best understood as the chance to develop one's talents and potential to the full, within reasonable social limits. Merely having no restraint is only one side of freedom, and no one can have unlimited freedom in society.

• ✓ (d) NCERT describes freedom as the condition in which people can develop their creativity and capabilities, and a free society as one that lets all its members develop their potential with the minimum of social constraints.
• ✗ (b) Absence of restraint is what NCERT calls only one aspect of freedom (negative liberty); it leaves out the conditions needed to develop oneself.
• ✗ (c) No individual living in society can enjoy a total absence of constraints, so doing whatever one likes cannot be the definition of liberty.
• ✗ (a) Protection from rulers' tyranny is one purpose of liberty, but it is narrower than the full idea, which also covers the opportunity to develop oneself.

Remember · Liberty has two sides: freedom from unjustified constraints (negative) and freedom to develop one's potential (positive). The fullest definition stresses the opportunity to develop oneself.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Political Theory, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Political Theory, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Political Theory, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error