SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 22 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 10 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.

The number of ministers, including the Chief Minister, in a state shall NOT be less than _______.

(a)13
(b)12
(c)11
(d)10

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Article 164(1A) fixes both ends of a state ministry's size. The ceiling is fifteen per cent of the Legislative Assembly's total strength, and the floor is that the number of ministers including the Chief Minister shall not be less than twelve.

The floor exists because the percentage cap alone would leave a small assembly with a ministry of three or four members.

Both limits arrived together, through the 91st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003 → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
13 — Thirteen appears nowhere in the clause. The two numbers Article 164(1A) actually carries are fifteen per cent and twelve.
(c)
11 — Eleven is the near miss the item is built around. The floor is twelve, and a state whose fifteen per cent works out lower must still appoint twelve.
(d)
10 — Ten is a round number that does not appear in Article 164(1A). The clause sets the minimum at twelve.

Concept

Before 2003 nothing in the Constitution limited how large a state ministry could be, and jumbo cabinets were used to hold coalitions together and reward defectors.

The 91st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003 closed that. It inserted Article 164(1A) for the states and Article 75(1A) for the Union, capping a council of ministers at fifteen per cent of the house — the Lok Sabha for the Union, the Legislative Assembly for a state.

For the states it added a floor as well, twelve, because the percentage on its own would have crippled the small assemblies of the north-east and Goa.

The Union has no floor, only a ceiling. If the stem had said Prime Minister instead of Chief Minister, there would be no minimum number to supply.

Key facts

Article 164(1A) caps a state council of ministers at fifteen per cent of the Legislative Assembly's total strength.
The same clause fixes a minimum of twelve ministers including the Chief Minister.
Article 75(1A) applies the fifteen per cent cap to the Union Council of Ministers, measured against the Lok Sabha.
Both clauses were inserted by the 91st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003.

Study next

The 91st Amendment's anti-defection provisions and Article 361BThe Tenth Schedule and the grounds for disqualification on defectionArticle 164 as a whole — appointment of the Chief Minister, the tribal welfare minister and collective responsibility

Common traps

Reading the question as the ceiling. It says NOT be less than, so it wants the floor.
Carrying the figure fifteen into the blank. Fifteen is a percentage cap, not a count of ministers.
Applying the twelve-minister floor to the Union Council of Ministers, which has no such minimum.

Here the number comes as a fill-in-the-blank with near misses on either side of the true figure, so recall the clause rather than the option that looks plausible. Directive Principles are asked at 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.23.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: General Policy — all 171 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.