SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 20 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 25 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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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. Criminal law is exclusively under the Union List. 2. Agriculture is a State subject. 3. Trade and commerce within a State falls under the State List. Which of the above is/are correct?

(a)1 and 2 only
(b)2 and 3 only
(c)1 and 3 only
(d)1, 2 and 3

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Check each statement against the Seventh Schedule.

Statement 1 is wrong: criminal law is entry 1 of the Concurrent List, so Parliament and the States can both legislate on it.
Statement 2 is right: agriculture is entry 14 of the State List.
Statement 3 is right: trade and commerce within the State is State List entry 26.

Statements 2 and 3 are correct → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
1 and 2 only — 1 and 2 includes statement 1, which is wrong. Criminal law sits in the Concurrent List, not exclusively in the Union List.
(c)
1 and 3 only — 1 and 3 includes the wrong statement 1 and leaves out the right statement 2. Agriculture is State List entry 14.
(d)
1, 2 and 3 — All three fails on statement 1. The word exclusively is false, because criminal law is shared through the Concurrent List.

Concept

Article 246 divides law-making power through the three lists of the Seventh Schedule: the Union List for Parliament, the State List for the States, and the Concurrent List for both.

This item turns on a subject that sounds central but is not. Criminal law feels national, yet it is concurrent. Trade within a State is a State subject, while inter-State trade and commerce is Union List entry 42.

State List entry 26 is 'subject to the provisions of entry 33 of List III', which lets both levels regulate trade in items such as foodstuffs and raw cotton. That qualification does not move trade within a State out of the State List, so statement 3 stands.

Key facts

Criminal law is entry 1 of the Concurrent List (List III).
Agriculture, including agricultural education and research, is entry 14 of the State List (List II).
Trade and commerce within the State is State List entry 26, subject to entry 33 of List III.
Inter-State trade and commerce is entry 42 of the Union List (List I).

Study next

Article 254 and repugnancy between Union and State lawsSubjects moved to the Concurrent List by the 42nd Amendment (1976)Articles 249, 250 and 252: Parliament legislating on State List subjects

Common traps

Treating criminal law as a Union subject because the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita is a central law: the subject is concurrent, so States can legislate on it too.
Confusing trade within a State (State List) with inter-State trade (Union List).

Here the lists are tested through three subjects. The Concurrent List appears at 12 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.22, which keys education's move there by the 42nd Amendment, and at 16 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.25, which tests what happens when Union and State laws conflict.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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