SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 25 of 99

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.

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.

Consider the following statements: 1. Article 262 empowers Parliament to set up tribunals for river disputes. 2. The Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction in such disputes. 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 — A. Statement 1 is Article 262(1): Parliament may by law provide for adjudicating disputes over the waters of inter-State rivers or river valleys. The tribunals are set up under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.

Statement 2 fails on Article 262(2): Parliament may bar the Supreme Court and every other court from such disputes, and section 11 of the 1956 Act does so. So option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Only 2 — It keeps the false statement and drops the true one. Article 262(1) is exactly the power to provide for adjudicating inter-State river disputes, which Parliament used in 1956.
(c)
Both 1 and 2 — Statement 2 runs against Article 262(2), which lets Parliament shut the Supreme Court out of such disputes. Section 11 of the 1956 Act does exactly that.
(d)
Neither 1 nor 2 — Statement 1 is the plain text of Article 262(1), so 'neither' cannot be right.

Concept

Water is a State subject, but a river shared by States needs a neutral forum. Article 262 gives Parliament two powers: to provide for adjudicating inter-State water disputes, and to keep the courts out of them.

Parliament used both in the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956: tribunals decide the dispute, and section 11 bars the Supreme Court and other courts.

Since the 2002 amendment, a tribunal's published decision has the same force as a Supreme Court order.

One caveat. In the Cauvery dispute the Supreme Court held that appeals against the tribunal's award were maintainable under Article 136, and in February 2018 it modified the allocations.

So statement 2 carries a real complication. The key follows the constitutional bar in Article 262(2) and section 11, which is what the statement tests.

Key facts

Article 262(1): Parliament may by law provide for adjudication of disputes over the waters of inter-State rivers or river valleys.
Article 262(2): Parliament may by law provide that neither the Supreme Court nor any other court shall exercise jurisdiction in such disputes.
Section 11 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 bars the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and other courts over such water disputes.
In its 16 February 2018 Cauvery judgment, the Supreme Court allocated 404.25 tmcft to Tamil Nadu and 284.75 tmcft to Karnataka.

Study next

Article 131: the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction in Centre–State and inter-State disputesWater disputes tribunals: Cauvery, Krishna, Mahadayi and VamsadharaEntry 17 of the State List and Entry 56 of the Union List on water

Common traps

Assuming the Supreme Court hears every inter-State dispute under Article 131, when Article 262(2) lets Parliament take water disputes out of its reach.
Treating the Cauvery appeals as settling statement 2, when the question tests the constitutional scheme, which excludes the courts.

Here Article 262's two clauses are split into two statements.

The same pair of powers is keyed at 14 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.16 (set up tribunals and bar SC review), and inter-State water disputes are a distractor for the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction at 16 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.15.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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