NDA (I) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 76 of 149

Correct — A, Maharashtra. The State government put the draft Maharashtra Protection of Internal Security Act 2016 into the public domain on 19 August 2016, aimed at terrorism, insurgency, communalism and caste violence — the same four challenges the question lists. A review by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses described it as virtually the first measure of its kind in the field of internal security to be prepared by a State government. The draft proposed a six-member oversight body headed by the State Home Minister, security obligations for public places likely to hold more than a hundred people, protection for critical infrastructure and the creation of special security zones.

• (b)Gujarat — Public order and police are State subjects, so any State may legislate in this area, but the comprehensive internal-security draft reported in 2016 came from Maharashtra and not from Gujarat.
• (c)Uttar Pradesh — India's most populous State is a natural guess for a first-of-its-kind security law, but the 2016 draft internal-security legislation was Maharashtra's.
• (d)Chhattisgarh — Chhattisgarh is the State most associated with left-wing extremism, which makes it tempting, yet the draft described in the question was framed in Maharashtra.

Under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, public order is entry 1 and police is entry 2 of the State List, so internal security within a State is primarily the State's own legislative and executive responsibility. The Union's role runs through central armed police forces, intelligence agencies and central laws on terrorism, and through Article 355, which places on the Union the duty to protect States against external aggression and internal disturbance.

The stem's four challenges — terrorism, insurgency, communalism and caste violence — are lifted almost word for word from the reporting on the Maharashtra draft, which is the strongest clue in the question. The draft did not become law in that form; it was withdrawn from circulation for reconsideration after criticism that its surveillance and permission requirements would bear on citizens' rights. Nearly a decade later the State legislature took up a separate public-security law, passing the Maharashtra Special Public Security Act in 2025, so a candidate today should not confuse the two measures.

• The draft Maharashtra Protection of Internal Security Act 2016 was released on 19 August 2016.
• It targeted terrorism, insurgency, communalism and caste violence, and proposed special security zones and an apex oversight body under the State Home Minister.
• Public order and police are State subjects under entries 1 and 2 of the State List in the Seventh Schedule.
• The 2016 draft was pulled back for reconsideration after criticism about its impact on constitutional rights.

• Assuming security laws can come only from Parliament; policing and public order sit with the States.
• Treating a draft Bill as an enacted law — this one was withdrawn for reconsideration and never took that shape.

NDA pairs a State with a scheme, law or initiative it launched, so keep a short list of State-level firsts along with the year each was announced.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, 'public order' and 'police' fall under which list?

  • (a)Union List
  • (b)State List
  • (c)Concurrent List
  • (d)Residuary powers of Parliament

  Answer(b) State List — they are entries 1 and 2 respectively.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Article of the Constitution places on the Union the duty to protect every State against internal disturbance?

  • (a)Article 352
  • (b)Article 355
  • (c)Article 360
  • (d)Article 368

  Answer(b) Article 355 — the duty to protect States against external aggression and internal disturbance.