UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 38 of 150

Correct — B, Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A). The Assertion is true. Before 1992 panchayats had no independent footing in the Constitution: Article 40, a Directive Principle, merely asked the State to organise village panchayats, and everything else — whether elections were held at all, when, and with what powers — was left to state law and state discretion. Bodies were routinely superseded and left unelected for years. The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 ended that by inserting Part IX (Articles 243 to 243-O) and the Eleventh Schedule of 29 subjects; passed by both Houses in December 1992, it came into force on 24 April 1993, the date now observed as National Panchayati Raj Day. The Reason is true as well, and it is the operative cause. Constitutional status is precisely what makes the change a watershed: once panchayats were written into the Constitution, a three-tier structure, a fixed five-year term, elections conducted by a State Election Commission, a State Finance Commission every five years, and reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women all became binding obligations enforceable in court rather than concessions a state government could withdraw. A is the verdict; R is the ground for it — hence option (b) on this paper's code.

• (a)(A) is true, but (R) is false — The Reason is not false. Conferring constitutional status on panchayats is exactly what the 73rd Amendment did — Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule were inserted into the Constitution itself. Candidates sometimes doubt R because Article 40 already mentioned village panchayats, but a Directive Principle is non-justiciable and creates no obligation; Part IX does.
• (c)(A) is false, but (R) is true — The Assertion is not false. The 73rd Amendment is universally treated as the dividing line in the history of rural local government in India — before it, panchayats existed at the pleasure of state governments; after it, they are constitutional bodies with guaranteed elections, a guaranteed term and guaranteed representation for women and for Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
• (d)Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A) — This is the option worth pausing on. It would be right only if the amendment's importance rested on something other than constitutionalisation — the reserved seats, say, or the State Finance Commission. But those provisions are consequences of constitutional status, not alternatives to it: each became mandatory only because Part IX now sits in the Constitution. R states the cause from which the rest follows, so it explains A rather than merely accompanying it.

The 73rd Amendment converted panchayati raj from a matter of policy into a matter of constitutional law. Part IX lays down a three-tier structure — village, intermediate and district — with the intermediate tier optional for states with a population under twenty lakh; a Gram Sabha of all registered voters of a village area under Article 243A; a five-year term with elections to be completed before it expires and within six months of any dissolution; a State Election Commission under Article 243K to superintend panchayat elections; a State Finance Commission under Article 243I to review their finances every five years; and reservation under Article 243D of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population, with not less than one-third of all seats and of chairperson posts reserved for women. The Eleventh Schedule lists 29 subjects a state may devolve to panchayats.

Assertion-reason items on constitutional amendments turn on one question: is the Reason the ground of the Assertion, or just another true fact? Here it is the ground. The pre-1992 position is the proof — Article 40 had existed since 1950 and had produced no reliable local democracy, because a Directive Principle cannot be enforced. What changed in 1993 was the legal status of the institution, and every practical guarantee flowed from that. Two boundaries are worth fixing so the amendment is not over-claimed. First, the 73rd covers rural bodies only; urban local government came separately through the 74th Amendment, which inserted Part IXA and the Twelfth Schedule. Second, Part IX did not initially extend to Fifth Schedule areas, a gap closed by the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, PESA, of 1996. Note finally that this paper's assertion-reason code is scrambled: 'both true and R explains A' is at (b), not at the (a) most candidates expect.

• The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 inserted Part IX (Articles 243 to 243-O) and the Eleventh Schedule of 29 subjects; it was passed in December 1992 and came into force on 24 April 1993.
• 24 April is observed as National Panchayati Raj Day, first declared in 2010, marking that commencement.
• Mandatory features: three-tier structure (intermediate tier optional below twenty lakh population), five-year term, State Election Commission (Article 243K), State Finance Commission (Article 243I), Gram Sabha (Article 243A).
• Article 243D reserves seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to population, with not less than one-third of the total seats — and of chairperson offices — reserved for women.
• Its urban counterpart is the 74th Amendment (Part IXA, Twelfth Schedule, in force 1 June 1993); PESA, 1996 extended Part IX to Fifth Schedule areas.

• Treating Article 40, a Directive Principle, as though it already gave panchayats constitutional status — it is non-justiciable
• Extending the 73rd Amendment to urban bodies; municipalities come under the 74th
• Assuming the assertion-reason letters carry their usual meanings — in this 2022 paper all four are moved, and 'both true, R explains A' sits at (b)
• Misremembering the women's reservation under Article 243D as one-fourth; it is not less than one-third

UPPSC asks this area in every form it has — assertion-reason on why the amendment matters, a match of amendment to subject, the date of National Panchayati Raj Day, the chronology of the panchayati raj committees, and two-statement items on tenure and reservation. UPSC asks it institutionally: what the 73rd Amendment refers to, which Part it inserted, and which of the State Election Commission, State Finance Commission and District Planning Committee it actually created.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 inserted which of the following into the Constitution of India?

  • (a)Part IXA and the Twelfth Schedule
  • (b)Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule
  • (c)Part VIII and the Tenth Schedule
  • (d)Part IX and the Twelfth Schedule

  Answer(b) Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule — Part IXA and the Twelfth Schedule belong to the 74th Amendment, which deals with municipalities.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under Article 243D of the Constitution, the proportion of seats in panchayats reserved for women is

  • (a)Not less than one-fourth of the total number of seats
  • (b)Not less than one-third of the total number of seats
  • (c)Exactly one-half of the total number of seats in every State
  • (d)Determined entirely by the State Legislature with no constitutional floor

  Answer(b) Not less than one-third of the total number of seats — the same floor applies to the offices of chairperson; several States have since raised it to one-half by their own law.