SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 20 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 14 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 13 September 2026.

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Fill in the blanks: The Sarkaria Commission (Centre–State Relations) was set up in the year ____.

(a)1983
(b)1990
(c)1992
(d)2000

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The Sarkaria Commission on Centre–State relations was set up by the Union government in June 1983. It was headed by Justice Ranjit Singh Sarkaria, a retired judge of the Supreme Court.

Its report came later in the decade, and its best-known result, the Inter-State Council, came in 1990. The year it was set up is 1983 → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
1990 — 1990 is the year the Inter-State Council was constituted by presidential order under Article 263, on the Sarkaria Commission's recommendation. It is the Commission's result, not its start.
(c)
1992 — 1992 is the year Parliament passed the 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts on panchayats and municipalities. That is a local-government milestone, nine years after the Sarkaria Commission began.
(d)
2000 — 2000 is when the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, chaired by Justice M. N. Venkatachaliah, was set up. It reviewed the Constitution as a whole.

Concept

India's Constitution divides power between the Union and the States through the three lists of the Seventh Schedule and the relations set out in Part XI.

The Sarkaria Commission was asked to review how those arrangements were working and to recommend changes. Its best-known outcome is the Inter-State Council, a standing forum for the Union and the States set up under Article 263.

The trap is the gap between the year a commission is set up and the year it reports or bears fruit. The Sarkaria Commission began in 1983, and the Council it recommended arrived in 1990.

Key facts

The Sarkaria Commission on Centre–State relations was set up by the Union government in June 1983.
It was headed by Justice Ranjit Singh Sarkaria, a retired judge of the Supreme Court.
On its recommendation, the Inter-State Council was constituted in 1990 by presidential order under Article 263.
The Punchhi Commission on Centre–State relations was set up in 2007.

Study next

The Inter-State Council under Article 263: composition and roleThe Punchhi Commission (2007) on Centre–State relationsPart XI of the Constitution: Articles 245 to 263

Common traps

Answering with the year of the report or of the Inter-State Council when the question asks when the Commission was set up.
Mixing up the Sarkaria Commission (1983) with the Punchhi Commission (2007), which re-examined Centre–State relations later.

Here the Commission is tested by the year it was set up.

It also appears at 18 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.15, which orders its report before the Inter-State Council and the Punchhi Commission, and at 15 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.15, which keys its advice on removing Governors as correct.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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