Consider the following statements with reference to Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities : 1. In the Constitution, there is a provision for the post of Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities for every State. 2. A new Article 350 B was added for this by the 9th Constitution Amendment Act. Which of the above statements is/are correct ?
- (a)Only 2
- (b)Neither 1 nor 2
- (c)Only 1
- (d)Both 1 and 2
Correct — B, Neither 1 nor 2. Both statements are wrong, and each fails on a single word. Statement 1 fails on 'for every State'. Article 350B(1) reads, in full, 'There shall be a Special Officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the President.' That is one officer for the whole Union, appointed by the President of India — not one office replicated in each State the way a Governor, an Advocate-General or a State Public Service Commission is. Clause (2) confirms the all-India character of the office: the Special Officer investigates all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under the Constitution and reports to the President, who lays every such report before each House of Parliament and sends it to the Governments of the States concerned. A State-level officer would have no reason to report to the President or to Parliament. Statement 2 fails on the amendment number. Article 350B was inserted by the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956, the great reorganisation amendment that redrew the States on linguistic lines following the States Reorganisation Commission — the same amendment that inserted Article 350A on primary-stage instruction in the mother tongue. The Constitution (Ninth Amendment) Act, enacted on 28 December 1960, had nothing to do with language: it amended the First Schedule to give effect to the minor territorial adjustments agreed with Pakistan for settling border disputes. With both statements false, the code is 'Neither 1 nor 2'.
- (a)Only 2 — Requires statement 2 to be true, and it is not. Article 350B came in with the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956, not the Ninth. The Ninth Amendment Act was passed in 1960 to amend the First Schedule for territorial adjustments with Pakistan under the Indo-Pakistan border agreement — a purely territorial change with no bearing on linguistic minorities.
- (c)Only 1 — Requires statement 1 to be true, and it is not. The Constitution creates a single Special Officer for linguistic minorities for the whole of India, appointed by the President under Article 350B(1). There is no constitutional provision for such a post in every State. Candidates fall for this because a great many constitutional offices — Governor, Advocate-General, State Public Service Commission, State Election Commission — genuinely are one-per-State, so the phrasing sounds ordinary.
- (d)Both 1 and 2 — Both halves fail. The office is one for the Union, not one per State, and it was created by the Seventh Amendment of 1956, not the Ninth Amendment of 1960. An option asking you to accept two independent errors at once is the one to discard first in this format.
Part XVII of the Constitution ('Official Language') closes with a short chapter of 'Special Directives' — Articles 350, 350A and 350B. Article 350 lets any person submit a representation for redress of a grievance to any Union or State authority in any language used in the Union or the State. Article 350A directs every State and local authority to endeavour to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage to children of linguistic minority groups. Article 350B creates a Special Officer for linguistic minorities, appointed by the President, to investigate the safeguards given to linguistic minorities and report to the President, who places those reports before each House of Parliament and sends them to the State Governments concerned. Articles 350A and 350B were both added by the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956, in the wake of the States Reorganisation Commission — because once States were carved on linguistic lines, every new State acquired linguistic minorities inside it, and they needed a watchdog.
This is a two-word question dressed up as a two-statement question. The examiner has planted one error in a quantifier ('for every State') and one in a number ('9th Constitution Amendment Act'), and each is enough on its own. Train yourself to read the quantifiers in polity statements — 'every State', 'each House', 'not less than', 'at least' — because that is where UPPSC most often hides the falsifier. On the number, use the anchor that never moves: the Seventh Amendment is the reorganisation amendment of 1956, and everything linguistic in the Constitution clusters around it. The Special Officer is administratively designated the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, and this too is where students slip: because the Commissioner's office runs regional offices and deals constantly with State Governments, it feels State-level, but the constitutional post itself is single and central. Note also that the Special Officer is a constitutional authority created by an express Article, unlike the National Commission for Minorities, which is only statutory under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 — a distinction both UPSC and UPPSC have asked about directly.
- Article 350B(1): 'There shall be a Special Officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the President.' One office for the whole Union — the Constitution does not provide one for every State.
- Article 350B(2): the Special Officer investigates all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under the Constitution and reports to the President, who causes the reports to be laid before each House of Parliament and sent to the Governments of the States concerned.
- Articles 350A and 350B were both inserted by the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956, the amendment that reorganised the States following the States Reorganisation Commission. Article 350A covers instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage.
- The Constitution (Ninth Amendment) Act was enacted on 28 December 1960 and amended the First Schedule to make minor adjustments to the territory of the Indian Union under the border settlement with Pakistan — nothing to do with language or minorities.
- The Special Officer under Article 350B is administratively designated the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities. He is a constitutional authority; the National Commission for Minorities, by contrast, is only statutory (NCM Act, 1992).
Each statement carries exactly one planted error — a quantifier in the first, an amendment number in the second. Both fail, so the answer is (b) Neither 1 nor 2.
- Reading past the quantifier. 'For every State' is the whole falsifier in statement 1 — the office itself is genuine, only its multiplicity is invented.
- Confusing the Seventh Amendment (1956, States reorganisation, Articles 350A and 350B) with the Ninth Amendment (1960, territorial adjustments with Pakistan). Numbers in the fifties and sixties of the amendment list are the ones UPPSC swaps most often.
- Assuming the Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities and the National Commission for Minorities are the same thing, or that both are constitutional. Only the former is written into an Article.
UPPSC asks Part XVII either as a two-statement code like this one or as a plain recall item ('Article 350B relates to'); UPSC prefers to fold linguistic minorities into a wider question on Articles 29-30 or on which bodies are constitutional, so learn the Article number, the amendment that inserted it, and the appointing authority together.
Assertion (A): The word ‘minority’ is not defined in the Constitution of India. Reason (R): The Minorities Commission is not a constitutional body. In the context of the above two statements, which one of the following is correct?
- (a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A
- (b) Both A and R are true but R is not a correct explanation of A
- (c) A is true but R is false
- (d) A is false but R is true
Answer(b) Both A and R are true but R is not a correct explanation of A
The other half of the same architecture: the Constitution never defines 'minority', and the Minorities Commission is only statutory — which is precisely why the Special Officer under Article 350B matters, being the one minorities watchdog written into an Article.
Consider the following statements about the minorities in India: I. The Government of India has notified five communities, namely, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians as Minorities. II. The National Commission for Minorities was given statutory status in 1993. III. The smallest religious minority in India are the Zoroastrians. IV. The Constitution of India recognises and protects religious and linguistic minorities. Which of these statements are correct?
- (a) I and III
- (b) I and IV
- (c) II, III and IV
- (d) I, II and IV
Answer(d) I, II and IV
Its statement IV — that the Constitution recognises and protects religious and linguistic minorities — is the umbrella under which Article 350B sits; the same question separates the constitutional protection from the statutory National Commission for Minorities of 1992.
Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R). Assertion (A) : Article 30 of the Constitution of India does not define the term 'minorities'. Reason (R) : The Constitution recognises only linguistic and religious minorities. Select the correct answer from the codes given below : Codes :
- (a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
- (b) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
- (c) (A) is true, but (R) is false
- (d) (A) is false, but (R) is true
Answer(b) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
UPPSC asking the same corner of the Constitution five years earlier: the term 'minority' is undefined and only linguistic and religious minorities are recognised — the two categories whose linguistic half Article 350B is built to protect.
The Constitution of India initially permitted the use of English language for all official purposes for a period of -
- (a) 5 years
- (b) 10 years
- (c) 15 years
- (d) 20 years
Answer(c) 15 years
Tests Part XVII from the other end. Article 343(2) gave English fifteen years for the Union's official purposes; Article 350B, at the close of the same Part, gives linguistic minorities their permanent watchdog.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities is appointed by which authority, and under which Article?
- (a)The Prime Minister, under Article 350A
- (b)The President, under Article 350B
- (c)The Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, under Article 338
- (d)The Governor of each State, under Article 347
Answer(b) The President, under Article 350B — Article 350B(1) says 'There shall be a Special Officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the President'; the reports go to the President, who lays them before each House of Parliament.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which Constitutional Amendment Act inserted Articles 350A and 350B into the Constitution of India?
- (a)The Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956
- (b)The Constitution (Ninth Amendment) Act, 1960
- (c)The Constitution (Twenty-first Amendment) Act, 1967
- (d)The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976
Answer(a) The Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956 — the linguistic-reorganisation amendment that followed the States Reorganisation Commission; the 9th (1960) made territorial adjustments with Pakistan, the 21st added Sindhi to the Eighth Schedule, and the 42nd was the 'mini-Constitution'.