Which Article defines State and Union Territories for the purposes of the Constitution?

Correct — A. Article 1 opens: "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States." It then says the States and their territories are as specified in the First Schedule.

Clause (3) makes the territory of India the territories of the States, the Union territories specified in the First Schedule, and any territory acquired.

So Article 1, read with the First Schedule, identifies both → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Article 3 — Article 3 lets Parliament form new States and alter their areas, boundaries or names. Its Explanation counts a Union territory as a State only for clauses (a) to (e) of that article.
• (c)
  Article 239 — Article 239 says how Union territories are administered: by the President, acting through an administrator he appoints. It presumes the Union territories exist and does not define them.
• (d)
  Article 240 — Article 240 lets the President make regulations for certain Union territories, such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. It governs them and does not define them.

Part I of the Constitution, Articles 1 to 4, deals with the Union and its territory.

Article 1 names the country and calls it a Union of States. The list of States and Union territories sits in the First Schedule, so a new State changes the Schedule, not Article 1's words.

Article 2 lets Parliament admit or establish new States, and Article 3 lets it form new States or alter existing ones.

Key facts

• Article 1(1): India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.
• Article 1(3): the territory of India comprises the States, the Union territories specified in the First Schedule, and any territory acquired.
• Article 366(30) defines a Union territory as one specified in the First Schedule, including other territory in India not specified there.
• Article 239 has Union territories administered by the President through an administrator.

Common traps

• Choosing Article 3 because its Explanation mentions Union territories, when that extension applies to Article 3 alone.
• Taking Article 239, the first article of Part VIII on Union territories, as their definition.

No directly related past PYQ was found.