BPSC 70th CCE Re-exam Prelims General Studies · Question 17 of 142

Correct — A, Government of India Act 1935. The 1935 Act introduced provincial autonomy and, with it, second chambers where none had existed. Six of the eleven British Indian provinces were given a bicameral legislature — Bengal, Bombay, Madras, Bihar, Assam and the United Provinces — each receiving a Legislative Council alongside a Legislative Assembly, while the remaining five stayed single-chambered. Bihar's own record dates the change precisely: the first Bihar Legislative Council was constituted on 22 July 1936 with 30 members, the first Chairman took office on 23 July 1937, and the two Houses held their first joint session on 22 July 1937, as the Act's provincial provisions came into force. Before that, Bihar had a single chamber — the Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council, itself a creature of the earlier reform Acts, whose presiding officers ran from Sir Walton Maude in 1921 to Rajandhari Singh in 1936 and whose line ends exactly when the bicameral legislature begins. The other two Acts did something different in kind. The Government of India Act 1919 introduced dyarchy, dividing provincial subjects into reserved and transferred, and enlarged the provincial legislative councils — but it kept them UNICAMERAL; the bicameralism of 1919 was at the centre, where it created a Council of State and a Legislative Assembly. The Indian Councils Act of 1909, the Morley–Minto reforms, merely expanded the existing councils, admitted a non-official majority in the provinces and introduced separate electorates; it created no second chamber anywhere. Since exactly one Act did what the stem describes, the escape option cannot stand.

• (b)Government of India Act 1919 — The strongest distractor, because the 1919 Act genuinely did introduce a two-chamber legislature — at the CENTRE, not in the provinces. It created the Council of State as the upper house and the Legislative Assembly as the lower, while provincial legislatures remained single-chambered under dyarchy. Transferring the centre's arrangement to the provinces is the standard error on this question.
• (c)Government of India Act 1909 — The Indian Councils Act 1909, known as the Morley–Minto reforms, enlarged the imperial and provincial legislative councils, allowed a non-official majority in the provincial councils and introduced separate electorates for Muslims. It created no new chamber at all, and its councils remained advisory bodies with no responsible ministry to hold to account.
• (d)More than one of the above — The escape option is correct only when at least two of the named alternatives are simultaneously true. Bihar's legislature became bicameral once, under one Act, on one set of dates. The 1909 and 1919 Acts each left the province with a single chamber.

The Government of India Act 1935 was the last and largest of the constitutional statutes of British India, and it is the direct ancestor of the Constitution of India. Its provincial half took effect in 1937 and abolished dyarchy in the provinces, giving them autonomy with ministries responsible to elected legislatures; its federal half, an All-India Federation joining the provinces to the princely States, was never brought into being because the required number of princes did not accede. Its lasting bequest is structural: the three-list division of legislative power between the centre and the units, the office of Governor with discretionary and emergency powers, a Federal Court, and a Reserve Bank. Much of that reappears in 1950 — the Seventh Schedule's Union, State and Concurrent Lists follow the 1935 scheme, and the Instrument of Instructions to Governors becomes the Directive Principles of State Policy.

Three Acts, three different things — and the way to keep them apart is to remember what each one CREATED. 1909 created separate electorates and enlarged councils. 1919 created dyarchy in the provinces and bicameralism at the centre. 1935 created provincial autonomy, the three lists, a Federal Court, and bicameralism in six provinces. Read the stem for the word that decides which is which: this one says the change was in Bihar and it was to a second chamber, so it is provincial bicameralism, which is 1935 alone. The dating check is a second, independent route to the same answer, and it is the one to use if the Acts blur together: Bihar's Legislative Council has a continuous roll of Chairmen beginning in 1937, and 1937 is the year the 1935 Act's provincial provisions came into force. An institution that began in 1937 cannot have been created by an Act of 1919.

• The Government of India Act 1935 gave a Legislative Council alongside the Legislative Assembly to six of the eleven British Indian provinces: Bengal, Bombay, Madras, Bihar, Assam and the United Provinces.
• Bihar's first Legislative Council was constituted on 22 July 1936 with 30 members; its first Chairman took office on 23 July 1937 and the two Houses held their first joint session on 22 July 1937.
• The Government of India Act 1919 introduced dyarchy in the provinces and kept provincial legislatures unicameral; its bicameralism — the Council of State and the Legislative Assembly — was at the centre.
• The Indian Councils Act 1909, the Morley–Minto reforms, enlarged the legislative councils and introduced separate electorates, but created no second chamber.
• The 1935 Act's All-India Federation never came into existence, but its division of legislative power into three lists became the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India.

• Attributing provincial bicameralism to 1919. That Act made the CENTRAL legislature bicameral and left the provinces with one chamber under dyarchy.
• Assuming all eleven provinces got a Legislative Council in 1935. Only six did, and five remained unicameral.
• Treating the 1935 Act as fully implemented. Its provincial part came into force in 1937; the federal part never did.

BPSC asks the Acts through their effect on Bihar's own institutions — which Act made the legislature bicameral, who chaired the Council first, who was Premier — so a Bihar candidate is expected to attach the general constitutional history to local dates. UPSC asks the same Acts as statement lists about their national provisions, or asks which Act a feature of the present Constitution descends from, as in its 2012 question on where the Centre–State distribution of powers comes from.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Government of India Act 1919 introduced a bicameral legislature

  • (a)in all eleven provinces of British India
  • (b)at the Centre only
  • (c)in six provinces including Bihar
  • (d)in the princely States

  Answer(b) at the Centre only — the Council of State as the upper house and the Legislative Assembly as the lower. Provincial legislatures remained unicameral under dyarchy until the Government of India Act 1935.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The division of legislative powers between the Union and the States in the Constitution of India follows the scheme first laid down in

  • (a)the Indian Councils Act 1909
  • (b)the Government of India Act 1919
  • (c)the Government of India Act 1935
  • (d)the Indian Independence Act 1947

  Answer(c) the Government of India Act 1935 — its Federal, Provincial and Concurrent Lists became the Union, State and Concurrent Lists of the Seventh Schedule.