Who among the following were the members of the Fazal Ali Commission ?
1. K. T. Shah
2. K. M. Panikkar
3. P. Sitaramaiah
4. H. N. Kunjaru
Select the correct answer from the code given below :

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, 2 and 4, that is K. M. Panikkar and H. N. Kunzru. The Fazl Ali Commission is the popular name of the States Reorganisation Commission, constituted in December 1953 and reporting in September 1955. It had exactly three members: Justice Fazl Ali as chairman, the historian-diplomat K. M. Panikkar, and the parliamentarian and public figure Hriday Nath Kunzru (spelt 'Kunjaru' in the question paper). Since the chairman is not among the four names offered, the only members in the list are items 2 and 4. Its report led to the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 and the Seventh Constitutional Amendment, which reorganised India into 14 states and 6 union or centrally administered territories, largely on a linguistic basis.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Neither name was on the commission. K. T. Shah was a Constituent Assembly member — best remembered for moving the amendment to describe India as a 'secular, federal, socialist' union — and had nothing to do with the States Reorganisation Commission. Pattabhi Sitaramayya (printed 'P. Sitaramaiah') belongs to the earlier JVP Committee, not to this body.  (b) K. M. Panikkar is right, but Pattabhi Sitaramayya is the deliberate trap. He was the third member of the JVP Committee of 1949 — J for Jawaharlal Nehru, V for Vallabhbhai Patel, P for Pattabhi Sitaramayya — which examined the same question of linguistic states four years earlier and advised against making language the sole basis. Mixing the JVP Committee with the later commission is the most common error on this topic.  (d) K. M. Panikkar is again correct, but K. T. Shah was never appointed to the States Reorganisation Commission. His public work belongs to the Constituent Assembly and to national planning debates, not to the reorganisation of states.

Concept: Three bodies examined the reorganisation of Indian states, and they must be kept apart. The Dhar Commission (the Linguistic Provinces Commission, 1948) under Justice S. K. Dhar rejected language as the sole basis and preferred administrative convenience. The JVP Committee (1949) — Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya — reached the same conclusion. Only after Potti Sriramulu's fast unto death and the creation of Andhra State in 1953 did the government appoint the States Reorganisation Commission in December 1953 under Justice Fazl Ali, with K. M. Panikkar and H. N. Kunzru as members. Its September 1955 report was largely accepted and implemented through the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 and the Seventh Constitutional Amendment.

State PCS 2025 Q54 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

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