Under the Government of India Act 1935, who was the first elected Chairman of Bihar Legislative Council ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, Rajiv Ranjan Sinha. The Government of India Act 1935 gave Bihar a two-chamber legislature for the first time: a Legislative Assembly as the lower House and a Legislative Council as the upper House. The first Bihar Legislative Council was constituted on 22 July 1936 with 30 members, and the two Houses held their first joint session on 22 July 1937. The Bihar Vidhan Parishad's own roll of former Chairmen — पूर्व सभापतियों की सूची, published by the Council itself — opens with exactly one name for that founding term: Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, Chairman from 23 July 1937 to 6 September 1948, followed by Shyama Prasad Singh from 7 September 1948. Eleven years in the chair, and the only man who can be called the Council's first Chairman under the 1935 Act. Option (c) is that man, and it is the only option that carries his given name. One honest caveat, because it is visible on the page: the booklet prints the surname 'Sinha' where the Council's own list prints 'Prasad'. The Commission published no key for this paper, so nothing external settles the spelling; what can be established is that no other option names anyone who ever presided over this House, and that the given name 'Rajiv Ranjan' belongs to precisely one presiding officer in the Council's entire record. Take the name in the option as pointing to the Chairman of 1937–48, and (c) is the answer.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The biggest name a Bihar paper can put in front of a candidate, planted here precisely because it is Bihari and constitutional. Rajendra Prasad presided over the Constituent Assembly, which elected him its President on 11 December 1946, and became India's first President in 1950 — but he never chaired the Bihar Legislative Council. He does have a real 1939 claim, and it is a different one: he took over as President of the Indian National Congress after Subhas Chandra Bose resigned that April, which is question 41 on this very paper.  (b) A plausible-sounding colonial honorific attached to a name that appears nowhere in the presiding record of either House. The pre-1937 presidents of the old Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council were Sir Walton Maude (1921), Sachchidanand Sinha (July 1921 to November 1922), Khawaja M. Noorie (1922–29), Nirsu Narayan Singh (1930–32) and Rajandhari Singh (1933–36); the post-1937 Chairmen begin with the 1937–48 term. 'Rai Bahadur Satish Chandra' is on neither list.  (d) This escape option can only win if you can name at least two of the other three who simultaneously satisfy the stem. The Council has one first Chairman and one founding term, 23 July 1937 to 6 September 1948, held by one man. Two people cannot both be first.

Concept: The Government of India Act 1935 was the longest statute the British Parliament had ever passed, and its provincial half is the part that actually took effect. It abolished dyarchy in the provinces and gave them autonomy, with ministers responsible to elected legislatures, and it created second chambers where none had existed: six of the eleven British Indian provinces — Bengal, Bombay, Madras, Bihar, Assam and the United Provinces — received a Legislative Council alongside the Legislative Assembly. A Legislative Council is a permanent House. Unlike an Assembly it cannot be dissolved; a share of its members retires periodically and is replaced, so the House itself never ceases to exist. Its presiding officer, called Sabhapati in Hindi and Chairman in English, is elected by the members from among themselves — which is what the stem's word 'elected' is signalling, in contrast with the nominated European presidents who had chaired the old Bihar and Orissa Council in the 1920s.

State PCS 2025 Q4 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q4 — History PYQ with Answer