Arrange the following states chronologically with respect to enactment of ‘Right to Service Act’: (i) Punjab (ii) Assam (iii) Maharashtra (iv) Gujarat
- (a)(i), (ii), (iv), (iii)
- (b)(i), (ii), (iii), (iv)
- (c)(iii), (iv), (i), (ii)
- (d)(iii), (iv), (ii), (i)
Correct — A, (i), (ii), (iv), (iii).
Each of these laws carries its year inside its own name, so the sequence can be read straight off the titles. Punjab's Right to Service Act belongs to 2011 and Assam's Right to Public Services Act to 2012.
Gujarat's Right of Citizens to Public Services Act belongs to 2013, and Maharashtra's Right to Public Services law to 2015. Lined up earliest first that gives Punjab, Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra — (i), (ii), (iv), (iii).
The idea to carry away is that the year printed in a statute's short title is itself the ordering key. On a sequencing item about legislation you often do not need a separate date at all; you need the name of the Act.
- (b)(i), (ii), (iii), (iv) — This gets the opening pair right — Punjab in 2011 before Assam in 2012 — and then swaps the closing pair, putting Maharashtra ahead of Gujarat.
Gujarat legislated in 2013 and Maharashtra in 2015, so Maharashtra belongs last. Option (b) reproduces the stem's own printed order, left unrearranged.
- (c)(iii), (iv), (i), (ii) — This starts with Maharashtra and Gujarat, the two whose Acts came latest, and pushes Punjab and Assam to the end — the reverse of chronological order read earliest first.
The one relation it does preserve is Punjab before Assam; the leading pair inverts Gujarat 2013 and Maharashtra 2015 as well. So it runs downward in time across the first pair and then upward across the second.
- (d)(iii), (iv), (ii), (i) — Maharashtra 2015, Gujarat 2013, Assam 2012, Punjab 2011 — this is the keyed sequence read backwards, item for item.
It is the right answer to reverse chronological order, latest first. The stem asks for chronological order, so the same knowledge has to be written out in the other direction.
A Right to Service law turns the delivery of specified government services into a legal entitlement instead of a favour. The state notifies a list of services and fixes a time limit for each one.
It also names a designated officer who must deliver the service within that limit, and creates appellate authorities who hear complaints of delay and can impose a penalty on the officer at fault.
Because each state legislates for itself, the same design reaches different states in different years — which is exactly what a chronology question like this tests.
These Acts sit beside the Right to Information Act, 2005 on the citizen-facing side of administrative reform. RTI opens up the record; Right to Service puts a clock on the counter.
Madhya Pradesh moved first in August 2010 and the model spread state by state over the years that followed. For an Uttarakhand candidate the local anchor is the state's own Right to Service Act, which dates from 2011 — the same year as Punjab's.
- Madhya Pradesh legislated first, its Public Services Guarantee Act enacted on 18 August 2010.
- Bihar's Right to Public Services Act followed, enacted on 25 July 2011.
- Punjab's Right to Service Act dates from 2011; Uttarakhand's own Act also dates from 2011.
- The Assam Right to Public Services Act, 2012 was passed by the Assam Assembly in March 2012.
- The Gujarat (Right of Citizens to Public Services) Act dates from 2013.
- Maharashtra's Right to Public Services law dates from 2015, introduced through an ordinance notified in April that year.
- These are State enactments, which is why the year attached to each state differs.
- A typical Act names the service, the time limit, the designated officer, the appellate authorities and a penalty for unjustified delay.
Options (a) and (b) agree on Punjab then Assam and split only over the highlighted pair; Gujarat's 2013 Act comes before Maharashtra's 2015 one, so (a) stands.
- The ordering cue is inside the name: Punjab's Act of 2011 against Maharashtra's of 2015 settles the whole sequence without any extra date.
- Assent, notification and commencement can fall in different years; anchor on the year in the Act's own short title unless the question names a specific date.
- Two options open with Punjab and two open with Maharashtra, so deciding only that Punjab legislated before Maharashtra removes half the option set at once.
- Option (d) is the keyed sequence written backwards, so the printed instruction — chronologically, which conventionally means earliest first — has to be read before the option list.
- Dates alone fix this order; options (c) and (d) both open with the (iii), (iv) pair, placing Maharashtra and Gujarat ahead of Punjab and Assam.
- Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are the anchors for a 'which state legislated first' question, and neither of them appears in this stem.
One shape is the one here: four states or four Acts, a coded option set, and one instruction to arrange them chronologically — conventionally earliest first — with the reversed sequence offered as a rival option.
A flatter shape asks a single fact — which state enacted such a law first, or which year a named state's Act belongs to.
A third shape leaves dates aside and asks what the Act actually provides: notified services, fixed time limits, a designated officer, appeal, and a penalty for delay.
CDS_GK_2025_II_Q542025The same device — four items, a coded option set, one instruction to arrange them chronologically, with a reversed sequence offered as a rival. What differs is the material: that item orders the founding of nineteenth-century political associations, where the dates have to be recalled separately, while here the year sits inside each Act's own short title.
CDS_GK_2021_II_Q1102021Also a four-item chronology on comparatively recent material rather than classical history, so the same habit of fixing one certain anchor and eliminating on it applies. What differs is the cue: there the ordering turns on when each astronaut first flew, an event date, whereas here it turns on a legislative year printed in the name of the statute.
RPSC_2016_PRE_Prelims2016_Q412016Shares the underlying idea that a service-and-governance statute does not reach every state on the same terms, so the state list is the thing being tested. What differs is the direction: PESA is a central Act and that question turns on which states its scheduled-area provisions extend to, while Right to Service laws are passed separately by each state, which is why the years differ.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which state or union territory was the first in India to enact a law guaranteeing time-bound delivery of notified public services?
- (a)Bihar
- (b)Madhya Pradesh
- (c)Punjab
- (d)Delhi
Answerb — Madhya Pradesh, whose Public Services Guarantee Act was enacted on 18 August 2010, the first such law in the country.Bihar (a) followed in 2011, enacted on 25 July that year. Punjab (c) also legislated in 2011, and Delhi (d) brought in its time-bound delivery law in 2011 as well, so none of the three can be first.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Assam Right to Public Services Act belongs to which year?
- (a)2010
- (b)2011
- (c)2012
- (d)2013
Answerc — 2012; the Bill was passed by the Assam Assembly in March 2012 and the Act carries 2012 in its short title.2010 (a) is the year of Madhya Pradesh's pioneering Act, and 2011 (b) is the year of the Punjab, Bihar and Uttarakhand Acts. 2013 (d) is the year of Gujarat's Right of Citizens to Public Services Act, not Assam's.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Arrange the following states chronologically by the year of their Right to Service / Public Services Guarantee legislation, earliest first: 1. Assam 2. Madhya Pradesh 3. Gujarat 4. Bihar
- (a)2, 4, 1, 3
- (b)4, 2, 3, 1
- (c)2, 1, 4, 3
- (d)3, 1, 4, 2
Answera — Madhya Pradesh (2010), Bihar (2011), Assam (2012), Gujarat (2013), which is 2, 4, 1, 3.Option (b) puts Bihar ahead of Madhya Pradesh, but Madhya Pradesh legislated in 2010 and Bihar in 2011. Option (c) places Assam's 2012 Act before Bihar's 2011 one. Option (d) starts with Gujarat, whose 2013 Act is the latest of the four.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Uttarakhand Right to Service Act belongs to which year?
- (a)2009
- (b)2011
- (c)2013
- (d)2015
Answerb — 2011, the same year in which Punjab and Bihar brought in their own Right to Service laws.2009 (a) precedes even Madhya Pradesh's 2010 Act, the first in the country. 2013 (c) is the year of Gujarat's Act and 2015 (d) the year of Maharashtra's, neither of which is Uttarakhand's.