CDS (I) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 107 of 120

Correct — B, the State Legislatures and the Panchayat. The Eleventh Schedule was inserted by the 73rd Amendment and is read with Article 243G, which says that the Legislature of a State may by law endow the Panchayats with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as institutions of self-government, including with respect to the preparation of plans and the implementation of schemes for the twenty-nine matters listed in that Schedule. The Schedule is therefore a menu, and the State Legislature is the hand that serves from it — agriculture, minor irrigation, animal husbandry, rural housing, drinking water, roads, poverty alleviation, primary education, health, the public distribution system and the rest. Devolution is not automatic, which is precisely why the two parties in the answer are the State Legislature on one side and the Panchayat on the other.

• (a)the Union and the State Legislatures — That is the Seventh Schedule, with its Union, State and Concurrent Lists. Panchayats do not appear there at all except as part of the State subject of local government.
• (c)the Municipal Corporation and the Panchayat — The Eleventh Schedule is entirely rural. The urban counterpart is the Twelfth Schedule of eighteen matters, inserted by the 74th Amendment and read with Article 243W, and no schedule divides powers between a corporation and a Panchayat.
• (d)the Gram Sabha and the Panchayat — The Gram Sabha is defined by Article 243(b) as the body of persons registered in the electoral rolls of a village, and Article 243A leaves its powers to be fixed by State law — but the Eleventh Schedule is not the instrument that does it.

The Constitution carries several lists of subjects and each has its own pair of parties. The Seventh Schedule divides legislative power between the Union and the States. The Eleventh Schedule, with twenty-nine matters, is what a State Legislature may devolve to Panchayats under Article 243G. The Twelfth Schedule, with eighteen matters, is the same idea for municipalities under Article 243W.

Two habits make these items easy. First, tie every schedule to its article — Eleventh with 243G, Twelfth with 243W, Seventh with Article 246. Second, remember that both the Eleventh and the Twelfth Schedules are permissive rather than mandatory: they list what may be devolved, and the extent of actual devolution has varied greatly from State to State, which is one of the standing criticisms of the 73rd Amendment. Higher education is a useful marker of the boundary — it is not among the twenty-nine, while primary and secondary schools are.

• The Eleventh Schedule lists twenty-nine matters and was inserted by the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992.
• It is read with Article 243G, under which the State Legislature may endow Panchayats with powers in respect of those matters.
• Devolution is permissive, not automatic — the extent varies from State to State.
• The Twelfth Schedule, with eighteen matters, is the urban counterpart, read with Article 243W after the 74th Amendment.
• Higher education is not among the twenty-nine matters, though primary and secondary education are.

• Confusing the Eleventh Schedule with the Seventh; the first is about devolution downward, the second about the Union-State division.
• Reading the twenty-nine matters as automatically transferred to Panchayats; a State law is needed.
• Placing higher education among the twenty-nine matters — it is not there.

As a schedule-to-subject match, or as an odd-one-out asking which subject is not in the Eleventh Schedule.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Twelfth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which lists the matters that may be devolved to municipalities, was inserted by

  • (a)the 42nd Amendment
  • (b)the 73rd Amendment
  • (c)the 74th Amendment
  • (d)the 97th Amendment

  Answer(c) the 74th Amendment — it added Part IX-A and the Twelfth Schedule of eighteen matters, read with Article 243W.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  How many matters are listed in the Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution of India?

  • (a)Eighteen
  • (b)Twenty-two
  • (c)Twenty-nine
  • (d)Thirty-two

  Answer(c) Twenty-nine — ranging from agriculture and minor irrigation to primary education, health and the public distribution system.