MPSC 2022 Prelims Paper-I · Question 97 of 100

Correct — option (4), only (b), the Indian Independence Act. Read the layout of this question before its content, because it is printed in an unusual shape that appears twice in this paper, here and again at question 100. There is an opening question, then four items labelled (a) to (d) which are the names of Acts rather than sentences, then a closing line asking which 'statement' or 'statements' given above is or are correct, and then the four numbered options with no 'Answer Options' heading printed above them. The closing line is boilerplate; what it means here is simply: which of the four names answers the opening question. The answer is the Indian Independence Act, 1947. Its passage through Parliament is precisely dated: the House of Commons voted for the bill on 15 July 1947, the House of Lords gave its consent the next day, and the Act received Royal Assent on 18 July 1947 — the date in the stem. It gave legislative effect to the plan announced on 3 June 1947, the Mountbatten Plan, which the Congress, the Muslim League and the Sikh leadership had accepted. Its provisions are worth knowing as a list, because they are examined directly. British India was divided into two independent dominions, India and Pakistan, with effect from 15 August 1947; the provinces of Bengal and Punjab were partitioned, with the boundaries to be fixed by a boundary commission appointed by the Governor-General, and referendums to settle the North-West Frontier Province and the district of Sylhet in Assam; an office of Governor-General was established for each dominion as the representative of the Crown; complete legislative authority was conferred on the Constituent Assemblies of the two dominions; British suzerainty over the princely states was terminated from 15 August 1947, leaving each state to accede to India or to Pakistan; the British monarch ceased to use the title Emperor of India, a change carried out by royal proclamation on 22 June 1948; and provision was made for dividing the joint assets of the two countries, including the armed forces. Until new constitutions were framed, the two dominions and their provinces were to be governed under the Government of India Act, 1935. The answer to be marked is option (4).

• (1)Only (a) and (c) — This option accepts item (a), the 'Indian Partition Act', and item (c), the 'Draft Constitution Act', and neither is the name of a statute of the British Parliament. There has never been an Act called the Indian Partition Act; partition was carried out by the Indian Independence Act, which divided British India into two dominions and partitioned the provinces of Bengal and Punjab, and the name in the option is a description of what the Act did rather than what it was called. The 'Draft Constitution Act' does not exist either, and the confusion it plays on is worth clearing up: the Constituent Assembly appointed a Drafting Committee under B. R. Ambedkar in August 1947, the Draft Constitution was published in February 1948 for public comment, and the Constitution itself was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into force on 26 January 1950. A draft is a document laid before an assembly, not an Act passed by a parliament.
• (2)Only (a) and (d) — This option keeps the non-existent Indian Partition Act and adds the 'Constitutional Amendment Act', which is wrong on two separate grounds. There is no British statute of that name relating to India in 1947, and the phrase belongs to an entirely different constitutional order — the amendment of the Constitution of India under Article 368, whose first exercise was the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951, passed by the Provisional Parliament to insert the Ninth Schedule and to qualify the freedom of speech and the right to property. In July 1947 there was no Constitution of India to amend; the Constituent Assembly had not yet begun to consider a draft, and the two dominions were to be governed under the Government of India Act, 1935 until their own constitutions were ready. An option that requires two impossible statutes to be true can be struck out on sight.
• (3)Only (a) — This option rests entirely on the 'Indian Partition Act', and it is the most tempting of the three wrong answers because the Act of 18 July 1947 did in fact partition the country, so a candidate who remembers the effect of the statute rather than its title will find the name plausible. But questions of this kind are about titles, and the title of the statute that received Royal Assent on 18 July 1947 is the Indian Independence Act, 1947. It is worth being deliberate about this class of error, because Indian constitutional history is full of measures whose popular description differs from their legal name: the Rowlatt Act was the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919; the Government of India Act, 1858 is what people mean by the transfer of power from the Company to the Crown; and the Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947 is a plan rather than an Act, given statutory form by the Indian Independence Act six weeks later.

The transfer of power in 1947 was accomplished through a short chain of documents that a candidate should be able to place in order. The Cabinet Mission of 1946 proposed a united India with a three-tier structure and provided for the Constituent Assembly, which met for the first time on 9 December 1946. When that scheme collapsed, Lord Mountbatten announced the plan of 3 June 1947 for partition, accepted by the Congress, the Muslim League and the Sikh leadership. Parliament at Westminster then enacted the Indian Independence Act, 1947: the Commons voted on 15 July, the Lords consented on 16 July and Royal Assent followed on 18 July 1947. The Act created two dominions with effect from 15 August 1947, partitioned Bengal and Punjab, referred the North-West Frontier Province and Sylhet to referendums, gave each dominion a Governor-General and a Constituent Assembly with full legislative authority, ended British paramountcy over the princely states, and abolished the title Emperor of India. Sir Cyril Radcliffe's boundary commissions drew the lines. Until each dominion framed its own constitution, government continued under the Government of India Act, 1935 as adapted. The Constituent Assembly of India, freed of British control, then completed its work: the Drafting Committee under B. R. Ambedkar produced a draft published in February 1948, the Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949, and it came into force on 26 January 1950.

This is one of two questions in this paper printed in an unusual two-part shape — an opening question, four labelled items that are names rather than propositions, and a closing line asking which statements are correct — and a candidate meeting it for the first time under examination conditions can lose a minute simply working out what is being asked. The answer is that the closing line is a formula: the four labelled items are the candidate answers to the opening question, and the numbered options tell you which combinations of them may be chosen. Once that is seen, the question is an ordinary one about the name of a statute. MPSC examines the transfer of power heavily, and it does so through dates and names, because both are unambiguous: the date of the Mountbatten Plan, the date of Royal Assent, the appointed day, the name of the Act, the name of the boundary commissioner, the dates of adoption and commencement of the Constitution. Three of the four items offered here are invented names that sound plausible, which is a construction worth recognising: if the paper offers four titles and only one of them is a statute you can actually place in a statute book, the question is testing whether you know the real names rather than whether you understand the events.

• The Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed by the House of Commons on 15 July 1947 and consented to by the House of Lords the next day, and received Royal Assent on 18 July 1947.
• The Act gave statutory effect to the Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947 and created the two independent dominions of India and Pakistan with effect from 15 August 1947, partitioning the provinces of Bengal and Punjab.
• It provided a Governor-General for each dominion as the representative of the Crown and conferred complete legislative authority on the Constituent Assemblies of both dominions.
• It terminated British suzerainty over the princely states from 15 August 1947, leaving them free to accede to either dominion, and abolished the British monarch's use of the title Emperor of India, effected by royal proclamation on 22 June 1948.
• Until new constitutions were framed, the dominions and their provinces were to be governed under the Government of India Act, 1935; India's own Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into force on 26 January 1950.

• Choosing a plausible description in place of the real title of a statute; the Act of 18 July 1947 partitioned India but was named the Indian Independence Act, not the Indian Partition Act
• Confusing the Draft Constitution, published in February 1948 for public comment, with an Act of Parliament
• Placing a 'constitutional amendment' in 1947, when the Constitution of India did not exist until 1950 and the first amendment was made in 1951
• Mistaking the closing line of this two-part question for a separate statement list; it is a formula, and the four labelled items are simply the candidate answers to the opening question

The transfer of power is examined by MPSC through names and dates almost exclusively — which Act, which plan, which date, which office — because the material is precise and the marking is unambiguous. The commonest forms are the statute and its year, the provision and its statute, and the sequence of events in 1946 and 1947. A candidate should keep a single page carrying the constitutional statutes of British India with their years and their two or three defining provisions, and a second page with the calendar of 1947 itself: 20 February, 3 June, 15 July, 18 July, 15 August, and then 26 November 1949 and 26 January 1950 for the Constitution. Questions built on invented but plausible statute names, as this one is, are defeated only by knowing the real titles, so the titles are worth learning exactly as they are written.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following was NOT a provision of the Indian Independence Act, 1947 ?

  • (a)The creation of two independent dominions with effect from 15 August 1947
  • (b)The termination of British suzerainty over the princely states
  • (c)The immediate commencement of a new Constitution for India
  • (d)The abolition of the British monarch's title of Emperor of India

  Answer(c) The immediate commencement of a new Constitution for India. The Act conferred complete legislative authority on the Constituent Assemblies of the two dominions and provided that, until new constitutions were framed, the dominions and their provinces would be governed under the Government of India Act, 1935 as adapted. India's own Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into force on 26 January 1950, more than two years after the Act.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Indian Independence Act, 1947 gave statutory effect to which announcement ?

  • (a)The August Offer of 1940
  • (b)The Cripps proposals of 1942
  • (c)The Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946
  • (d)The Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947

  Answer(d) The Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947. The plan for partition was agreed between Lord Mountbatten and the leaders of the Congress, the Muslim League and the Sikh community, and Parliament at Westminster then enacted it: the Commons voted on 15 July 1947, the Lords consented the next day and Royal Assent followed on 18 July 1947. The Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946 had proposed a united India with a grouping of provinces and had provided for the Constituent Assembly that first met on 9 December 1946.