With reference to creation of new All India Service, which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. In the national interest, the Rajya Sabha can pass a resolution for creation of new All India

Question

With reference to creation of new All India Service, which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. In the national interest, the Rajya Sabha can pass a resolution for creation of new All India Service.
2. The resolution for creation of new All India Service must be passed by the Rajya Sabha by two-third majority of the total members of the house.
Select the correct answer from the code given below :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Only 1. Both statements are drawn from Article 312(1), and only the first reproduces it faithfully. The Article says that if the Council of States has declared by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting that it is necessary or expedient in the national interest to do so, Parliament may by law provide for the creation of one or more All India Services common to the Union and the States. Statement 1 restates that: the initiative rests with the Rajya Sabha and the ground is the national interest. Statement 2 changes the arithmetic. The Constitution asks for two-thirds of the members present and voting — a figure that depends on who is in the House that day — not two-thirds of the total membership of the House, which is a fixed and much higher bar. That one substitution is what makes statement 2 wrong, so only statement 1 is correct.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) It keeps the misstated majority and rejects the accurate statement. Statement 1 is a straight paraphrase of Article 312(1); statement 2 is not, because the required special majority is of members present and voting, not of the total membership.  (b) The natural answer for a candidate who remembers 'two-thirds' but not what the two-thirds is counted on. 'Present and voting' and 'total membership' are two different tests in the Constitution and the Article uses the first.  (c) This discards a correct statement. The Rajya Sabha's power to resolve, in the national interest, that a new All India Service be created is one of the two powers Article 312 and Article 249 give it exclusively — the Lok Sabha has no such role.

Concept: An All India Service is recruited centrally but serves both the Union and the States, so its officers sit in State administrations while the Union controls their cadre. Because such a service cuts into the States' own administrative space, the Constitution does not let the Lok Sabha initiate one. Under Article 312 the trigger has to come from the Council of States — the chamber that represents the States — by a resolution passed by not less than two-thirds of members present and voting on the ground of national interest. Only after that resolution may Parliament create the service by law.

State PCS 2025 Q4 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q4 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer