UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 125 of 150

Correct — D, National Commission for Backward Classes – 340. Work through the set by elimination, because three of the four pairs are flatly wrong and can be struck out in seconds. The Election Commission is Article 324, not 165 — Article 165 provides for the Advocate-General for a State. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes is Article 338, not 148 — Article 148 provides for the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India. The Finance Commission is Article 280, not 263 — Article 263 is the provision under which the President may establish an Inter-State Council. That leaves (d), and Article 340 is the Constitution's backward-classes provision: it empowers the President to appoint a Commission to investigate the conditions of the socially and educationally backward classes, the difficulties they labour under, and the steps that should be taken to remove those difficulties. It is the Article under which the First Backward Classes Commission headed by Kaka Kalelkar was appointed in 1953 and the Second, headed by B.P. Mandal, in 1979. So (d) is the pair the commission marks, and it is the only pair in the set with any genuine constitutional connection between the body and the Article named. One thing an honest card must add, because a well-prepared student will spot it. The standing National Commission for Backward Classes — the permanent body that today hears complaints and advises on the inclusion of communities in the Central list — is placed in Article 338B, inserted by the Constitution (One Hundred and Second Amendment) Act, 2018; before that it was a statutory body under the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993. On the strictest reading the article for today's NCBC is 338B. But 338B does not appear anywhere in the option set, the other three pairs are wrong beyond argument, and Article 340 is the provision on which every backward-classes commission in Indian constitutional history has rested. Carry both numbers: 338B for the permanent Commission, 340 for the President's power to appoint a Backward Classes Commission.

• (a)Election Commission – 165 — Wrongly matched twice over. The Election Commission of India is provided for by Article 324, which vests the superintendence, direction and control of elections to Parliament, to the State legislatures, and to the offices of President and Vice-President in a Commission consisting of the Chief Election Commissioner and such other Election Commissioners as the President may fix. Article 165 belongs to an entirely different Part and provides for the Advocate-General for a State, the State's counterpart of the Attorney-General under Article 76.
• (b)National Commission for Scheduled Castes – 148 — Wrongly matched. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes is Article 338; the 89th Amendment Act, 2003 split the earlier combined Commission and created a separate National Commission for Scheduled Tribes under the newly inserted Article 338A. Article 148 provides for the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India — an officer, not a commission — and is the first Article of the CAG chapter that runs to Article 151.
• (c)Finance Commission – 263 — Wrongly matched, and the pairing is designed to exploit the fact that both Articles concern Centre-State relations. The Finance Commission is Article 280: the President constitutes it every fifth year, or earlier if he considers it necessary, to recommend the distribution of tax proceeds between the Union and the States and the principles governing grants-in-aid. Article 263 is the Inter-State Council provision, under which the President may by order establish a Council to inquire into and advise upon disputes and subjects of common interest between States, or between the Union and States.

A constitutional body is one created directly by an Article of the Constitution, so that its existence, and usually its composition, powers and independence, cannot be altered by ordinary legislation alone. The Election Commission (Article 324), the Comptroller and Auditor-General (Article 148), the Finance Commission (Article 280), the Union and State Public Service Commissions (Article 315), the Attorney-General (Article 76) and the Advocate-General (Article 165), the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (Article 338), for Scheduled Tribes (Article 338A) and for Backward Classes (Article 338B), the Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities (Article 350B) and the Inter-State Council (Article 263) are the standard list. Statutory bodies such as the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Minorities, and executive bodies such as NITI Aayog and the Law Commission, sit outside it.

Matching questions of this kind are decided by elimination, not by recognition of the right pair. Three of the four Article numbers here are famous ones attached to something else entirely — 165 to the Advocate-General, 148 to the CAG, 263 to the Inter-State Council — so a candidate who has memorised the standard body-to-Article table strikes out (a), (b) and (c) without needing to be sure about (d). That is the safer route, and it is the route to take when, as here, the surviving option carries a genuine subtlety. The backward classes story has two constitutional homes. Article 340, present since 1950, gives the President the power to appoint a Commission to investigate the condition of the socially and educationally backward classes — an ad hoc, investigative body, and the basis of both the Kalelkar and Mandal Commissions. Article 338B, inserted in 2018, creates a permanent National Commission for Backward Classes with the same kind of standing that Articles 338 and 338A give to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commissions. Knowing both is what protects a student whichever way the examiner frames it.

• Article 340 empowers the President to appoint a Commission to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes and recommend steps for their improvement; the First Backward Classes Commission under Kaka Kalelkar was appointed in 1953 and reported in 1955, and the Second, under B.P. Mandal, was appointed in 1979 and reported in 1980.
• The National Commission for Backward Classes began as a statutory body under the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993, enacted in the wake of the Indra Sawhney judgment of 1992, and was given constitutional status by Article 338B, inserted by the Constitution (One Hundred and Second Amendment) Act, 2018.
• Article 324 provides for the Election Commission of India; Article 165 provides for the Advocate-General for a State.
• Article 338 provides for the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Article 338A for the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, the separation having been made by the 89th Amendment Act, 2003; Article 148 provides for the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India.
• Article 280 provides for the Finance Commission, constituted by the President every fifth year or earlier; Article 263 empowers the President to establish an Inter-State Council by order.

• Assuming the National Commission for Backward Classes has only one Article. Article 340 is the President's power to appoint an investigative Backward Classes Commission; Article 338B, added in 2018, creates the permanent Commission.
• Confusing Article 263 with Article 280. Both concern Centre-State relations, but 263 is the Inter-State Council and 280 is the Finance Commission.
• Treating Article 148 as a commission provision. It creates the Comptroller and Auditor-General, a single office-holder, not a multi-member body.

UPPSC's favourite formats in this area are 'which one is correctly matched' and 'which one is NOT correctly matched' over a body-to-Article table, and occasionally a four-item Match List. UPSC more often asks whether a named body is constitutional, statutory or executive, or which Article a specific commission derives from. The examinable unit is a memorised table: body, Article number, and the amendment that created it if it is a later insertion.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The National Commission for Backward Classes was given constitutional status by which Constitutional Amendment Act?

  • (a)89th Amendment Act, 2003
  • (b)102nd Amendment Act, 2018
  • (c)103rd Amendment Act, 2019
  • (d)105th Amendment Act, 2021

  Answer(b) 102nd Amendment Act, 2018 — it inserted Article 338B creating a constitutional National Commission for Backward Classes, replacing the statutory body under the NCBC Act, 1993; the 89th Amendment created the separate ST Commission under Article 338A and the 105th restored the States' power to make their own backward-classes lists.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Mandal Commission was appointed by the President of India under which Article of the Constitution?

  • (a)Article 338
  • (b)Article 340
  • (c)Article 341
  • (d)Article 342

  Answer(b) Article 340 — it empowers the President to appoint a Commission to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes; Articles 341 and 342 deal with the President's notification of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes respectively.