MPSC 2024 Prelims Paper-I · Question 98 of 100

Correct — option (1), '(a) and (d) are correct.' Statement (a) is correct as printed: the measure was titled the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam and was introduced in Parliament as the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023 — a bill is numbered in the series of bills, and on enactment it became the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, which is why the two numbers both attach to the same measure. Statement (d) is also correct: it was the first bill taken up in the new Parliament building, which had been inaugurated on 28 May 2023 and into which the two Houses moved during the special session of September 2023. Statement (b) fails twice over. The bill was introduced by the Minister of Law and Justice, Arjun Ram Meghwal, not by the Prime Minister, and it was introduced on 19 September 2023, not on 10 September. Statement (c) fails on its figure: the amendment reserves, as nearly as may be, ONE-THIRD of the seats — not thirty per cent — in the Lok Sabha, in the legislative assemblies of the states and in the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, and one-third of the seats already reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes within those bodies. So exactly two statements stand, (a) and (d). Notice the structure of the option grid: statement (a) appears in all four options, so it need not be adjudicated at all, and the question reduces to whether (b), (c) and (d) are true. Spotting a statement common to every option is worth a few seconds on any list question.

• (2)(a) and (b) are correct. — This option accepts statement (b), which misattributes the introduction of the bill and misdates it. The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Union Minister of Law and Justice, Arjun Ram Meghwal, on 19 September 2023; the Prime Minister spoke on it, which is very likely the source of the confusion, but a bill is introduced by the minister in charge of it. The option also discards statement (d), which is true. Attributing a landmark measure to the head of government rather than to the departmental minister is one of the commonest errors in questions about legislation.
• (3)(a), (b), (c) are correct. — This adds a second false statement to the first. The reservation is of one-third of the seats, which is about 33 per cent, not the 30 per cent printed in statement (c); and it applies to the Lok Sabha, the state legislative assemblies and the Delhi assembly, with one-third of the seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes within those bodies also reserved for women. It does not extend to the Rajya Sabha or to the state Legislative Councils. Thirty per cent is a figure that appears in other Indian reservation contexts, which is why it reads plausibly here — but the amendment's own language is 'as nearly as may be, one-third'.
• (4)(a), (b), (c) and (d) are correct. — The sweep-everything option, and it fails on both statement (b) and statement (c) — the wrong mover and date for the bill, and the wrong fraction of seats. Two of its four components are sound, which is why it is offered: a candidate who is confident about the bill's title and about its being the first measure taken up in the new building may assume the rest of the set is equally reliable. On a four-statement list an 'all of them' option should be the last one considered, and only after each statement has been separately confirmed.

The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was passed in the special session of Parliament held in September 2023 — the session in which the two Houses moved from the old Parliament House into the new building. Introduced in the Lok Sabha on 19 September 2023 by the Law Minister as the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, it was passed by the Lok Sabha on 20 September and by the Rajya Sabha on 21 September, received presidential assent on 28 September, and became the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023. It inserts Articles 330A and 332A, reserving as nearly as may be one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and in the legislative assemblies of the states for women, including one-third of the seats already reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and makes corresponding provision for the Delhi assembly through Article 239AA. Article 334A carries the two conditions that determine when the reservation actually begins: it takes effect after the first census conducted after the commencement of the Act and after the delimitation exercise undertaken on the basis of that census, and it is to last fifteen years, continuing thereafter until Parliament by law provides otherwise. Seats reserved for women are to be rotated after each delimitation. The reservation does not extend to the Rajya Sabha or to the state Legislative Councils. Its ancestry runs back to the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Amendments of 1992, which reserved a third of the seats in panchayats and municipalities for women, and to a succession of women's reservation bills introduced and lapsed from 1996 onwards.

Landmark legislation is examined in MPSC papers through four particulars: the official name and amendment number, who introduced it and when, what exactly it provides, and when it comes into force. This question falsifies the second and the third, which is the usual choice, because a candidate who followed the news remembers that the measure passed and forgets the machinery around it. Three habits repay attention. First, distinguish a bill's amendment number from the Act's: introduced as the 128th Amendment Bill, enacted as the 106th Amendment Act, because bills are numbered as they are introduced and Acts as they are passed. Second, be exact about fractions — 'one-third' is the constitutional language and paraphrasing it as thirty per cent makes the statement false. Third, remember that a bill is introduced by the minister in charge of the subject, whatever the political prominence of the measure. Note also the paper's own untidiness here: the instruction 'Select the correct statements from the above.' is printed after the statement list rather than before it, and statement (a) is printed with the grammar the commission set.

• The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was introduced as the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023 and enacted as the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023.
• It was introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Minister of Law and Justice, Arjun Ram Meghwal, on 19 September 2023, passed by the Lok Sabha on 20 September and by the Rajya Sabha on 21 September, and received assent on 28 September 2023.
• It was the first bill taken up in the new Parliament building, which had been inaugurated on 28 May 2023.
• It reserves, as nearly as may be, one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha, in the state legislative assemblies and in the Delhi assembly for women, including one-third of the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
• The reservation takes effect after the first census conducted after the Act's commencement and the delimitation carried out on its basis; it is to last fifteen years and seats are to be rotated after each delimitation.
• It does not apply to the Rajya Sabha or to the state Legislative Councils.
• The Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Amendments of 1992 had already reserved one-third of the seats in panchayats and municipalities for women.

• Recording 30 per cent instead of one-third, which is the language the amendment actually uses
• Attributing the introduction of a bill to the Prime Minister rather than to the minister in charge
• Confusing the bill's amendment number, 128th, with the Act's, 106th
• Assuming the reservation is already in force; it awaits the next census and the delimitation based on it

Constitutional amendments of the recent past are asked in MPSC papers both by number and by content, and the women's reservation amendment is likely to recur for several cycles because its commencement is still pending. Expect statement lists that mix the true title with a wrong date, a wrong mover or a wrong fraction, and single-line items asking which article was inserted or when the reservation takes effect. Prepare each recent amendment as a five-line record: bill number, Act number, date of assent, substantive provision in the Constitution's own words, and the condition for commencement.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 provides that the reservation of seats for women shall take effect :

  • (a)Immediately on the President's assent
  • (b)From the next general election to the Lok Sabha
  • (c)After the first census conducted after the commencement of the Act and the delimitation carried out on its basis
  • (d)After ratification by half the state legislatures

  Answer(c) After the first census conducted after the commencement of the Act and the delimitation carried out on its basis — Article 334A ties the commencement of the reservation to those two exercises, and provides that it shall continue for fifteen years and thereafter until Parliament by law provides otherwise.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The reservation of seats for women under the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam applies to which of the following ?

  • (a)The Lok Sabha, the state legislative assemblies and the Delhi Legislative Assembly
  • (b)The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha only
  • (c)All Houses of Parliament and all state legislatures, including Legislative Councils
  • (d)Panchayats and municipalities only

  Answer(a) The Lok Sabha, the state legislative assemblies and the Delhi Legislative Assembly — the amendment does not extend to the Rajya Sabha or to the state Legislative Councils. Reservation in panchayats and municipalities had already been provided by the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Amendments of 1992.