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.
Correct — D, Reservation of seats for SCs and STs has nothing to do with proportion of their population. That is the false statement, and the Constitution says the opposite in as many words. Article 243D(1) reserves seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in every Panchayat and requires that the number of seats so reserved shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in that Panchayat as the population of the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes in that Panchayat area bears to the total population of that area. Proportion is not incidental to the scheme; it is the rule that fixes the number of reserved seats. The other three options each restate a provision of Part IX accurately.
- (a)Legislature of a State may, by law, make provisions with respect to the composition of Panchayats. — Correct as stated — Article 243C(1) leaves the composition of Panchayats to State law, subject to the rest of Part IX.
- (b)Panchayat area means the territorial area of a Panchayat. — Correct as stated. It is the definition given in Article 243 itself, and it is what makes the population-proportion rule in Article 243D workable.
- (c)Gram Sabha includes all persons in the electoral rolls of village within a Panchayat. — Correct as stated. Article 243 defines the Gram Sabha as a body consisting of persons registered in the electoral rolls of a village within the area of a Panchayat at the village level.
Part IX of the Constitution, inserted by the Seventy-third Amendment Act of 1992, gives Panchayati Raj a constitutional footing. It provides for Panchayats at village, intermediate and district levels, with the intermediate tier optional in States under twenty lakh population; a five-year term with elections within six months of dissolution; a State Election Commission to conduct the elections; a State Finance Commission every five years; and reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women.
The question is decided by one habit: read a negative option as a claim to be tested, not as background noise. Statement (d) says a rule has 'nothing to do with' population proportion, and Part IX is built around proportion, so it collapses at once. Learn the reservation scheme in its three layers to keep them apart — SC and ST seats in proportion to their share of the Panchayat area's population; not less than one third of those reserved seats for women of those communities; and not less than one third of all directly elected seats for women, the SC and ST women's seats included. Several States have since legislated fifty per cent for women, which is a State choice above the constitutional floor, not a change to the floor itself.
- Article 243D(1) requires SC and ST reservation in every Panchayat in proportion to their share of the Panchayat area's population.
- Article 243D(2) reserves not less than one third of those reserved seats for SC and ST women; Article 243D(3) reserves not less than one third of all directly elected seats for women.
- Article 243C(1) leaves the composition of Panchayats to State law.
- Article 243 defines 'Gram Sabha' as persons registered in the electoral rolls of a village, and 'Panchayat area' as the territorial area of a Panchayat.
- Part IX was inserted by the Seventy-third Amendment Act of 1992 and covers Articles 243 to 243-O.
Three options paraphrase the text; the fourth contradicts it.
- Confusing the two women's quotas — one third of the SC and ST reserved seats against one third of all directly elected seats.
- Reading the Gram Sabha as everyone who lives in the village; the definition is everyone on its electoral roll.
- Assuming the intermediate tier exists everywhere; States under twenty lakh may leave it out.
As a not-correct statement item like this one, as a numbers question on quotas and terms, or through PESA and the Eleventh Schedule.
Consider the following statements: 1. The minimum age prescribed for any person to be a member of a Panchayat is 25 years. 2. A Panchayat reconstituted after premature dissolution continues only for the remainder period. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(b) 2 only
Tests two more provisions of the same Part — the twenty-one-year age floor in Article 243F and the remainder-of-term rule in Article 243E. The method is identical: check each statement against the text rather than against intuition.
Consider the following statements: 1. Part IX of the Constitution of India contains provisions for Panchayats and was inserted by the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992. 2. Part IX A of the Constitution of India contains provisions for municipalities and Article 243Q envisages two types of municipalities for every State.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(a) 1 only
Places Part IX and the Seventy-third Amendment, which is the frame every one of this question's four statements sits in. It also shows the same trick — an option that gets the count of something wrong.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under Article 243D, seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes in a Panchayat must bear the same proportion to the total directly elected seats as
- (a)the SC population of the State bears to the State's population
- (b)the SC population of that Panchayat area bears to the total population of that area
- (c)the number of SC voters bears to the number of all voters in the State
- (d)is fixed from time to time by the State Election Commission
Answer(b) the SC population of that Panchayat area bears to the total population of that area — the proportion is worked out locally, area by area.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Panchayats at the intermediate level need not be constituted in a State having a population not exceeding
- (a)ten lakh
- (b)twenty lakh
- (c)fifty lakh
- (d)one crore
Answer(b) twenty lakh — the exception in Article 243B(2).