SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 2 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.

In the following question, select the related word from the given alternatives Justice : Equity :: Governance : ?

(a)Democracy
(b)Regulation
(c)Efficiency
(d)Legitimacy

Answer

Why

Correct — D.
Rule: a concept : the principle that makes it rightful.

Justice rests on equity, treating people fairly and impartially.
Governance rests on legitimacy, its authority being accepted as rightful.

Governance : Legitimacy repeats Justice : Equity → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Democracy — Democracy is one form of governance, a type of it. Monarchies govern too, so Democracy is not the principle every governance rests on.
(b)
Regulation — Regulation is something governance does, a tool or activity. Equity is not something justice does; it is what makes an outcome just.
(c)
Efficiency — Efficiency measures how well governance performs. A government can run efficiently and still lack accepted authority, so efficiency is not what makes it rightful.

Concept

This analogy pairs two abstract ideas, so name the link before reading the options. Equity is the fairness that justice is built on; without it a ruling can be lawful and still unfair.

Ask the same of governance: what must it have to be accepted as rightful? That is legitimacy. The other options describe a form of governance (Democracy), an activity of it (Regulation) or a measure of it (Efficiency).

The link here is conceptual, not a dictionary pairing, so it rewards naming the relation first. Read as the principle it rests on, only Legitimacy fits.

Key facts

Equity means fairness and impartiality.
Legitimacy is the quality of being accepted as lawful or rightful. For a government, it is the recognised right to rule.
Democracy is one form of government, alongside others such as monarchy and oligarchy.

Study next

Vocabulary of political theory: sovereignty, authority, legitimacyTelling a type of X apart from a quality of X in word analogiesAbstract analogies built on purpose or principle

Common traps

Choosing Democracy because it is the form of governance most familiar from civics
Choosing Regulation because it is what governance visibly does

Another abstract pair in the same format appears at 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, Reasoning Q.2: Plaintiff : Complaint :: Petitioner : ?, keyed Petition.

There the relation is a party and what it files, so the relation has to be named afresh for each item.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Semantic Analogy — all 42 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.