SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 25 of 75

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 13 September 2026.

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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.

Consider the following statements: 1. Article 131A gave High Courts exclusive power to decide on central laws' validity. 2. It was repealed by the 43rd Constitutional Amendment. Which of the above is/are correct?

(a)Only 1
(b)Only 2
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Statement 1 is false. Article 131A, inserted by the 42nd Amendment (1976), did the reverse: it gave the Supreme Court exclusive jurisdiction over the constitutional validity of Central laws and barred the High Courts from deciding it.

Statement 2 is true. The 43rd Amendment (1977) repealed Article 131A, along with Articles 31D, 32A, 144A, 226A and 228A.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Only 1 — Only 1 fails because statement 1 names the wrong court. Article 131A gave the Supreme Court, not the High Courts, exclusive power over the validity of Central laws.
(c)
Both 1 and 2 — Both fails on statement 1: Article 131A took this question away from the High Courts and vested it exclusively in the Supreme Court.
(d)
Neither 1 nor 2 — Statement 2 is true: the Janata government's 43rd Amendment repealed Article 131A. So 'neither' is wrong.

Concept

The 42nd Amendment, passed during the Emergency, curbed the courts' review of laws.
Article 131A reserved questions on the validity of Central laws to the Supreme Court alone, and Article 226A stopped High Courts from considering them in writ cases.
Article 32A stopped the Supreme Court from considering State laws in writ proceedings.

The Janata Party government's 43rd Amendment repealed all three to restore the pre-Emergency position.

Statement 1 keeps a real Article and a real subject and changes only the court. Settle who held the power before asking when it ended.

Key facts

Article 131A (42nd Amendment, 1976) gave the Supreme Court exclusive jurisdiction over the constitutional validity of Central laws.
The 43rd Amendment (1977) repealed Articles 31D, 32A, 131A, 144A, 226A and 228A.
The 43rd Amendment received the President's assent and came into force on 13 April 1978.
Article 131 gives the Supreme Court original jurisdiction in disputes between the Union and the States.

Study next

The 42nd Amendment (1976), called the 'mini-Constitution'The 44th Amendment (1978) and the rollback of Emergency-era changesSupreme Court jurisdiction: original (Article 131), writ (Article 32) and transfer of cases (Article 139A)

Common traps

Remembering that Article 131A concerned Central laws' validity but not which court it favoured.
Mixing up the 43rd and 44th Amendments: both were Janata-era repairs, and the 43rd is the one that repealed Article 131A.

The two-statement format pairs a wrong-court claim with a true repeal fact. The same format on Article 131 is asked at 19 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.21 (keyed: only statement 2), and Article 139A of the 42nd Amendment at 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.25 (keyed: both).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: General Policy — all 308 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.