SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 4 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.

Which of the following actions is not allowed for a player in handball?

(a)Pulling or punching the ball out of an opponent’s hands
(b)Intercepting the ball mid-air using both hands
(c)Dribbling the ball before making a pass
(d)Blocking the ball with the torso above the knees

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The IHF Rules of the Game for indoor handball list, under Rule 8:2, what a player may not do to an opponent. The first item is to pull or hit the ball out of the hands of the opponent.

Punching is hitting with a closed fist, so option (a) is a foul. What Rule 8:1 does allow is an open hand playing the ball out of an opponent's hand.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Intercepting the ball mid-air using both hands — Rule 7:1 lets a player throw, catch, stop, push or hit the ball with the hands. Intercepting a pass in the air with both hands is simply catching it.
(c)
Dribbling the ball before making a pass — Dribbling is permitted: Rule 7:4 lets a player bounce the ball repeatedly with one hand, catch it, and then play it within 3 seconds or 3 steps.
(d)
Blocking the ball with the torso above the knees — Rule 7:1 allows the ball to be played with the torso, thighs and knees. The ban in Rule 7:8 starts below the knee, so a block with the torso is legal.

Concept

Handball separates two targets: the ball and the opponent.

The ball may be played with almost any part of the body above the knee, and an open hand may knock it from an opponent's grip.

Rule 8:2 bans pulling or hitting the ball out of his hands in the same list as blocking with the arms, holding, and running into an opponent.

The rule numbers quoted here are from the IHF Rules of the Game for indoor handball. The question's word punching is the rulebook's hit, made with a closed hand.

Key facts

IHF Rule 7:1: the ball may be played with the hands (open or closed), arms, head, torso, thighs and knees.
IHF Rule 7:8: a player may not touch the ball with a foot or leg below the knee, unless an opponent threw it at him.
IHF Rule 8:1a permits an open hand to play the ball out of an opponent's hand.
A player may hold the ball for at most 3 seconds and take at most 3 steps with it.

Study next

Handball's 3-second and 3-step limits on holding and carrying the ballHandball's free throw and 7-metre throwTeam size in handball: up to 16 players, 7 on court at a time

Common traps

Reading hit the ball as always legal because Rule 7:1 permits it. Rule 8:2a still bans hitting the ball out of an opponent's hands.
Carrying football's handball rule over. In handball the ban is on the foot and the leg below the knee.

Here SSC offers three legal actions and one foul, and asks for the foul. Game rules also appear at 11 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.13, on the number of Kabaddi players on court per side.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.