BPSC 70th CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 16 of 143

Correct — C, Article 102 (1) (a). Article 102(1) opens by saying that a person shall be disqualified 'for being chosen as, and for being, a member of either House of Parliament', and then lists the grounds in lettered sub-clauses. The first of them is the office-of-profit bar, and the Constitution's own words are these: '(a) if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State, other than an office declared by Parliament by law not to disqualify its holder'. That sentence does two things at once, and both are examinable. It imposes the bar, and in the same breath it authorises Parliament to carve out exceptions by statute — which is exactly why the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959 exists and why holding certain public positions does not in fact cost a member the seat. Two further features of the article are worth carrying. The Explanation to clause (1) provides that a person shall not be deemed to hold an office of profit 'by reason only that he is a Minister either for the Union or for such State' — which is how ministers, who hold salaried government offices in any plain reading, remain members of the House. And clause (2), inserted by the Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985 with effect from 1 March 1985, adds disqualification under the Tenth Schedule as a wholly separate head. Note finally that Article 102 says only what disqualifies; who decides is Article 103, under which the question is referred to the President, whose decision is final, and who must first obtain the opinion of the Election Commission and act according to it.

• (a)Article 102 (1) (b) — Article 102 (1) (b) — the unsoundness-of-mind ground. Its text is 'if he is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court', and the second half matters as much as the first: an assertion or a medical opinion is not enough, because a court of competent jurisdiction must have made the declaration. Being first in the option list and second in the Constitution, it collects candidates who remember the article but not the ordering of its clauses.
• (b)Article 102 (1) (c) — Article 102 (1) (c) — the insolvency ground, in the Constitution's words 'if he is an undischarged insolvent'. The word 'undischarged' is doing the work: a person who has been through insolvency and has been discharged is not caught by it. This is a real disqualification and a real clause of Article 102, but it has nothing to do with holding an office under the Government.
• (d)Article 102 (1) (d) — Article 102 (1) (d) — the citizenship and allegiance ground: 'if he is not a citizen of India, or has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign State, or is under any acknowledgment of allegiance or adherence to a foreign State'. Coming late in the lettered list, it attracts anyone who guesses that the office-of-profit bar must come at the end. It comes first.

The Constitution builds legislator disqualification as a matched pair of provisions, one for the Union and one for the States, and the numbers are worth learning together because examiners swap them. Article 102 governs membership of either House of Parliament; Article 191 is the identical provision, in almost identical words, for the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council of a State. The grounds in both are the same five: office of profit, unsoundness of mind declared by a court, undischarged insolvency, lack of Indian citizenship or allegiance to a foreign State, and — as a catch-all in sub-clause (e) — disqualification 'by or under any law made by Parliament', which is the doorway through which the Representation of the People Act, 1951 brings in conviction-based disqualification. Who adjudicates is set out separately and differs by level: under Article 103 the President decides for Parliament, and under Article 192 the Governor decides for a State legislature, each acting on the opinion of the Election Commission. Defection is the exception to that scheme — a Tenth Schedule disqualification is decided not by the President or the Governor but by the presiding officer of the House. One more point that examiners like: the phrase 'office of profit' is nowhere defined in the Constitution, and the tests courts apply look at whether the Government appoints the holder, can remove them, pays them, and whether the post carries real functions or patronage.

The option list gives away what is being tested. All four choices are the same article and even the same clause; only the final letter changes. So recognising 'Article 102' earns nothing at all, and the entire mark rests on the ordering inside clause (1). The efficient defence is to store 102(1) as an ordered four-item list rather than as a concept — profit, mind, insolvency, citizenship, in that sequence, with (e) as the catch-all for anything Parliament legislates. A useful secondary check works even when the ordering slips. Of the four grounds, the office-of-profit clause is the only one carrying an exception built into its own text: it ends 'other than an office declared by Parliament by law not to disqualify its holder'. None of the other three admits any exception, because there is no version of unsoundness of mind or foreign allegiance that Parliament may bless. If you can recall which disqualification comes with a statutory escape hatch, you have identified (a) without needing to recall its position. Carry the state mirror alongside it too, since BPSC is a state examination: the same bar for a member of a State Legislature is Article 191(1)(a).

• Article 102(1)(a), verbatim: a person is disqualified 'if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State, other than an office declared by Parliament by law not to disqualify its holder'.
• The remaining grounds in Article 102(1): (b) unsound mind so declared by a competent court, (c) undischarged insolvent, (d) not a citizen of India or owing allegiance to a foreign State, and (e) disqualified by or under any law made by Parliament.
• The Explanation to Article 102(1) protects ministers: a person is not deemed to hold an office of profit 'by reason only that he is a Minister either for the Union or for such State'.
• Article 102(2), inserted by the Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985 with effect from 1 March 1985, adds disqualification under the Tenth Schedule, the anti-defection provisions.
• Article 103 decides the forum: the question is referred to the President, whose decision is final, and under Article 103(2) the President 'shall obtain the opinion of the Election Commission and shall act according to such opinion'.
• Article 191 carries the identical disqualifications for members of State Legislatures, with Article 192 placing the same decision in the hands of the Governor — the state mirror of Articles 102 and 103.

• Reading the article number and stopping there. All four options say Article 102(1); only the sub-clause letter distinguishes them, so the article number carries no information at all.
• Confusing what disqualifies with who decides. Article 102 lists the grounds; Article 103 sends the question to the President, acting on the Election Commission's opinion — and a Tenth Schedule case goes to the presiding officer instead.
• Assuming a minister must be caught by the office-of-profit bar. The Explanation to Article 102(1) expressly excludes being a Minister of the Union or of a State from the definition.

BPSC asks constitutional law at the level of the clause, not the article — all four options here are Article 102(1) and differ only by a letter — so a candidate has to have read the article rather than merely learnt what it is about, and the same treatment turns up for procedural provisions elsewhere in the paper. UPSC almost never asks a bare article number. It asks whether the term is defined in the Constitution, how many times the exempting statute has been amended, or who has the final say on a Tenth Schedule question, so the identical topic arrives as a multi-statement test of how the provision actually works.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Constitution, the question whether a member of either House of Parliament has become subject to a disqualification under Article 102(1) is decided by

  • (a)the Speaker of the Lok Sabha
  • (b)the Supreme Court
  • (c)the President, acting on the opinion of the Election Commission
  • (d)the Election Commission alone

  Answer(c) the President, acting on the opinion of the Election Commission — Article 103, under which the President's decision is final and the opinion of the Commission is binding on that decision. Disqualification under the Tenth Schedule is the exception, and goes to the presiding officer.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Article of the Constitution lays down disqualifications for membership of a State Legislature ?

  • (a)Article 102
  • (b)Article 173
  • (c)Article 191
  • (d)Article 243F

  Answer(c) Article 191 — the state mirror of Article 102, with the same five grounds. Article 102 applies to Parliament, Article 173 sets qualifications rather than disqualifications for a State Legislature, and Article 243F deals with panchayat membership.