SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 14 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Fill in the blanks: Zonal Councils were created by the _________ Act, 1956.

(a)States Reorganisation
(b)Finance Commission
(c)Panchayati Raj
(d)Representation of People

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Part III of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 set up the five Zonal Councils: Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern.

The Ministry of Home Affairs traces the idea to Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1956, during the debate on the States Reorganisation Commission's report, he proposed grouping the reorganised States into zones with an advisory council each.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Finance Commission — The Finance Commission is a constitutional body under Article 280 that recommends how tax revenue is shared between the Union and the States. It has nothing to do with Zonal Councils.
(c)
Panchayati Raj — Panchayati Raj got constitutional status through the 73rd Amendment of 1992, not a 1956 Act. It concerns village-level government, not councils of States.
(d)
Representation of People — The Representation of the People Acts of 1950 and 1951 govern elections: electoral rolls, seats and the conduct of polls. They create no inter-State council.

Concept

Zonal Councils are statutory bodies: an Act of Parliament created them, not the Constitution. The Ministry of Home Affairs calls them advisory bodies, a forum for settling Centre–State and inter-State issues by discussion.

The Union Home Minister chairs every council. The Chief Ministers of the member States act as Vice-Chairman by rotation, one year at a time.

The north-eastern States sit outside this scheme. The North Eastern Council, set up under its own Act, looks after them.

Remember Act + 1956. That year's reorganisation redrew States largely on linguistic lines, and the Ministry of Home Affairs says the councils were meant to ease the bitterness it left behind.

Key facts

Part III of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 set up five Zonal Councils: Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern.
The Union Home Minister is the Chairman of each Zonal Council.
The Chief Ministers of the member States act as Vice-Chairman by rotation, each for one year at a time.
The North Eastern Council, not a Zonal Council, looks after the north-eastern States.

Study next

The States Reorganisation Commission and its reportThe Inter-State Council under Article 263, and how it differs from a Zonal CouncilThe North Eastern Council and its member States

Common traps

Calling Zonal Councils constitutional bodies — an Act of Parliament created them.
Picking the Finance Commission because it also handles Centre–State matters — it is a constitutional body under Article 280 with no link to Zonal Councils.

Zonal Councils are also asked at 12 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.14, which orders the 1956 Act against later council meetings, and at 18 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.13, on the Union Home Minister's role as chairman.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: General Policy — all 218 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.