CDS (I) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 63 of 120

Correct — A, Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah. The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution was set up in February 2000 under the chairmanship of Venkatachaliah, who had been Chief Justice of India in 1993-94. Its eleven members included B.P. Jeevan Reddy, R.S. Sarkaria, Soli Sorabjee, K. Parasaran, Subhash C. Kashyap and P.A. Sangma, and it delivered a report of about 1,979 pages in two volumes on 31 March 2002. Its brief was deliberately narrow — to examine how the Constitution had worked in practice within the framework of parliamentary democracy, without disturbing the basic structure.

• (b)Justice J.S. Verma — Justice J.S. Verma was Chief Justice in 1997-98, wrote the Second Judges Case judgment that created the collegium, and later chaired the National Human Rights Commission and the 2012-13 committee on criminal law relating to offences against women.
• (c)Justice Ranganath Mishra — Justice Ranganath Mishra headed the commission of inquiry into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and later the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, which reported in 2007.
• (d)Justice Y.K. Sabharwal — Justice Y.K. Sabharwal was Chief Justice of India from 2005 to 2007, several years after this commission had already reported.

The commission was a review body, not a constituent one. It could recommend, and its recommendations covered electoral reform, the working of the Election Commission, fundamental rights and duties, Centre-State relations, the pace of judicial appointments and the size of the Council of Ministers. Very few of its proposals were enacted; the cap on the Council of Ministers at fifteen per cent of the strength of the Lok Sabha, brought in by the 91st Amendment in 2003, is the recommendation most often traced to it.

Four retired judges in a list is a memory question, and the way to hold them apart is by the body each is attached to rather than by the years each was Chief Justice. Venkatachaliah is the constitutional review commission of 2000; Verma is the collegium and the criminal-law committee; Ranganath Mishra is minorities and the 1984 inquiry; Sabharwal is the Office of Profit period. The year in the stem is itself a useful check — Sabharwal was still four years away from the top of the court when this commission began work.

• The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution was constituted in February 2000 and submitted its report on 31 March 2002.
• M.N. Venkatachaliah served as the 25th Chief Justice of India and later chaired the National Human Rights Commission.
• The commission had eleven members, among them B.P. Jeevan Reddy, R.S. Sarkaria, Soli Sorabjee, K. Parasaran, Subhash C. Kashyap and P.A. Sangma.
• Its terms of reference required it to work within the basic structure of the Constitution.
• The 91st Amendment of 2003, capping the Council of Ministers at fifteen per cent of the Lok Sabha's strength, follows a recommendation of this commission.

• Confusing this commission with the Administrative Reforms Commission, which reviews administration rather than the Constitution.
• Assuming a review commission can amend the Constitution; it could only recommend, and Parliament acted on very little.
• Attaching Justice Verma to this body because he is the other famous reforming judge of the period.

As a who-chaired-what item on commissions and committees, or paired with the Sarkaria and Punchhi commissions in a match-list.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution submitted its report in which one of the following years?

  • (a)1998
  • (b)2000
  • (c)2002
  • (d)2005

  Answer(c) 2002 — the commission was set up in February 2000 and reported on 31 March 2002.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The ceiling on the size of the Council of Ministers at fifteen per cent of the strength of the House of the People was introduced by which one of the following amendments?

  • (a)73rd Amendment
  • (b)86th Amendment
  • (c)91st Amendment
  • (d)97th Amendment

  Answer(c) 91st Amendment, 2003 — it inserted Article 75(1A) and followed a recommendation of the 2000 constitutional review commission.