Parliament & the Union executive

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.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 7 (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) 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.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Politics in India since Independence, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

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