BPSC 70th CCE Re-exam Prelims General Studies · Question 135 of 142

Correct — D, 25, 30 and 35. Two articles of the Constitution settle all three figures, and both say so in as many words. Article 84 lays down the qualifications for membership of Parliament, and clause (b) reads that a person must be 'in the case of a seat in the Council of States, not less than thirty years of age and, in the case of a seat in the House of the People, not less than twenty-five years of age'. That is the Rajya Sabha at 30 and the Lok Sabha at 25, in one sentence. Article 58(1)(b) then provides that no person is eligible for election as President unless he 'has completed the age of thirty-five years'. So 25, 30 and 35 — option (d). Three details make this more than a memorised triple. First, the age is only one of the conditions: Article 84(a) also requires Indian citizenship and an oath subscribed before a person authorised by the Election Commission in the form set out in the Third Schedule, and Article 84(c) lets Parliament prescribe further qualifications, which it has done through the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Second, Article 58(1)(c) adds that the President must additionally be 'qualified for election as a member of the House of the People' — so a President has to clear the Lok Sabha bar of 25 as well, which the 35-year rule of course subsumes, and must not hold an office of profit under Article 58(2). Third, there is a real historical reason why 35 feels right for the Upper House: the Draft Constitution of 1948 set the Council of States age at thirty-five in what was then Article 68-A, and the Constituent Assembly brought it down to thirty before adoption. The distractor that prints 35 for the Rajya Sabha is repeating the draft, not the Constitution. The underlying pattern is the one worth carrying: 25 for a directly elected lower chamber, 30 for an indirectly elected upper chamber, 35 for the high constitutional offices — President under Article 58, Vice-President under Article 66(3)(b) and Governor under Article 157.

• (a)25, 30 and 30 — Gets Parliament exactly right and then carries the Rajya Sabha figure across to the President. Thirty is the Council of States number under Article 84(b); the President's floor is thirty-five under Article 58(1)(b). This is the option a candidate picks when the two numbers 25 and 30 are remembered as a pair and the third is guessed by repetition.
• (b)25, 35 and 35 — Right about the President and wrong about the Rajya Sabha, and wrong for an interesting reason — thirty-five was the figure in the Draft Constitution of 1948 before the Constituent Assembly lowered it to thirty. The enacted Article 84(b) says 'not less than thirty years of age' for a seat in the Council of States.
• (c)25, 35 and 45 — Compounds the previous error and adds a figure that appears nowhere in the Constitution. No office under the Constitution carries a minimum age above thirty-five — that is the ceiling of the age qualifications, shared by the President, the Vice-President and a Governor. Forty-five is invented to look suitably senior for the head of state.

The Constitution builds age qualifications in a ladder, and the rungs track how directly the office is filled and how much authority it carries. At the bottom, Article 243F sets twenty-one years for membership of a Panchayat and Article 243V does the same for a Municipality — the lowest floor anywhere in the text. Twenty-five is the age for a directly elected legislator: the House of the People under Article 84(b), and a State Legislative Assembly under the identically worded Article 173(b). Thirty is the age for an indirectly elected upper chamber — the Council of States under Article 84(b) and a State Legislative Council under Article 173(b) — on the reasoning that a revising chamber should be filled by people with more experience behind them. Thirty-five is reserved for the offices that hold executive or constitutional authority rather than a seat: President under Article 58(1)(b), Vice-President under Article 66(3)(b) and Governor under Article 157. Age is never the only condition; each of these articles pairs it with citizenship and, for the legislatures, with an oath and whatever further qualifications Parliament lays down by law.

This is a three-slot question, so it is decided by whichever slot the candidate is surest of, used to knock out options in bulk. Every option here starts with 25, so the Lok Sabha figure is free and carries no information. That leaves two decisions. Fix the President at 35 and options (a) and (c) die together. Fix the Rajya Sabha at 30 and options (b) and (c) die together. Either one of those two facts, held with confidence, leaves only option (d) standing — which is worth noticing, because it means a candidate who is sure of only half of what the question asks can still answer it with certainty. The fact most people are surest of is the President's 35, because it is shared with the Vice-President and the Governor and so gets reinforced three ways. The trickier one is the Rajya Sabha, and the reason it is tricky is historical rather than careless: the draft really did say thirty-five, so a half-remembered account of the debates points the wrong way.

• Article 84(b): not less than thirty years of age for a seat in the Council of States, and not less than twenty-five years for a seat in the House of the People
• Article 58(1)(b): the President must have completed thirty-five years, and Article 58(1)(c) additionally requires that he be qualified for election as a member of the House of the People
• The Draft Constitution of 1948 set the Council of States minimum at thirty-five in Article 68-A; the enacted Article 84(b) reduced it to thirty
• Article 66(3)(b) fixes thirty-five for the Vice-President and Article 157 fixes thirty-five for a Governor — the same floor as the President
• Article 173(b) mirrors Parliament at state level: twenty-five for a Legislative Assembly and thirty for a Legislative Council
• Article 243F sets twenty-one as the minimum age for membership of a Panchayat, the lowest age qualification in the Constitution and a standing UPSC trap

• Putting the Rajya Sabha at 35 — that was the 1948 draft; the Constitution as adopted says thirty in Article 84(b)
• Assuming the Panchayat minimum is 25 because the Assembly minimum is; Article 243F fixes it at 21
• Forgetting that the President must also satisfy the Lok Sabha qualifications under Article 58(1)(c), not merely the age in 58(1)(b)

BPSC packs three constitutional figures into one line and scores it as a single mark, which rewards a candidate who has memorised the ladder rather than isolated numbers. UPSC almost never asks a bare age; it hides the age inside a statement set — 'the minimum age to be a member of a Panchayat is 25 years' — where the number is a plausible-looking falsehood that has to be caught.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under which Article of the Constitution is the minimum age for election as President of India laid down ?

  • (a)Article 54
  • (b)Article 58
  • (c)Article 61
  • (d)Article 84

  Answer(b) Article 58 — clause (1)(b) requires that the person has completed thirty-five years; Article 54 deals with the electoral college and Article 61 with impeachment.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The minimum age prescribed by the Constitution for membership of a Panchayat is

  • (a)18 years
  • (b)21 years
  • (c)25 years
  • (d)30 years

  Answer(b) 21 years — Article 243F; 25 is the figure for a Legislative Assembly and the Lok Sabha, not for a Panchayat.