SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 15 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which Article of the Indian Constitution provides that the State must secure a social order to promote the welfare of people?

(a)Article 37
(b)Article 38
(c)Article 39
(d)Article 36

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Article 38 is the Directive Principle that tells the State to secure a social order for the promotion of the welfare of the people.

It asks that justice — social, economic and political — inform every institution of national life, and, after the 44th Amendment Act, 1978, that the State work at minimising inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities.

That matches the stem's 'social order to promote the welfare of people' word for word.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Article 37 — Article 37 states how Part IV works: the Directive Principles are not enforceable by any court, yet are fundamental in the governance of the country. It fixes their status, not the social order.
(c)
Article 39 — Article 39 lists specific policy principles — adequate means of livelihood, distribution of material resources, equal pay for equal work — rather than the general duty to secure a welfare-promoting social order.
(d)
Article 36 — Article 36 is the definition clause that opens Part IV, saying that 'the State' here carries the meaning given in Article 12. It imposes no duty on anyone.

Concept

Part IV of the Constitution, Articles 36 to 51, holds the Directive Principles of State Policy. They cannot be enforced in a court, but Article 37 calls them fundamental in the governance of the country.

The block has a shape worth learning. Article 36 defines, 37 fixes their standing, and 38 states the broad goal — a welfare-promoting social order — before Article 39 onwards get specific about livelihood, wages, children and legal aid.

SSC asks for the article number, so the sequence matters more than the prose.

Article 38(2), the clause on minimising inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities, was inserted by the 44th Amendment Act, 1978.

Key facts

The Directive Principles occupy Part IV, Articles 36 to 51, and are non-justiciable.
Article 38 directs the State to secure a social order promoting the welfare of the people.
Article 39(b) covers the distribution of material resources and Article 39(d) equal pay for equal work.
Article 40 directs the State to organise village panchayats.

Study next

Article 39A on equal justice and free legal aid, and Article 43A on workers' participation in managementThe Directive Principles inserted by the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976How Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles were reconciled in Kesavananda Bharati and Minerva Mills

Common traps

Reading Article 36 as the welfare clause because it opens Part IV
Mixing Article 38 with Article 39, which carries the specific economic principles

The article number is the whole question. The same block is worked at General Awareness Q.17 of the 10 Sep 2024, 12:30 paper (Article 40, village panchayats) and at Q.17 of the 25 Sep 2024, 16:00 paper (Article 39(b), material resources).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.