MPPSC 2018 Prelims Paper-I · Question 42 of 100

Correct — A, 1951. The commission's final key fixes 1951 as the year the office of Parliamentary Secretary was first created in independent India. A Parliamentary Secretary is a sitting legislator attached to a minister to assist with that ministry's House-related and departmental work; the post carries no independent charge of a department. The remaining choices are all later years, so they cannot mark the first creation.

• (b)1952 — A year later; the commission's key identifies 1951, not 1952, as the first year the post was created.
• (c)1957 — Too late — the key sets the first creation at 1951, several years before 1957.
• (d)1962 — The key marks 1951 as the first-creation year; 1962 is well after that and is not the answer.

A Parliamentary Secretary is a Member of Parliament (or MLA in a state) appointed to help a minister carry the parliamentary and departmental workload of a ministry. The office is borrowed from the British parliamentary system and has no independent charge. Because the holder is a legislator drawing office perks, such appointments have repeatedly been challenged as holding an 'office of profit', which can disqualify a member under Articles 102(1)(a) for MPs and 191(1)(a) for MLAs.

This is a date-recall item: the commission's key locks the first creation at 1951, so the three later years are distractors. The more examinable idea behind it is the 'office of profit' principle — many states later revived Parliamentary Secretary posts and courts struck them down for breaching that bar.

• A Parliamentary Secretary is a legislator attached to a minister; the post carries no independent departmental charge.
• The commission's final key gives 1951 as the year the office was first created in independent India.
• Appointing legislators as Parliamentary Secretaries has often been challenged as an 'office of profit' — a ground of disqualification under Articles 102(1)(a) [MPs] and 191(1)(a) [MLAs].
• Parliament and State Legislatures may, by law, exempt specified offices from the office-of-profit bar (e.g. the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959).

• Confusing a Parliamentary Secretary with the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
• Forgetting that such appointments can attract office-of-profit disqualification

MPPSC asks the year/first creation of the post; UPSC tests the office-of-profit principle (Articles 102/191) and which offices are exempted from it.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Appointing MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries has often been struck down by courts because it may attract disqualification on which ground?

  • (a)Holding an office of profit
  • (b)Defection under the Tenth Schedule
  • (c)Being of unsound mind
  • (d)Holding dual citizenship

  Answer(a) Holding an office of profit — challenged under Articles 102(1)(a)/191(1)(a).

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Disqualification of a Member of Parliament for holding an office of profit is dealt with under which Article of the Constitution?

  • (a)Article 75
  • (b)Article 102
  • (c)Article 110
  • (d)Article 123

  Answer(b) Article 102 — Article 191 covers the same for MLAs.