UKPSC Prelims 2025 General Studies Paper-I · Question 123 of 149

Correct — C, 1, 2 and 4.

The Protection of Civil Rights Rules, 1977 are made under the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, so a question about the Rules is settled by the allocation of the Act. Day to day the work is done by State Governments and UT administrations, through their police and executive magistrates.

The Centre's own share is split by the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961. The Home Affairs entry covers criminal offences against women, children and members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, including those under the PCR Act.

The Social Justice and Empowerment entry lists the PCR Act, 1955 itself, unqualified. The Tribal Affairs entry covers implementation of the Act in so far as it relates to Scheduled Tribes, excluding administration of criminal justice for those offences. Three ministries hold shares — hence 1, 2 and 4.

Carry away the shape rather than the list: a law that is penal at one end and welfare at the other splits at the Centre into a criminal-justice share and group-wise implementation shares.

• (a)
  1 and 2 — Home Affairs plus Social Justice & Empowerment is exactly the right pair for the welfare side of the PCR Act together with its criminal-offences side — and it stops there.

  At the Centre there is a third share. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs entry in the Allocation of Business Rules, 1961 covers implementation of the PCR Act as it relates to Scheduled Tribes, excluding administration of criminal justice for those offences — so leaving out 4 drops an allocated share.

• (b)
  1, 2 and 3 — This swaps Tribal Affairs for Minority Affairs. The Ministry of Minority Affairs, created in 2006, is the Union ministry for the notified minority communities, a classification built on religion.

  The PCR Act works on untouchability under Article 17, which is a caste-based disability. The group ministries the Act therefore engages are Social Justice & Empowerment for Scheduled Castes and Tribal Affairs for Scheduled Tribes.

• (d)
  2, 3 and 4 — This is the set you would want if the question asked which Union ministries are organised around a named social group — Social Justice & Empowerment, Minority Affairs and Tribal Affairs each have a mandate defined that way.

  But the PCR Act is a penal statute, and the criminal offences under it sit inside the Home Affairs entry covering criminal offences against members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. That is why 1 cannot be dropped.

One Union law need not belong to one Union ministry. The Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 assign subjects to ministries, and a single statute can be split across several of them according to the kind of work it generates.

The PCR Act, 1955 is split twice over. First between the criminal-justice work and the welfare work; then, on the welfare side, between Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

• Article 17 abolishes untouchability and makes enforcement of any disability arising out of it an offence punishable in accordance with law.
• The Untouchability (Offences) Act, 1955 (22 of 1955) received the President's assent on 8 May 1955.
• It was amended and renamed the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 in 1976; the Protection of Civil Rights Rules, 1977 were notified in 1977.
• The Home Affairs entry covers criminal offences against women, children and members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, including those under the PCR Act.
• Under the Allocation of Business Rules, 1961, the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment is allocated The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 (22 of 1955) without qualification; the SC-only, criminal-justice-excluded rider attaches to its SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 entry.
• Tribal Affairs is allocated implementation of the PCR Act as it relates to Scheduled Tribes, excluding administration of criminal justice for those offences.
• Responsibility for implementing the Act lies primarily with State Governments and UT administrations and their subordinate police and executive magistrates.
• Section 15A places a duty on Government to ensure effective implementation; the Centre's annual report on the Act is made under Section 15A(4).
• Under Section 15 of the Act, offences are cognizable, and may be tried summarily except where the offence is punishable with imprisonment for a minimum term exceeding three months.
• Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis were notified as minorities under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992; Jains were added in January 2014.
• The Ministry of Tribal Affairs was created in 1999; the Ministry of Minority Affairs was created in 2006.

• Reading 'Central Ministries' as 'the welfare ministry' and dropping Home Affairs from a statute whose core is a set of criminal offences.
• Assuming untouchability law touches Scheduled Castes alone, which drops the Ministry of Tribal Affairs out of the set.
• Treating 'minority' as an umbrella for every disadvantaged group; Minority Affairs works on a religion-based notified list, not on caste.
• Confusing who implements on the ground — State Governments and UT administrations — with the Central allocation the stem asks about.
• Choosing by the shape of the option rather than the facts: each numbered ministry has to be tested on its own.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, criminal offences committed under the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 are allocated to which Union Ministry?

  • (a)Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
  • (b)Ministry of Home Affairs
  • (c)Ministry of Tribal Affairs
  • (d)Ministry of Law and Justice
  Answerb — the Home Affairs entry covers criminal offences against women, children and members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, including those under the PCR Act, 1955.

  (a) is allocated the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 itself, without qualification, while (c) holds implementation in so far as it relates to Scheduled Tribes, excluding the administration of criminal justice for those offences — that exclusion sits in the Tribal Affairs entry.

  (d) deals with legal affairs, legislative drafting and the courts side of justice administration, not with offences under this Act.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 gives effect to which Article of the Constitution?

  • (a)Article 15
  • (b)Article 16
  • (c)Article 17
  • (d)Article 23
  Answerc — Article 17 abolishes untouchability, forbids its practice in any form, and makes the enforcement of any disability arising out of untouchability an offence punishable in accordance with law. The PCR Act supplies that punishment.

  (a) prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. (b) guarantees equality of opportunity in public employment. (d) prohibits traffic in human beings and forced labour, which is the base for bonded-labour law rather than for untouchability offences.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Protection of Civil Rights Rules were notified in which year?

  • (a)1955
  • (b)1976
  • (c)1977
  • (d)1989
  Answerc — the Rules under the Act were notified in 1977, twenty-two years after the parent statute reached the statute book.

  (a) is the year the Untouchability (Offences) Act received the President's assent. (b) is the year the Act was amended and renamed the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955. (d) is the year of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which is a separate law.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  With reference to the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, consider the following statements: 1. Responsibility for its implementation lies primarily with the State Governments and Union Territory administrations. 2. At the Centre, implementation in so far as it relates to Scheduled Tribes is allocated to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  • (a)1 only
  • (b)2 only
  • (c)Both 1 and 2
  • (d)Neither 1 nor 2
  Answerc — both statements are correct. Implementation rests primarily with the State Governments and UT administrations and their subordinate authorities, the police and the executive magistrates.

  At the Centre, the Allocation of Business Rules give the Ministry of Tribal Affairs implementation in so far as it relates to Scheduled Tribes, excluding the administration of criminal justice for offences under the Act.

  (a), (b) and (d) each reject one or both of the two statements. Statement 1 is what the Central Government's annual report on the working of the Act sets out; statement 2 comes from the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961.