Parliament & the Union executive

Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Article 85(1) lets the President summon each House to meet at such time and place as he thinks fit, with the only rule being that six months must not pass between sessions. The three-session pattern (Budget, Monsoon, Winter) is a convention, not a constitutional provision, and no minimum number of sitting days is prescribed.

• ✓ 1. Article 85(1) expressly allows the President to summon Parliament at such time and place as he thinks fit.
• ✗ 2. The Constitution does not provide for three sessions; it only requires that the gap between two sessions be less than six months. Three sessions a year is a practice.
• ✓ 3. Neither the Constitution nor any law fixes a minimum number of sitting days for Parliament in a year.

Remember · Article 85: President summons Parliament at a time and place he thinks fit; gap between sessions must be under six months. Three sessions a year is only a convention.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

Why not the tempting option · UPSC's key is (a). Statement 3 is wrong — Article 102 uses 'office of profit' without defining it — and (a) is the only option without statement 3, so the answer is fixed. Statement 2's count is loose: the Act's own footnotes record changes made by Acts of 1960, 1962, 1977, 1992, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2006 and 2013, several of them consequential amendments by other Acts, so 'five' depends on what one counts; UPSC's key takes the statement as broadly correct, the Act having been amended repeatedly. In the exam, let the clearly wrong statement decide the option.

The 1959 Act lists offices whose holders are not disqualified from Parliament for holding an office of profit, and Parliament has amended it repeatedly since. The Constitution, however, uses 'office of profit' in Article 102 without defining it, so statement 3 is wrong — and (a) is the only option that leaves statement 3 out.

• ✓ 1. The Act declares that the offices it lists (in section 3 and its Schedule) shall not disqualify their holders from being chosen as, or being, members of Parliament.
• ✓ 2. Correct in UPSC's key: the Act has been amended repeatedly to add exempted offices, most recently in 2013, when the chairpersons of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes were covered after the two commissions were separated.
• ✗ 3. Article 102(1)(a) disqualifies the holder of an 'office of profit' but does not define the term. The Supreme Court has noted that the expression is defined neither in the Constitution nor in the Representation of the People Act.

Remember · 'Office of profit' is not defined in the Constitution; Parliament exempts listed offices through the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

UPSC's key treats both statements as correct. Statement 1 rests on Article 176, under which the Governor addresses the Assembly at the start of the first session of each year. Article 208 lets each State House frame its own rules of procedure.

• ✓ 1. Article 176(1) requires the Governor to address the Legislative Assembly (or both Houses together, where there is a Council) at the start of the first session after each general election and at the start of the first session of each year.
• ✓ 2. Article 208 lets each State House make its own rules of procedure. UPSC's official key treats this statement as correct; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.

Remember · Article 176: the Governor's special address opens the first session of each year (and the first session after a general election); Article 208: each House frames its own rules.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Sarkaria Commission (1983)

The Sarkaria Commission on Centre-State Relations, set up in 1983, laid down these criteria for a Governor in its report. He should be eminent in some walk of life, come from outside the State, be a detached figure not too intimately connected with the State's local politics, and not have taken too great a part in politics, particularly in the recent past.

• ✓ (c) Paragraph 4.6.09 of the Sarkaria Commission report (Chapter IV, Role of the Governor) lists four criteria for appointing a Governor, and the question paraphrases three of them. The Commission drew on Jawaharlal Nehru's remarks in the Constituent Assembly.
• ✗ (a) The Administrative Reforms Commission is cited in the Sarkaria report only for stressing that a Governor should be impartial and command the respect of all parties. The four-part test in the question is Sarkaria's own.

Remember · Sarkaria (1983) on Governors: eminent, from outside the State, detached from local politics, and not too active in politics recently.

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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) 1 and 2

Parliament itself reviews the independent regulators, through its committees: ad hoc committees appointed for a specific inquiry, and the Departmentally Related Standing Committees that scrutinise ministries and their work. The Finance Commission, the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission and NITI Aayog have other jobs and do not review regulators.

• ✓ 1. Ad hoc committees are appointed by Parliament from time to time to enquire into specific subjects, and can be set up to examine a regulator's working.
• ✓ 2. Departmentally Related Standing Committees examine the annual reports, Bills and demands for grants of the ministries they cover, and PRS notes that parliamentary committees such as the Standing Committees on Health and on Energy have examined the working of regulators under those ministries.
• ✗ 3. The Finance Commission's constitutional duty is to recommend how tax proceeds are shared between the Union and the States and the principles for grants-in-aid; supervising sectoral regulators is not its task.
• ✗ 4. The Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission was set up on the Budget 2010-11 announcement to rewrite and harmonise financial-sector law; it was a law-reform commission, not a standing reviewer of regulators.
• ✗ 5. NITI Aayog is the Government's policy think tank, formed by a Cabinet resolution of 1 January 2015 to replace the Planning Commission; it has no oversight role over regulators.

Remember · Independent regulators answer to Parliament through its committees (ad hoc and Departmentally Related Standing Committees), not through the Finance Commission, FSLRC or NITI Aayog.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

Only the 1969 statement stands. The Communist Party of India, with 16 seats, was the largest opposition party in the first Lok Sabha, and the threshold for recognising a party (and so its leader) is one-tenth of the House, not 75 members.

• ✗ 1. In the first general election (1951–52) the CPI won 16 seats and became the largest opposition party. The Swatantra Party did not yet exist; it was founded in 1959.
• ✓ 2. Until 1969 the opposition had no formally recognised leader in the Lok Sabha. After the Congress split, Ram Subhag Singh of the Congress (O) was recognised in December 1969; the post got statutory backing in 1977.
• ✗ 3. The Speaker's Direction 121 requires a party to have at least the quorum strength, i.e. one-tenth of the House's members (about 55), not 75.

Remember · Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha: first recognised 1969 (Ram Subhag Singh); statutory since the 1977 Act; party needs one-tenth of the House (about 55 members).

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Answer: (b) Committee on Subordinate Legislation

Laws passed by Parliament often leave the details to the executive, which fills them in through rules, regulations and bye-laws. Each House has a Committee on Subordinate Legislation to check that this delegated power is used only within the limits Parliament or the Constitution set.

• ✓ (b) In the Rajya Sabha this committee is constituted under Rules 204–206 of its Rules of Procedure; the Lok Sabha has its own committee of the same name.
• ✗ (a) The Committee on Government Assurances tracks whether promises and undertakings given by Ministers on the floor of the House are carried out.
• ✗ (c) The Rules Committee considers the House's own rules of procedure and conduct of business and recommends amendments; it does not examine executive rule-making.

Remember · Delegated (subordinate) legislation = rules, regulations, bye-laws made by the executive under an Act; watched over by the Committee on Subordinate Legislation in each House.

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Answer: (c) A Money Bill is concerned with the appropriation of moneys out of the Contingency Fund of India.

Statement (c) is the incorrect one. Article 110(1) lets a Money Bill deal with appropriation of moneys out of the Consolidated Fund of India, not out of the Contingency Fund of India.

• ✓ (c) This is the statement that is not correct, so it is the answer. Article 110(1)(d) speaks only of 'the appropriation of moneys out of the Consolidated Fund of India'. The Contingency Fund is mentioned in clause (c), which covers custody of the Fund and payments into it or withdrawals from it, not appropriation.
• ✗ (a) This statement is true (Article 110(1)(a)): a Bill with only provisions on imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax is a Money Bill.
• ✗ (b) This statement is true (Article 110(1)(c)): custody of the Consolidated Fund or the Contingency Fund of India, and payment of moneys into or withdrawal from them, is a Money Bill matter.
• ✗ (d) This statement is true (Article 110(1)(b)): regulation of borrowing and the giving of guarantees by the Government of India is a Money Bill matter.

Remember · Article 110: Money Bill matters include tax, borrowing, custody of the Consolidated and Contingency Funds, and appropriation out of the Consolidated Fund only. The Speaker's decision on whether a Bill is a Money Bill is final.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

Only statement 1 is correct: under Article 55 an MLA's vote value is worked out from the population of his or her State, so it differs from State to State. Every elected MP, of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, has the same vote value.

• ✓ 1. Article 55(2)(a) gives each MLA as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the State's population divided by the number of its elected MLAs. Population and the size of the Assembly differ from State to State, so the vote value differs too.
• ✗ 2. Article 55(2)(c) gives each elected MP of either House the same number of votes: the total of all MLAs' vote values divided by the total number of elected MPs of both Houses. So a Lok Sabha MP's vote is worth exactly as much as a Rajya Sabha MP's.

Remember · President's election (Art. 55): MLA vote value depends on the State's population; every elected MP has one common vote value, whichever House he or she sits in.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

The Speaker of a state Legislative Assembly must vacate office on ceasing to be a member of the Assembly, but does not leave office when the Assembly is dissolved. Article 179 lets the Speaker continue until just before the first meeting of the new Assembly.

• ✓ 1. Article 179(a) says a Speaker or Deputy Speaker shall vacate office if he ceases to be a member of the Assembly, for example on disqualification or losing a seat.
• ✗ 2. The second proviso to Article 179 says that on dissolution the Speaker shall not vacate office until immediately before the first meeting of the Assembly after the dissolution. So there is no immediate vacation.

Remember · On dissolution the Speaker stays in office until just before the new Assembly's first meeting (Article 179; Article 94 for the Lok Sabha Speaker).

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Answer: (b) the powers of the Legislature of that State shall be exercisable by or under the authority of the Parliament.

Under Article 356 the President can declare that the State Legislature's powers will be exercised by or under the authority of Parliament. This is the constitutional core of President's Rule, and it is the option that uses the Article's own words.

• ✓ (b) Article 356(1)(b) allows the President to declare that the powers of the State Legislature shall be exercisable by or under Parliament's authority.
• ✗ (d) The President does not get lawmaking power directly from the Proclamation. Under Article 357, Parliament may confer on the President the State Legislature's power to make laws.
• ✗ (a) Article 356 does not dissolve the Assembly. It only takes over the Legislature's powers, so the Assembly can stay in suspended animation.
• ✗ (c) Article 19 is suspended under Article 358, and only while an Emergency for war or external aggression is in operation. A President's Rule Proclamation under Article 356 does not suspend it.

Remember · Article 356 (President's Rule): the State Legislature's powers pass to Parliament; the President legislates only if Parliament confers that power (Art. 357). Art. 19 is suspended only under Art. 358.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

A private member's bill is any bill moved by an MP who is not a minister, whether elected or nominated. And such bills are not new to Parliament: fourteen of them have become law since 1952, so neither statement holds.

• ✗ 1. The test is whether the mover is a minister, not how the member reached Parliament. Any non-minister MP, elected or nominated, introduces a private member's bill; a minister's bill is a government bill.
• ✗ 2. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat records 14 private members' bills enacted so far, starting with the Muslim Wakf Bill, 1952; the last of them became law in 1970. So when the Rajya Sabha passed the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2014 on 24 April 2015, it was not a first.

Remember · Private member's bill = moved by any MP who is not a minister. Only 14 have ever become law; the last one cleared both Houses in 1970.

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Answer: (c) the executive remains responsible to the legislature.

The defining advantage of the parliamentary system is that the executive stays answerable to the legislature. In India the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, so a government that loses the House's confidence cannot continue.

• ✓ (c) Article 75(3) makes the Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the House of the People. NCERT says the parliamentary form has many mechanisms that keep the executive answerable to and controlled by the legislature.
• ✗ (a) Independent working is a feature of the presidential system. In the parliamentary system the two organs are interdependent.
• ✗ (d) The government must have a majority in the legislature, so a Prime Minister can be replaced when that support is lost, without a fresh election.
• ✗ (b) Continuity and efficiency are not guaranteed, since a government can fall when it loses its majority. Accountability to the legislature is the main advantage.

Remember · Parliamentary system: the executive is drawn from, and answerable to, the legislature. Article 75(3): the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three are tools by which Parliament controls the Council of Ministers. Because ministers must answer to the House, members can question them, discuss urgent public matters, and press for further answers.

• ✓ 1. An adjournment motion lets the House set aside its business to discuss a definite matter of urgent public importance, with the Speaker's consent (Lok Sabha Rule 56). NCERT lists it among the instruments of control over the executive.
• ✓ 2. Question Hour is held every day during sessions and ministers must answer searching questions from members. NCERT calls it perhaps the most effective way of keeping vigil on the executive.
• ✓ 3. A supplementary question follows a minister's answer and lets a member seek further facts on it (Lok Sabha Rule 50). NCERT lists such questions among the ways the Lok Sabha controls the executive.

Remember · Parliament controls the executive through Question Hour, supplementary questions, adjournment motion, resolutions and the no-confidence motion.

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Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, 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

Neither statement is correct. Lok Sabha and Assembly seats are won by plurality, the most votes, and not by a 50 per cent majority. The Constitution only says the House elects its Speaker and Deputy Speaker from among its members; it does not reserve either post for a party.

• ✗ 1. India uses the First Past the Post system: the candidate with more votes than every other candidate wins, and need not secure a majority of the votes polled.
• ✗ 2. Article 93 says the House of the People chooses two of its members as Speaker and Deputy Speaker. It says nothing about the majority party or the Opposition; any such sharing is only a convention, not a constitutional provision.

Remember · Lok Sabha seats are won by plurality (First Past the Post), not a 50 per cent majority. Article 93: the House elects its own Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

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Answer: (c) A mechanism of parliamentary democracy for ensuring collective responsibility of the Government to the people.

The principle behind the Cabinet form of government is collective responsibility: the whole Council of Ministers answers to the elected House, and through it to the people. Article 75(3) states this for the Union: the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.

• ✓ (c) Collective responsibility means the ministers sink or swim together, and the ministry must resign if the Lok Sabha withdraws its confidence. That is how a parliamentary democracy holds the government accountable to the people.
• ✗ (a) The Cabinet system does not exist to reduce criticism; it exposes the government to questions and debate in the legislature.
• ✗ (b) Speed of decision-making is a side benefit at most; accountability to the legislature is the defining principle.
• ✗ (d) The Cabinet system is meant to make the executive answerable, not to strengthen a leader whose support has weakened.

Remember · Cabinet (parliamentary) government rests on collective responsibility: the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha (Article 75(3)).

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Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 only

Article 107 of the Constitution settles both points. Prorogation only ends a session, so no pending Bill lapses because of it; and a Bill that is still in the Rajya Sabha and has never been passed by the Lok Sabha survives a dissolution of the Lok Sabha.

• ✗ 1. Article 107(3) says a Bill pending in Parliament shall not lapse by reason of the prorogation of the Houses. Lapsing is linked to dissolution of the Lok Sabha, not to prorogation.
• ✓ 2. Article 107(4) protects a Bill pending in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) that the House of the People (Lok Sabha) has not passed; it does not lapse on dissolution.

Remember · Prorogation kills no Bill. Dissolution of the Lok Sabha kills Bills pending in the Lok Sabha, or passed by it and pending in the Rajya Sabha (Art. 107(5)), subject to Art. 108.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

The Chief Secretary, the senior-most civil servant of a State, is picked by the Chief Minister and appointed by the State Government; the order only carries the Governor's name because all State executive action is expressed in that name (Article 166). The post has no fixed tenure, which is why the Second Administrative Reforms Commission recommended a fixed tenure of at least two years.

• ✗ 1. The choice is the Chief Minister's and the appointment is an executive act of the State Government; the Governor does not select the officer, even though the order is issued in the Governor's name under Article 166(1).
• ✗ 2. No law fixes the Chief Secretary's term; the officer holds the post at the State Government's discretion until moved or retired. The 2nd ARC (15th Report, 2009) asked for a collegium-based panel and a fixed tenure of at least two years.

Remember · Chief Secretary: senior-most State civil servant, chosen by the CM, no fixed tenure; 2nd ARC proposed a collegium panel and a minimum two-year tenure.

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Answer: (d) Rajya Sabha by a majority of not less than two-thirds of its members present and voting

Under Article 249 only the Rajya Sabha can give Parliament this power, and it must do so by a resolution supported by at least two-thirds of its members present and voting. The Lok Sabha has no role in passing the resolution.

• ✓ (d) Article 249(1) says that if the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) declares, by a resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of members present and voting, that it is necessary or expedient in the national interest, Parliament may make laws on that State List matter for the whole or any part of India.
• ✗ (a) The Lok Sabha does not pass the Article 249 resolution, and a simple majority would not be enough in any case.
• ✗ (c) The House is right but the majority is wrong: the resolution needs two-thirds of members present and voting, not a simple majority of total membership.
• ✗ (b) Two-thirds is the correct size of majority, but it is counted in the Rajya Sabha and among members present and voting, not in the Lok Sabha.

Remember · Article 249: Rajya Sabha resolution, two-thirds of members present and voting, lets Parliament legislate on a State List subject in the national interest; it lasts up to one year and can be renewed.

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