NDA (II) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 7 of 150

Correct — C, 'cancel'. To repeal a law is to revoke it formally, so that it ceases to have effect; cancelling is the plain word for that. The sentence describes a government decision about a statute, and repeal is the technical step by which a legislature undoes a law it earlier enacted.

• (a)suppress — Suppressing means putting something down by force or keeping it from being known, which is not what happens to a statute that is repealed.
• (b)amend — Amending alters parts of a law while leaving it standing; repeal removes the whole of it, and the two are separate parliamentary steps.
• (d)withhold — To withhold is to hold something back or refuse to grant it, which cannot apply to an Act already in force.

'Repeal' is the formal term for the withdrawal of a law by the authority that made it, so it belongs to the same family as revoke, rescind and annul.

'Amend' is the tempting choice because both words describe a legislature acting on an existing statute, and both are welcomed by whoever disliked the old law. The difference is how much survives — an amended Act is still on the statute book, a repealed one is not.

• The Act named in the sentence is the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976, and it was withdrawn by the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Repeal Act, 1999.
• A legislature repeals a law, a court strikes it down as unconstitutional, and the executive revokes an order — three different words for three different actors.
• 'Repeal' is used of laws and rules; the everyday word for cancelling an arrangement is 'call off'.

• Choosing 'amend' because it is the other thing governments do to Acts.
• Treating 'suppress' as a general word for stopping anything at all.

Asked as a synonym item — choose the word or group of words most similar in meaning to the underlined word.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the word nearest in meaning to 'repeal' in 'Parliament voted to repeal the ordinance.'

  • (a)extend
  • (b)abolish
  • (c)publish
  • (d)translate

  Answer(b) abolish — repealing a law does away with it.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the word nearest in meaning to 'revoke' in 'The authority revoked his licence.'

  • (a)renewed
  • (b)withdrew
  • (c)inspected
  • (d)issued

  Answer(b) withdrew — to revoke is to take back something formally granted.