UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 83 of 150

Correct — B, 69th. The Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991, brought into force on 1 February 1992, inserted Articles 239AA and 239AB and gave Delhi the special status it has held ever since. Article 239AA renamed the Union Territory of Delhi the NATIONAL CAPITAL TERRITORY of Delhi and provided it with a Legislative Assembly of 70 elected seats and a Council of Ministers headed by a Chief Minister, with power to make laws on the State List and the Concurrent List except for three reserved subjects — public order, police and land. Article 239AB is the provision for suspending that machinery, the equivalent of President's rule for Delhi. The amendment was accompanied by the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991. Note the wording of the stem: the 69th Amendment made Delhi the National Capital TERRITORY, not the National Capital REGION. The National Capital Region is a completely different creature — a statutory PLANNING region set up under the National Capital Region Planning Board Act, 1985, which covers Delhi together with adjoining districts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and which owes nothing to any constitutional amendment. The commission's key is unaffected by the slip: since no amendment created the NCR at all, the 69th remains the only defensible answer to the question as intended, and 'Territory' is what a student should carry away.

• (a)73rd — The Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 is the panchayat amendment. It inserted Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule and made three-tier rural local government a constitutional requirement with regular elections, reservation of seats and State Finance Commissions. It has nothing to do with Delhi's status.
• (c)75th — The Constitution (Seventy-fifth Amendment) Act, 1994 amended Article 323B to let States set up tribunals for rent, tenancy and eviction disputes. It is an administrative-tribunals amendment, not a territorial or capital-city one.
• (d)70th — The nearest neighbour and therefore the sharpest trap. The Constitution (Seventieth Amendment) Act belongs to the same cluster and also concerns Delhi — it amended Article 54 so that the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and of Puducherry count in the electoral college for the election of the President. But it presupposes the Assembly that the 69th Amendment had already created; it did not itself confer Delhi's special status.

Delhi occupies a category of its own in the Constitution. It is not a State, so it has no Governor and no Article 246 competence of its own; but it is not an ordinary Union Territory either, because Article 239AA gives it an elected legislature and a responsible Council of Ministers. The three subjects held back — public order, police and land — are precisely the ones that make it a capital city administered ultimately by the Union, and they are the standing source of friction between the elected government and the Lieutenant Governor. Puducherry has a comparable but statutory arrangement under the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, which is why the two are so often paired in questions.

The elimination runs on the early-1990s amendment cluster, all of which a candidate is expected to know: 69th for Delhi's status, 70th for Delhi and Puducherry in the presidential electoral college, 73rd for panchayats, 74th for municipalities, 75th for rent tribunals. Fix those five and the question is immediate. The deeper point the question is reaching for — and mis-stating — is the difference between the National Capital TERRITORY, a constitutional unit of administration, and the National Capital REGION, a statutory planning area that spills across three neighbouring States. A student who holds that distinction will also read newspaper usage correctly, since 'NCR' in ordinary speech means Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad along with Delhi. Since the 2022 examination, Parliament has legislated further on the division of powers between Delhi's elected government and the Lieutenant Governor, so the working balance of authority has moved even though Article 239AA itself is unchanged.

• The Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991 came into force on 1 February 1992 and inserted Articles 239AA and 239AB.
• Article 239AA designated the Union Territory of Delhi as the National Capital Territory of Delhi, with a Legislative Assembly and a Council of Ministers — it remains a Union Territory, not a State.
• The Delhi Legislative Assembly has 70 seats and may legislate on State and Concurrent List subjects except public order, police and land.
• The National Capital Region is a statutory planning region under the National Capital Region Planning Board Act, 1985, covering Delhi plus districts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan — it is not a constitutional creation.
• The companion statute to the amendment is the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991.

• Treating 'National Capital Region' and 'National Capital Territory' as the same thing — the first is a statutory planning region across three States, the second is Delhi's constitutional status
• Marking the 70th Amendment because it also mentions Delhi; it added Delhi and Puducherry MLAs to the presidential electoral college and nothing more
• Assuming the 69th Amendment made Delhi a State — Delhi remained a Union Territory with a legislature

UPPSC asks constitutional amendments as one-line 'which amendment did X' recall or as a match list of amendment numbers against their subjects. UPSC prefers to test the substance — what Article 239AA actually permits the Delhi Assembly to legislate on, or the position of the Lieutenant Governor — so learn each amendment with the Article it inserted and what that Article says.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Articles were inserted into the Constitution by the Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991?

  • (a)Articles 239A and 239B
  • (b)Articles 239AA and 239AB
  • (c)Articles 243 and 243A
  • (d)Articles 371F and 371G

  Answer(b) Articles 239AA and 239AB — 239AA created the Legislative Assembly and Council of Ministers for the National Capital Territory of Delhi, and 239AB provides for suspending that arrangement.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Consider the following statements about the National Capital Territory of Delhi: 1. Its Legislative Assembly may make laws on any matter in the State List except public order, police and land. 2. It has the status of a State under the Constitution. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  • (a)Both 1 and 2
  • (b)Only 1
  • (c)Neither 1 nor 2
  • (d)Only 2

  Answer(b) Only 1 — the three reserved subjects are correctly stated, but Delhi remains a Union Territory with a legislature, not a State.