MPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 75 of 100

Correct — option (3), Only a. Part I of the Constitution of India, comprising Articles 1 to 4, is titled 'The Union and its Territory', which is exactly what statement a says. Article 1 declares that 'India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States' and lists the Union's territory; Article 2 empowers Parliament to admit or establish new States; Article 3 empowers Parliament to form new States, alter boundaries, names or areas of existing States, and Article 4 provides that laws made under Articles 2 and 3 for these purposes are not to be treated as amendments to the Constitution under Article 368. None of this concerns Fundamental Rights, the judiciary, or Fundamental Duties — those subjects sit in entirely different Parts of the Constitution. Statement b, Fundamental Rights, is the subject of Part III (Articles 12 to 35), not Part I. Statement c, about 'Justice' — read as the judiciary — is not a Part-I subject either; the judiciary is dealt with mainly in Part V (Union Judiciary, Articles 124-147) and Part VI (State judiciary, Articles 214-237), while 'Justice' as an ideal also appears in the Preamble, again not in Part I. Statement d, Fundamental Duties, is the subject of Part IVA (Article 51A), inserted by the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976, again a different Part altogether. Since only statement a correctly identifies Part I's actual subject matter, the correct set is 'Only a'.

• (1)Only b and d — This pairs Fundamental Rights (b) with Fundamental Duties (d), but neither subject belongs to Part I. Fundamental Rights are addressed in Part III (Articles 12-35), and Fundamental Duties in Part IVA (Article 51A) — both are separate Parts covering entirely different subject matter from Articles 1 to 4's focus on the Union and its territory. This option also omits statement a, the one statement that genuinely describes Part I.
• (2)Only c and a — This correctly includes a (the Union and its territory, Part I's actual subject) but incorrectly adds c, 'about Justice' — the judiciary is covered in Part V (Union Judiciary) and Part VI (State Judiciary), not Part I, and 'Justice' as a value also appears only in the Preamble. Pairing a correct statement with an unrelated one still produces a wrong set.
• (4)Only a and b — This correctly includes a but incorrectly adds b, Fundamental Rights, which is the subject of Part III (Articles 12-35), a completely separate Part from Part I's Articles 1 to 4 on the Union and its territory. As with the other distractors, attaching an unrelated true-sounding subject to the one correct statement still makes the overall set incorrect.

The Constitution of India is organised into Parts, each grouping Articles that share a common subject. Part I, titled 'The Union and its Territory', comprises Articles 1 to 4 and establishes the basic identity and territorial framework of the Indian Union: Article 1 names India as a 'Union of States' (deliberately avoiding the word 'federation' to reflect that the Union is indestructible even though individual States can be reorganised) and defines its territory as comprising State territories, Union Territories and any other acquired territories; Article 2 allows Parliament to admit or establish new States on such terms as it thinks fit; Article 3 allows Parliament, by simple majority, to form new States by separation, union or alteration of existing State areas, boundaries or names (though a bill for this purpose can be introduced only on the President's recommendation, and after the concerned State legislature's views have been obtained, though those views are not binding); and Article 4 clarifies that laws made under Articles 2 and 3 to give effect to these territorial changes are not deemed to be constitutional amendments requiring the special procedure of Article 368. This gives Parliament a comparatively easy, ordinary-legislation route to reorganise India's internal boundaries, which is how the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 and subsequent state-creation and boundary-adjustment laws have been passed.

MPSC's polity questions frequently test whether a candidate has memorised which broad subject belongs to which Part of the Constitution, since Parts I through IV and IVA cover foundational, frequently confused territory: the Union and its territory (Part I), citizenship (Part II), Fundamental Rights (Part III), Directive Principles (Part IV) and Fundamental Duties (Part IVA) all sit in quick succession near the start of the Constitution. This question isolates Part I specifically and offers three other genuinely important but Part-mismatched subjects (Fundamental Rights, the judiciary/'Justice', and Fundamental Duties) as distractors, rewarding a candidate who has the Part-to-subject map fixed precisely rather than a loose sense that 'these are all early, foundational topics'.

• Part I of the Constitution (Articles 1 to 4) is titled 'The Union and its Territory'.
• Article 1 declares India a 'Union of States' and defines the Union's territory.
• Articles 2 and 3 empower Parliament to admit/establish new States and to alter State areas, boundaries or names.
• Article 4 clarifies that laws made under Articles 2 and 3 are not treated as constitutional amendments under Article 368.
• Fundamental Rights (Part III), the judiciary (Parts V and VI), and Fundamental Duties (Part IVA) are all separate Parts, unrelated to Articles 1-4.

• Assuming any 'foundational'-sounding subject (Fundamental Rights, Justice, Duties) must belong to the earliest Articles of the Constitution
• Confusing 'Justice' as a Preambular ideal with a dedicated constitutional Part, when the judiciary is actually addressed much later, in Parts V and VI
• Mixing up Part I (Union and Territory, Articles 1-4) with Part II (Citizenship, Articles 5-11), since both are short, early Parts
• Treating Fundamental Duties as an original part of the Constitution rather than a later 42nd Amendment addition (Part IVA), and misplacing it among the first four Articles

MPSC polity questions on the Constitution's structure typically ask which subject corresponds to a specific range of early Articles, offering several other genuinely important but wrongly matched subjects as distractors, to test whether a candidate has the Part-to-Article-range mapping fixed precisely rather than a general sense of 'early Constitution = foundational rights and duties'.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Article of the Constitution declares 'India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States' ?

  • (a)Article 1
  • (b)Article 2
  • (c)Article 3
  • (d)Article 4

  Answer(a) Article 1 — Article 1 of Part I opens the Constitution by declaring India a 'Union of States' and defining the Union's territory.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Laws made by Parliament under Articles 2 and 3 to admit new States or alter existing State boundaries are treated as ______, according to Article 4.

  • (a)Constitutional amendments requiring a special majority under Article 368
  • (b)Ordinary laws, not amendments to the Constitution under Article 368
  • (c)Executive orders requiring no Parliamentary approval
  • (d)State-level legislation only

  Answer(b) Ordinary laws, not amendments to the Constitution under Article 368 — Article 4 explicitly excludes such laws from the special constitutional-amendment procedure, allowing Parliament to reorganise States through ordinary legislation.