MPSC 2021 Prelims Paper-I · Question 91 of 100

Correct — option (1), Only (a). The closing line asks which statements are CORRECT — the word is printed in bold in the English column and योग्य in bold in the Marathi — and only three statements are printed, (a) to (c). Take them one at a time. Statement (a) is true. The Central Government notified five communities as minorities by a Gazette notification of 23 October 1993 issued by the then Ministry of Welfare — Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians, that is Parsis — and added Jains by a notification dated 27 January 2014. That makes six notified minority communities, which is what the statement says. Statement (b) is false, and it is false twice over. It is wrong about the instrument: adding a community to the list requires no constitutional amendment at all, but only a notification by the Central Government in the Official Gazette under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, which is how the Jains were in fact added in 2014 — a statutory executive act, done without Parliament sitting on it. It is also wrong about the majority: an amendment of the Constitution under Article 368 can never be passed by a simple majority, since it requires in every case a majority of the total membership of each House and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting, and for certain provisions the ratification of half the State legislatures as well. Statement (c) is false too. The Ministry of Minority Affairs was created on 29 January 2006, carved out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, and not in 2009 as the statement says. Note that the sentence as printed is also ungrammatical — 'The Ministry of Minority Affairs of the Government of India established in 2009' has lost its verb — and it is reproduced here exactly as the Commission printed it. With (b) and (c) both out and (a) standing, the only possible choice is option (1).

• (2)Only (b) — This choice keeps the statement that is most confidently wrong. The notification of a minority community is not a constitutional act but a statutory and executive one: Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 defines 'minority' as a community notified as such by the Central Government, and the power is exercised by a notification published in the Official Gazette. That is how the five communities were notified on 23 October 1993 and how the Jains were added on 27 January 2014, in neither case by an amendment of the Constitution. The statement's second error is worth learning independently, because it recurs: Article 368 knows no simple-majority route to amending the Constitution. Every amendment needs a majority of the total membership of each House together with two-thirds of those present and voting, and the entrenched provisions need ratification by the legislatures of not less than one-half of the States in addition.
• (3)(b) and (c) — This choice takes both of the false statements and leaves out the only true one, so it fails twice. Statement (b) misdescribes how a community is notified; statement (c) misdates the Ministry of Minority Affairs, which was created on 29 January 2006 and not in 2009. The 2006 date is worth attaching to its context, because that context is examinable in its own right: the Ministry was carved out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to give the minority communities a dedicated department of government, and it took over the work on the schemes and programmes for them, later administering scholarship and skilling programmes and the machinery under the National Commission for Minorities Act. A candidate who has the year of its creation attached to the reason for it will not be shaken by a plausible-looking alternative date.
• (4)(a) and (b) — This is the option most likely to attract a well-prepared candidate, because it contains the statement that is actually true. Statement (a) is right — there are six notified minority communities since the Jains were added in 2014 — and a candidate who verifies it and then accepts statement (b) without the same scrutiny will take this choice. But statement (b) cannot survive even a careless reading, because it asserts two things that are separately wrong: that a constitutional amendment is needed, when a Gazette notification under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 is what is actually used, and that such an amendment could be passed by a simple majority, which Article 368 does not permit for any amendment whatsoever. In a set of only three statements, each has to be tested on its own provision; the truth of one is never evidence for the one printed beside it.

India's constitutional protection of minorities and its statutory recognition of them are two different things, and this question lives in the gap between them. The Constitution protects minorities without defining the word: Article 29 protects the right of any section of citizens with a distinct language, script or culture to conserve it, and Article 30 gives all minorities, whether based on religion or on language, the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice, with a guarantee that the State shall not discriminate against such an institution in granting aid. Article 350B provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities appointed by the President. None of these provisions says who counts as a minority. That question is answered by ordinary law. A Minorities Commission was first set up in 1978 by an executive resolution, and the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 gave it statutory status; Section 2(c) of that Act defines a minority as a community notified as such by the Central Government, which is the hinge on which this question turns. The five communities notified on 23 October 1993 were Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians or Parsis; Jains were added on 27 January 2014, bringing the number to six. Together these six accounted for about 18.8 per cent of the population at the 2001 Census. Because the notification is executive and statutory rather than constitutional, the list can be changed without touching the Constitution — and equally, minority status under the Act is a matter of national notification, while the question of whether a community is a minority for the purposes of Article 30 has been held to be determined with reference to the State concerned.

This is a classic MPSC statement question and it is built on the commonest confusion in Indian polity — mistaking an executive or statutory act for a constitutional one. The Commission returns to that confusion repeatedly, because it separates a candidate who has read the provision from one who has read a summary: creating a State needs an Act of Parliament under Article 3 but not a constitutional amendment in the Article 368 sense, notifying a minority needs only a Gazette notification, declaring a language an official language of a State is a matter for the State legislature, and so on. The second thing this item rewards is arithmetic vigilance about statements of number. 'Six designated minority communities' is checkable if you know the two notifications and their dates; without them the number is a coin toss. The third is care with dates attached to institutions, since the Ministry of Minority Affairs is exactly the sort of body whose year of creation gets rounded in memory to the nearest political milestone. Finally, note the printed sentence itself. Statement (c) has lost its verb, and a card that quietly repaired it would be misrepresenting the paper; the question must be answered as printed, and the defect reported rather than corrected.

• Six communities are notified as minorities by the Central Government — Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians or Parsis, and Jains.
• The first five were notified by a Gazette notification of 23 October 1993 issued by the Ministry of Welfare; Jains were added by a notification dated 27 January 2014, which is what makes the number six.
• The power is statutory and executive: Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 defines a minority as a community notified as such by the Central Government in the Official Gazette. No constitutional amendment is involved.
• Article 368 provides no simple-majority route to amending the Constitution — every amendment needs a majority of the total membership of each House and two-thirds of those present and voting, and entrenched provisions need ratification by at least half the State legislatures.
• The Ministry of Minority Affairs was created on 29 January 2006, carved out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment; the statement in this question dates it to 2009, and its printed sentence is also missing its verb.

• Assuming that a change in the list of notified minorities requires a constitutional amendment. It requires a Gazette notification by the Central Government under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992
• Accepting the phrase 'constitutional amendment with simple majority'. Article 368 permits no such thing; every amendment needs a special majority and some need State ratification as well
• Dating the Ministry of Minority Affairs to 2009. It was created on 29 January 2006 out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
• Selecting an option because the statement you checked first is true. Statement (a) is true here and still appears in a wrong choice alongside a false one
• Reading only the opening line of the stem. The ask arrives in the closing line, and in this question the operative word 'correct' is printed in bold in both columns

Minorities appear in MPSC papers from three directions and it is worth being ready for all of them. The constitutional direction asks about Articles 29 and 30 and the case law on who may claim their protection. The statutory and administrative direction, which is where this question sits, asks how a community is notified, how many are notified, when the Commission was constituted and when the Ministry was created. The current-affairs direction asks about schemes, scholarships and reports of the year. The statement format is the Commission's preferred wrapper for all three, and its statements are usually manufactured by three moves — changing a date by a few years, upgrading an executive act into a constitutional one, or changing a number by one. Knowing the two notification dates, the year of the Ministry, the section of the Act and the count of six defeats every one of those moves in this topic.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under which of the following is a community notified as a minority by the Central Government of India ?

  • (a)An amendment of the Constitution under Article 368
  • (b)Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992
  • (c)Article 30 of the Constitution
  • (d)A resolution of both Houses of Parliament

  Answer(b) Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. That section defines a minority as a community notified as such by the Central Government, and the power is exercised by notification in the Official Gazette. Five communities were notified on 23 October 1993 and Jains were added on 27 January 2014, making six in all. Article 30 confers rights on minorities but does not define them or list them, and no constitutional amendment is required at any stage.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Ministry of Minority Affairs of the Government of India was created in which year, and out of which existing ministry ?

  • (a)2004, out of the Ministry of Home Affairs
  • (b)2006, out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
  • (c)2009, out of the Ministry of Human Resource Development
  • (d)2014, out of the Ministry of Culture

  Answer(b) 2006, out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The Ministry was created on 29 January 2006 to give the notified minority communities a dedicated department of government, taking over the relevant schemes and programmes from the parent ministry. The year is frequently misremembered as 2009, which is precisely the error a statement in the original question was built on, so the date is worth fixing along with the reason for the Ministry's creation.