BPSC 71st CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 60 of 150

Correct — C, Administration of scheduled areas - 6th schedule. This is the mismatched pair, and it is the one BPSC itself explained when it disposed of candidate objections on 31 October 2025: administration of Scheduled Areas comes under the Fifth Schedule. Check it against the Constitution's own headings. The Fifth Schedule is headed 'Provisions as to the Administration and Control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes' and is issued under Article 244(1). The Sixth Schedule is headed 'Provisions as to the Administration of Tribal Areas in the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram' and is issued under Articles 244(2) and 275(1). Two different phrases, two different schedules: Scheduled Areas belong to the Fifth, Tribal Areas of those four north-eastern States to the Sixth. The Constitution does not leave the boundary to inference — paragraph 1 of the Fifth Schedule states that in that Schedule the expression 'State' does not include the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, so the four Sixth Schedule States are expressly carved out of the Fifth. The other three pairs are all correct as printed, which is what makes the question fair. The Fourth Schedule is headed 'Allocation of seats in the Council of States', so option (a) holds. The Third Schedule is headed 'Forms of Oaths or Affirmations' and carries the oath forms for Ministers, legislators, judges and the Comptroller and Auditor-General, so option (b) holds. The Seventh Schedule contains List I the Union List, List II the State List and List III the Concurrent List, so option (d) holds. Note also what the two tribal schedules actually do, because that is the substance behind the labels. Under the Fifth Schedule the Governor of every State having Scheduled Areas reports annually, or whenever the President requires, to the President on their administration, and the Union's executive power extends to giving the State directions on it; a Tribes Advisory Council of not more than twenty members, three-fourths of them Scheduled Tribe members of the State Legislative Assembly, advises the Governor; and 'Scheduled Areas' are those the President declares by order. The Sixth Schedule instead creates autonomous districts and autonomous regions with elected District and Regional Councils holding their own legislative, judicial and financial powers. Fifth Schedule equals gubernatorial and presidential oversight; Sixth Schedule equals self-governing councils.

• (a)Allocation of seats in the council of state - 4th schedule — Correctly matched, so it cannot be the answer. The Fourth Schedule is headed 'Allocation of seats in the Council of States' and tabulates how many Rajya Sabha seats each State and Union territory gets. The most common way candidates lose this one is by confusing it with the Second Schedule, which deals with the emoluments and allowances of the President, Governors, presiding officers, judges and the CAG.
• (b)Forms of oath - 3rd schedule — Correctly matched. The Third Schedule is headed 'Forms of Oaths or Affirmations' and prints the actual texts sworn by Union and State Ministers, by candidates and members of Parliament and State legislatures, and by judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts and the Comptroller and Auditor-General. Only the President's and Governors' oaths sit elsewhere, in Articles 60 and 159 themselves.
• (d)Union List - 7th schedule — Correctly matched, and the pair a candidate is likeliest to be sure of. The Seventh Schedule is the three-list schedule read with Article 246 — List I the Union List, List II the State List, List III the Concurrent List. Because it is so familiar it is usually eliminated first, which is exactly why an examiner puts it in a not-correctly-matched question: it costs nothing and speeds the candidate toward the real decision between the Fifth and Sixth.

The Constitution originally carried eight Schedules; there are now twelve, and each is a body of detail lifted out of the articles so the text of the articles stays readable. Every Schedule is anchored to an article, and knowing the anchor is often faster than memorising the list: the First (States and Union territories) to Articles 1 and 4; the Second (emoluments of the President, Governors, presiding officers, judges and the CAG) to several articles including 59, 65 and 125; the Third (Forms of Oaths or Affirmations) to Articles 75, 84, 99, 124, 148, 164, 188 and 219; the Fourth (allocation of Rajya Sabha seats) to Articles 4 and 80; the Fifth to Article 244(1); the Sixth to Articles 244(2) and 275(1); the Seventh to Article 246; the Eighth (languages) to Articles 344 and 351; the Ninth (validation of certain Acts and Regulations) added by the First Amendment in 1951 and anchored to Article 31B; the Tenth (disqualification on ground of defection) added by the 52nd Amendment in 1985; and the Eleventh and Twelfth, added by the 73rd and 74th Amendments in 1992, listing the subjects that may be entrusted to Panchayats under Article 243G and to Municipalities under Article 243W. The Fifth and Sixth are the pair examiners return to most, because both concern tribal administration and both are named after a kind of area — but they run on opposite principles. The Fifth keeps administration with the State's Governor under presidential supervision; the Sixth devolves it to elected autonomous councils.

Not-correctly-matched questions reward the candidate who checks all four pairs instead of stopping at the first that looks odd. Do the cheap ones first: the Seventh Schedule holding the Union List and the Third holding the oath forms are the two most drilled facts in the schedule list, and the Fourth Schedule's allocation of Council of States seats is nearly as safe. Once three pairs stand, the answer is forced, and you can then confirm it rather than agonise over it. Confirmation here rests on a single word in the printed pair: 'scheduled areas'. The Constitution uses two distinct terms of art, and it uses them consistently. 'Scheduled Areas' is the Fifth Schedule's term, under Article 244(1). 'Tribal Areas' is the Sixth Schedule's term, under Articles 244(2) and 275(1), and it is confined by name to Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. That is the single discriminating fact, and paragraph 1 of the Fifth Schedule seals it by declaring that in that Schedule the word 'State' does not include those four States. So the two schedules cannot overlap: a Scheduled Area is by definition outside the Sixth Schedule's four States, and a Tribal Area under the Sixth is by definition not governed by the Fifth. The trap is that both schedules are about tribal administration and sit next to each other, so a candidate who has learnt 'tribal areas — Sixth Schedule' as a slogan will read 'scheduled areas' as a synonym and pass over the mismatched pair. The Commission's own remark on this question does nothing more than restate the distinction, which tells you how many candidates missed it.

• The Fifth Schedule is headed 'Provisions as to the Administration and Control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes' and issued under Article 244(1); the Sixth Schedule is headed 'Provisions as to the Administration of Tribal Areas in the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram' and issued under Articles 244(2) and 275(1) — different subject, different article, different schedule.
• Paragraph 1 of the Fifth Schedule provides that in that Schedule the expression 'State' does not include the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram — the Constitution's own words separating the Fifth Schedule regime from the Sixth, and the four-State list was built up by the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act 1971, the 49th Amendment of 1984 and the State of Mizoram Act 1986.
• Fifth Schedule machinery: paragraph 3 requires the Governor of each State having Scheduled Areas to report to the President annually or whenever required, with the Union's executive power extending to directions on their administration; paragraph 4 sets up a Tribes Advisory Council of not more than twenty members, of whom as nearly as may be three-fourths are Scheduled Tribe members of the State Legislative Assembly; paragraph 6 makes Scheduled Areas those that the President declares by order.
• Sixth Schedule machinery is devolutionary rather than supervisory: paragraph 1 makes the tribal areas listed in the table to paragraph 20 autonomous districts, which the Governor may further divide into autonomous regions, each with an elected District or Regional Council exercising legislative, judicial and financial powers.
• The three correctly matched pairs, from the Constitution's own headings: Third Schedule — Forms of Oaths or Affirmations; Fourth Schedule — Allocation of seats in the Council of States; Seventh Schedule — List I Union List, List II State List, List III Concurrent List. The Constitution began with eight Schedules and now has twelve, the Ninth added by the First Amendment (1951), the Tenth by the 52nd (1985) and the Eleventh and Twelfth by the 73rd and 74th (1992).

• Treating 'Scheduled Areas' and 'Tribal Areas' as synonyms — they are distinct terms of art, the first belonging to the Fifth Schedule and the second to the Sixth, and the Fifth Schedule's own paragraph 1 excludes the four Sixth Schedule States
• Answering a not-correctly-matched question from the first pair that looks unusual instead of verifying all four — three of these pairs are drawn straight from the Constitution's printed headings and can be cleared in seconds
• Putting the allocation of Council of States seats in the Second Schedule — the Second deals with emoluments and allowances; the allocation table is the Fourth

BPSC prefers the compact matched-pairs form: four pairs, one flaw, no statement numbering, and the flaw planted in the one place where two adjacent schedules use similar-sounding language. It is a pure recall test that punishes slogan-learning rather than reasoning. UPSC has mined the same schedule list for three decades but usually one schedule at a time and in the positive — asking outright which Schedule contains the special provisions for the administration and control of Scheduled Areas, or which statement correctly describes the Fourth Schedule, a question it liked enough to repeat almost verbatim in 2001 and again in 2004.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following pairs is NOT correctly matched?

  • (a)Emoluments and allowances of the President and Governors — Second Schedule
  • (b)Languages recognised by the Constitution — Eighth Schedule
  • (c)Disqualification on ground of defection — Ninth Schedule
  • (d)Powers, authority and responsibilities of Panchayats — Eleventh Schedule

  Answer(c) Disqualification on ground of defection — Ninth Schedule. Anti-defection is the Tenth Schedule, added by the 52nd Amendment in 1985; the Ninth Schedule, added by the First Amendment in 1951, validates certain Acts and Regulations and is read with Article 31B.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India provides for the administration of tribal areas in which of the following States?

  • (a)Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram
  • (b)Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram
  • (c)Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh
  • (d)Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Sikkim

  Answer(b) Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram — the four States named in the Sixth Schedule's own heading; Nagaland and Sikkim have special provisions under Articles 371A and 371F instead, while the States in option (c) contain Fifth Schedule Scheduled Areas.