CDS (I) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 111 of 120

Correct — B, Election Commission, Planning Commission, Finance Commission, Investment Commission. Three sourced dates settle the whole item. The Election Commission of India came into being on 25 January 1950 under Article 324, the day before the Constitution commenced, which is why that date is now observed as National Voters' Day. The Planning Commission followed within weeks, created by a government resolution on 15 March 1950 with no constitutional or statutory basis at all. The First Finance Commission was constituted in 1951 under Article 280, with K. C. Neogy as Chairman, and reported for the period 1952 to 1957. The Investment Commission is a creature of the 2000s and comes last. Only option (b) puts those first three in the order 25 January 1950, 15 March 1950, 1951.

• (a)Finance Commission, Planning Commission, Investment Commission, Election Commission — Puts the Finance Commission first and the Election Commission last, which reverses the two ends of the real sequence — the Election Commission predates the Constitution's commencement, the Finance Commission came a year and a half later.
• (c)Planning Commission, Election Commission, Finance Commission, Investment Commission — The near miss, and the option that catches most candidates. It has Finance and Investment in the right places but swaps the first two: the Election Commission was set up on 25 January 1950 and the Planning Commission on 15 March 1950, so the Election Commission comes first by about seven weeks.
• (d)Investment Commission, Finance Commission, Planning Commission, Election Commission — The whole order run backwards, with a twenty-first-century body placed before three bodies of 1950 and 1951.

These four bodies illustrate the three different footings on which Indian institutions stand. The Election Commission and the Finance Commission are constitutional, created by Articles 324 and 280. The Planning Commission was purely executive, born of a Cabinet resolution, which is why it could be dissolved by another one in 2014 and replaced by NITI Aayog. The Investment Commission was likewise an executive creation, set up to court investment into India, and it too has come and gone.

A sequencing item does not require every date. Here the Investment Commission's own year is never needed: options (a) and (d) place the Finance Commission before the Planning Commission or the Election Commission, which the 1950 and 1951 dates rule out, and option (c) inverts the Election and Planning Commissions. Learning the two 1950 dates in order — 25 January and 15 March — and the Finance Commission's 1951 is enough to reach a single surviving option. That is a habit worth carrying into every 'correct sequence' question: find the two dates you are certain of, and use them to eliminate rather than to construct.

• The Election Commission of India was established on 25 January 1950 under Article 324; the date is now observed as National Voters' Day.
• The Planning Commission was set up by a government resolution on 15 March 1950, with no constitutional or statutory basis.
• The First Finance Commission was constituted in 1951 under Article 280, chaired by K. C. Neogy, and covered the period 1952 to 1957.
• The Planning Commission was dissolved on 17 August 2014 and replaced by NITI Aayog.
• The Investment Commission belongs to the 2000s and is the most recent of the four.

• Placing the Planning Commission before the Election Commission; the gap is under two months but it runs the other way.
• Assuming a body named in the Constitution must be older than one created by resolution; the Finance Commission is constitutional yet younger than the Planning Commission.
• Trying to date every item in a sequence question when two or three certain dates already eliminate all but one option.

As a chronological sequence of institutions, or as a classification item asking which bodies are constitutional and which are not.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following bodies was NOT established by the Constitution of India?

  • (a)Election Commission of India
  • (b)Finance Commission
  • (c)Planning Commission
  • (d)Union Public Service Commission

  Answer(c) Planning Commission — it was created by a government resolution in March 1950 and dissolved by another in 2014, which is exactly why it could be replaced without a constitutional amendment.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The First Finance Commission of India was chaired by

  • (a)K. C. Neogy
  • (b)Sukumar Sen
  • (c)C. D. Deshmukh
  • (d)K. Santhanam

  Answer(a) K. C. Neogy — the Commission was constituted in 1951 under Article 280 and made recommendations for the period 1952 to 1957.