SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 12 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.

Under which of the following Acts was the power to rule India, transferred from the English East India Company to the British Crown?

(a)Regulating Act 1773
(b)Pitt's India Act 1784
(c)Government of India Act 1858
(d)Charter Act of 1833

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The Government of India Act 1858 was passed after the Revolt of 1857 and moved the power to govern India from the East India Company to the British Crown.

It abolished the Company's Court of Directors and the Board of Control, created a Secretary of State for India in the British Cabinet assisted by a fifteen-member Council of India, and redesignated the Governor-General as Viceroy, Lord Canning being the first.

Only option (c) marks that transfer of power.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Regulating Act 1773 — The Regulating Act of 1773 was Parliament's first intervention in Company affairs. It created the Governor-General of Bengal and a Supreme Court at Calcutta, but the Company kept the government of India.
(b)
Pitt's India Act 1784 — Pitt's India Act, 1784 set up the Board of Control over the Company's political affairs and began the dual system. Control was shared with the Crown there, not transferred to it.
(d)
Charter Act of 1833 — The Charter Act of 1833 made the Governor-General of Bengal the Governor-General of India and ended the Company's commercial functions. It left the Company as the governing agency.

Concept

Company rule was dismantled in stages, and SSC tests which stage did what.

The Regulating Act 1773 brought Parliament in.
Pitt's India Act 1784 created the Board of Control and a dual government.
The Charter Act 1833 stripped the Company of trade and centralised authority in a Governor-General of India.
The Government of India Act 1858 ended the arrangement altogether and vested the government of India in the Crown.

After 1858 India was governed in the Queen's name through a Secretary of State answerable to Parliament, and Queen Victoria's Proclamation of 1858 announced the change.

Key facts

The Government of India Act 1858 transferred the government of India from the East India Company to the British Crown.
It abolished the Court of Directors and the Board of Control and created the Secretary of State for India, assisted by a Council of fifteen members.
Lord Canning became the first Viceroy of India under the Act.
The Act is also known as the Act for the Better Government of India.

Study next

The Charter Acts of 1813, 1833 and 1853The Indian Councils Acts of 1861, 1892 and 1909Queen Victoria's Proclamation of 1858 and the promises it made

Common traps

Choosing Pitt's India Act because it brought Crown involvement, when control was only shared there.
Confusing the Government of India Act 1858 with the Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935.

The sequence of British Acts recurs across these shifts, usually one Act per question.
The 23 Sep 2024, 16:00 paper asks which Act of 1773 was passed to regulate the East India Company's activities (GA Q.14).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.