Which one of the following statements with regard to the functioning of the Panchayats is not correct?
- (a)Panchayats may levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls, etc.
- (b)A person who has attained the age of 25 years will be eligible to be a member of a Panchayat.
- (c)Every Panchayat shall ordinarily continue for five years from the date of its first meeting.
- (d)A Panchayat reconstituted after premature dissolution shall continue only for the remainder of the full period.
Correct — B, A person who has attained the age of 25 years will be eligible to be a member of a Panchayat. The age is twenty-one, not twenty-five. Article 243F disqualifies from a Panchayat anyone disqualified for elections to the State Legislature, and then adds a proviso that saves the young: no person shall be disqualified on the ground that he is less than twenty-five years of age, if he has attained the age of twenty one years. The framers of the Seventy-third Amendment deliberately set the local bar lower than the twenty-five demanded for a Legislative Assembly. The other three statements track Part IX accurately — Article 243H on taxes, Article 243E on the five-year term, and the same article on what a Panchayat gets when it is reconstituted after premature dissolution.
- (a)Panchayats may levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls, etc. — Correct, so not the answer. Under Article 243H the Legislature of a State may authorise a Panchayat to levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls and fees, and may assign it State-collected revenues and make grants-in-aid.
- (c)Every Panchayat shall ordinarily continue for five years from the date of its first meeting. — Correct. Article 243E gives every Panchayat five years from the date appointed for its first meeting, and no longer, unless dissolved sooner under law.
- (d)A Panchayat reconstituted after premature dissolution shall continue only for the remainder of the full period. — Correct, and it is the reason a five-yearly cycle survives a dissolution. A body constituted after premature dissolution serves only the unexpired part of the term the dissolved Panchayat would have had — and if that remainder is under six months, no election need be held at all.
Part IX of the Constitution, inserted by the Seventy-third Amendment in 1992, gave Panchayati Raj a constitutional floor: a three-tier structure in the larger states under Article 243B, direct election of members, a fixed five-year term, reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women, a State Election Commission to conduct the polls, and a State Finance Commission to review their finances every five years.
The question is a Part IX recall test with one number swapped, and the number chosen is the one a student is most likely to import from elsewhere — twenty-five is the age for the Lok Sabha and for a State Legislative Assembly, so it feels right. Article 243F exists precisely to stop that transfer. A quick sort of the four statements by article helps: 243H for taxes, 243E for duration and for the remainder rule after dissolution, 243F for disqualification. Only the last one carries an age, and it is twenty-one.
- Article 243F(1)(a) provides that no person shall be disqualified on the ground of being less than twenty-five years of age if he has attained the age of twenty-one.
- Article 243E gives every Panchayat five years from the date appointed for its first meeting, and no longer.
- A Panchayat constituted after premature dissolution continues only for the remainder of the dissolved body's term.
- No election need be held to constitute a Panchayat for a remainder of less than six months.
- Article 243H lets the State Legislature authorise a Panchayat to levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls and fees.
- Carrying the twenty-five-year age bar across from the Lok Sabha or a State Assembly to a Panchayat.
- Assuming a Panchayat reconstituted after dissolution gets a fresh five years; it gets only the remainder.
As a which-statement-is-not-correct item on Part IX, or as an article-to-provision match.
Which one of the following statements in relation to Panchayats is not correct?
- (a) Legislature of a State may, by law, make provisions with respect to the composition of Panchayats.
- (b) Panchayat area means the territorial area of a Panchayat.
- (c) Gram Sabha includes all persons in the electoral rolls of village within a Panchayat.
- (d) Reservation of seats for SCs and STs has nothing to do with proportion of their population.
Answer(d) Reservation of seats for SCs and STs has nothing to do with proportion of their population.
The sister session running the same trick on Part IX — three faithful restatements and one that quietly contradicts the text. There the false claim concerns reservation, which Article 243D ties directly to the share of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe population in the Panchayat area.
Which of the following statements about the Panchayati Raj System are correct? 1. All seats in a Panchayat are filled by persons chosen by direct election. 2. The ‘Gram Sabha’ consists of persons registered in the village electoral rolls. 3. The Chairperson of a Panchayat is elected in accordance with a law passed by each state. 4. All states in India have a three-tier system of Panchayats. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1 and 4 only
- (b) 1, 2 and 3 only
- (c) 2 and 3 only
- (d) 2, 3 and 4 only
Answer(b) 1, 2 and 3 only
A statement-set on the same Part IX provisions, useful for the definitions the age question sits beside. Its false statement is the fourth: the intermediate tier may be omitted in a State whose population does not exceed twenty lakh, so not every State has three tiers.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The minimum age for being chosen as a member of a Panchayat is
- (a)18 years
- (b)21 years
- (c)25 years
- (d)30 years
Answer(b) 21 years — the proviso to Article 243F(1)(a) expressly saves a candidate who has attained twenty-one from the twenty-five-year bar.
- practice — not a real PYQ
A Panchayat constituted upon the dissolution of a Panchayat before the expiry of its duration continues for
- (a)a fresh period of five years
- (b)the remainder of the period for which the dissolved Panchayat would have continued
- (c)a period fixed by the State Election Commission
- (d)one year only
Answer(b) the remainder of the period for which the dissolved Panchayat would have continued — Article 243E, which keeps the five-yearly cycle intact.