CDS (I) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 102 of 120

Correct — C, The Government of India Act, 1935. The 1935 Act was the first to provide for a Federal Court, and it did so because it was the first to attempt a federation. A federal structure needs an umpire to settle disputes between the Centre and the units and to interpret the constitutional division of powers, and Part IX of the Act created one for that purpose. The Court was constituted in 1937 with an original jurisdiction over disputes between the federation and the provinces, an appellate jurisdiction in cases involving interpretation of the Act, and an advisory jurisdiction on references by the Governor-General. It functioned until the Supreme Court of India replaced it in 1950, and it is the direct ancestor of the jurisdictions listed in Articles 131, 132 and 143 today.

• (a)The Government of India Act, 1919 — The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms introduced dyarchy in the provinces and expanded the legislatures, but left the judicial structure alone. The highest appeal from India still lay to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, and there was no federation to need a federal court.
• (b)The Lee Commission, 1923 — The Royal Commission on the Superior Civil Services in India, which dealt with recruitment, Indianisation and the terms of service of the civil services. It recommended the Public Service Commission that was set up in 1926 — a body about administration, not adjudication.
• (d)The Indian Councils Act, 1909 — The Morley-Minto reforms enlarged the legislative councils and introduced separate electorates for Muslims. Nothing in the Act touches the courts.

The Government of India Act, 1935 was the longest statute the British Parliament had then passed and is the largest single source of the Indian Constitution's text. It abolished dyarchy in the provinces and gave them autonomy, introduced dyarchy at the Centre instead, divided legislative power into Federal, Provincial and Concurrent Lists, provided for a Reserve Bank, and set up a Federal Court. It also proposed an All-India Federation of British Indian provinces and princely States, which never came into being because too few princes acceded.

The reasoning shortcut is that a federal court presupposes a federation, and only one of the four options proposed one. Two details separate the careful candidate from the rest. First, the Federal Court was provided for by the 1935 Act but constituted in 1937, so 'provided for' and 'established' can carry different years in a question. Second, the Court did not sit at the apex — appeals still went onward to the Privy Council in London until the Abolition of Privy Council Jurisdiction Act, 1949. Note also what the 1935 Act did not do: defence and external affairs were reserved to the Governor-General, not handed to the federal legislature.

• The Government of India Act, 1935 provided for a Federal Court, provincial autonomy and an All-India Federation.
• The Federal Court was constituted in 1937 and functioned until the Supreme Court of India replaced it in 1950.
• It had original jurisdiction over disputes between the federation and the provinces, appellate jurisdiction on the interpretation of the Act, and advisory jurisdiction on references by the Governor-General.
• Appeals lay from it to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council until that jurisdiction was abolished in 1949.
• The All-India Federation contemplated by the Act never came into being because too few princely States acceded.

• Mixing 1935, the year the Federal Court was provided for, with 1937, the year it was constituted.
• Assuming the Federal Court was the final court of appeal; the Privy Council remained above it until 1949.
• Assuming the All-India Federation actually came into existence; only the provincial part of the Act was implemented.

As an Act-to-feature match, or as a statements item asking which features the 1935 Act did and did not provide.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Federal Court of India, provided for by the Government of India Act, 1935, was actually constituted in

  • (a)1935
  • (b)1937
  • (c)1946
  • (d)1950

  Answer(b) 1937 — it functioned until 1950, when the Supreme Court of India took its place.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Government of India Act, 1935, defence and external affairs were

  • (a)transferred to the federal legislature
  • (b)reserved to the Governor-General
  • (c)placed in the Concurrent List
  • (d)left to the provincial legislatures

  Answer(b) reserved to the Governor-General — the dyarchy the Act abolished in the provinces was introduced at the Centre instead.