UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 68 of 150

Correct — C, I, II, III, IV. The four events fall in the order in which they are printed. I. Maharaja Hari Singh, the last Dogra ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947, and it was accepted by the Governor-General, Lord Mountbatten, the next day. II. The Constitution of India came into force on 26 January 1950, with Article 370 carrying a special temporary arrangement for the State. III. The Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, elected in 1951, ratified the State's accession to India on 6 February 1954. IV. The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, adopted by that Assembly on 17 November 1956, came into force on 26 January 1957, after which the Assembly dissolved itself. So the sequence runs 1947 → 1950 → 1954 → 1957, which is I, II, III, IV.

• (a)I, III, IV, II — It starts correctly with the 1947 accession but then pushes the Constitution of India to last, after the State's own Constitution. India's Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950, seven years before the J&K Constitution of 26 January 1957 — a State constitution drawing its authority from Article 370 cannot precede the document that contains Article 370.
• (b)III, IV, I, II — This puts the Constituent Assembly's ratification (1954) and the State Constitution (1957) before the accession itself (1947). The ratification of an accession must follow the accession; and the J&K Constituent Assembly was only elected in 1951, four years after the Instrument of Accession was signed.
• (d)IV, III, II, I — This is simply the correct sequence read backwards. It ends with the Instrument of Accession in 1947 as the last event and begins with the State Constitution of 1957 as the first — an exact reversal, the standard filler option in chronology sets.

Jammu and Kashmir followed a constitutional track no other State followed. Like every princely State it joined India through an Instrument of Accession, but the accession was made on three subjects only — defence, external affairs and communications — and Article 370 of the Constitution of India was drafted to hold that limited arrangement in place until the State's own Constituent Assembly decided the rest. That Assembly, elected in 1951, ratified the accession in 1954 and wrote a separate State Constitution that came into force in 1957. Two constitutions therefore operated in the State until 2019.

Chronology sets are usually solved by elimination rather than by recall of all four dates, and here two anchors do the whole job. First, the accession is 1947 and must come first, which removes (b) and (d). Second, the Constitution of India (1950) must precede the Constitution of a State that derives its status from Article 370 (1957), which removes (a). What is left is (c). Candidates lose this question by over-thinking the printed order — a sequence that happens to be already correct feels like a trap, but it is not one. Note also the exam's own timing: the paper was sat on 15 December 2019, weeks after the arrangement described in statements III and IV had been dismantled.

• 26 October 1947 — Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession; it was accepted by Lord Mountbatten on 27 October 1947.
• 26 January 1950 — the Constitution of India came into force; Article 370 provided the special arrangement for Jammu and Kashmir.
• 6 February 1954 — the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, elected in 1951, ratified the State's accession to India; the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order of 1954 followed, introducing Article 35A.
• 17 November 1956 — the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir was adopted; 26 January 1957 — it came into force, and the State's Constituent Assembly dissolved.
• As of today: on 5–6 August 2019 Article 370 was read down and the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir ceased to operate, and under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 the State became the two Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh from 31 October 2019 — both before this paper was held on 15 December 2019.

• Believing the accession was incomplete until the 1954 ratification — the accession itself dates from 26 October 1947; 1954 was a ratification by the State's Constituent Assembly.
• Placing the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir before the Constitution of India, or before the ratification.
• Mixing the date the J&K Constitution was adopted (17 November 1956) with the date it came into force (26 January 1957) — the same adoption-versus-commencement trap that the Constitution of India carries with 26 November 1949 and 26 January 1950.

UPPSC likes strict chronology codes over constitutional milestones, with the reversed sequence supplied as a filler; UPSC asks about the substance instead — what Article 370 or 35A did, which body ratified the accession, or who negotiated the integration of the princely States.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir came into force on

  • (a)26 January 1950
  • (b)6 February 1954
  • (c)26 January 1957
  • (d)17 November 1956

  Answer(c) 26 January 1957 — it was adopted by the State's Constituent Assembly on 17 November 1956 and commenced on 26 January 1957; the Assembly then dissolved itself.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India was ratified in February 1954 by

  • (a)the Parliament of India
  • (b)the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir
  • (c)a plebiscite held in the State
  • (d)the United Nations Security Council

  Answer(b) the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir — elected in 1951, it ratified the accession on 6 February 1954, and the Constitution (Application to J&K) Order of that year followed.