Which part of the Indian Constitution deals with the Election Commission?

Correct — B. Part XV of the Constitution is headed Elections and runs from Article 324 to Article 329.

Article 324 vests the superintendence, direction and control of elections in the Election Commission. The Articles after it provide for a single electoral roll, bar exclusion from that roll on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex, and limit judicial interference in electoral matters.

The Commission's constitutional home is therefore option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Part XII — Part XII deals with Finance, Property, Contracts and Suits, from Article 264 onwards. Taxation and the Finance Commission sit there; no election machinery does.
• (c)
  Part IV — Part IV is the Directive Principles of State Policy, Articles 36 to 51. It sets policy goals for the State, not the body that conducts elections.
• (d)
  Part XI — Part XI governs relations between the Union and the States, with legislative relations at Articles 245 to 255 and administrative relations after them.

SSC asks Part-numbers as well as Article-numbers, so it pays to hold a map of the Constitution's Parts and not only its famous Articles.

Part XV, Elections, Articles 324 to 329, is the Part that creates the Election Commission. The Commission is therefore a constitutional body, not a statutory one, and no ordinary Act of Parliament can abolish it.

How elections are actually run, though, comes from ordinary law: the Representation of the People Acts of 1950 and 1951.

Key facts

• Part XV of the Constitution is titled Elections and covers Articles 324 to 329.
• Article 324 places superintendence, direction and control of elections with the Election Commission.
• Article 326 provides for elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies on the basis of adult suffrage.
• Part IV holds the Directive Principles (Articles 36 to 51) and Part XI the Union-State relations (Articles 245 to 263).

Common traps

• Reaching for Part IV because elections feel like a governance subject, when Part IV is the Directive Principles.
• Calling the Election Commission statutory because the Representation of the People Acts govern the conduct of elections.

No directly related past PYQ was found.