Indian Constitution Quiz 3

Article 80(2) of the Constitution of India deals with the allocation of seats in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha). Twelve members are nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the President of India for their contributions towards arts, literature, sciences, and social services.

Rajasthan was the first state of India to adopt the 3-tier Panchayati Raj system. Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru inaugurated three Tier Panchayati Raj Systems on 2nd October 1959 in Nagaur district of Rajasthan.

Article 80 of the Constitution lays down the maximum strength of Rajya Sabha as 250, out of which 12 members are nominated by the President and 238 are representatives of the States and of the Union Territories. These members are elected by indirect election by state and territorial legislatures.

The Attorney General for India is appointed by the President of India under Article 76(1) of the Constitution of India. S/he has the right to speak and to take part in the proceedings of both the Houses of Parliament or their joint sitting and any committee of the Parliament of which s/he may be named a member but without a right to vote.

The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India consists of 22 languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri. Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution. Sindhi language was added in 1967. Thereafter three more languages viz., Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were included in 1992. Subsequently Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali were added in 2004.

The Constitution of India was adopted on 26 November 1949 and the hon'ble members appended their signatures to it on 24 January 1950.

Federalism is a system of government in which the power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units of the country. Usually, a federation has two levels of government. One is the government for the entire country that is usually responsible for a few subjects of common national interest. The others are governments at the level of provinces or states that look after much of the day-to-day administering of their state.

Though Article 16 prohibits discrimination in public employment on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, it allows the state to make provisions for reservation for weaker sections of society, if in the opinion of the state they are not adequately represented.

Article 51-A in Part IV A of the Constitution of India deals with Fundamental Duties. It was added by the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1976. Originally ten fundamental duties were listed. Later on, by virtue of 86th Constitution the Amendment in year 2002, 11th duty was added.

The provisions of a Federation with a strong centre, Residuary powers of the Centre, the appointment of State governors by the Centre and the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, have all been borrowed from the Canadian constitution.