The Concurrent list of the Indian Constitution includes : 1. Trade and Commerce 2. Adulteration of Goods 3. Succession Select the correct answer from the codes given below :
- (a)1 and 3
- (b)1, 2 and 3
- (c)Only 1
- (d)2 and 3
Correct — D, 2 and 3. Take the three items one at a time against the actual text of the Seventh Schedule. 'Adulteration of Goods' is Entry 18 of the Concurrent List, which reads 'Adulteration of foodstuffs and other goods' — Concurrent, so item 2 belongs. 'Succession' is Entry 5 of the Concurrent List, the personal-law entry: 'Marriage and divorce; infants and minors; adoption; wills, intestacy and succession; joint family and partition; all matters in respect of which parties in judicial proceedings were immediately before the commencement of this Constitution subject to their personal law' — Concurrent, so item 3 belongs. 'Trade and Commerce', standing bare with no qualifier, does not. Trade and commerce is split across all three lists by geography: 'Trade and commerce within the State' is Entry 26 of the STATE List; 'Trade and commerce with foreign countries; import and export across customs frontiers' is Entry 41 of the Union List and 'Inter-State trade and commerce' is Entry 42; and the Concurrent List's Entry 33 is only a narrow carve-out — trade and commerce in, and the production, supply and distribution of, the products of Union-controlled industries, foodstuffs including edible oilseeds and oils, cattle fodder, raw cotton and raw jute. An unqualified 'Trade and Commerce' therefore reads as the State subject, not the Concurrent one. Items 2 and 3 in, item 1 out — the code is (d).
- (a)1 and 3 — Keeps 'Trade and Commerce' and drops 'Adulteration of Goods' — exactly the wrong way round. Adulteration of foodstuffs and other goods is Entry 18 of the Concurrent List and is unambiguously Concurrent; bare trade and commerce is the State List's Entry 26.
- (b)1, 2 and 3 — The all-inclusive option, and the one that catches candidates who reason from Entry 33 of the Concurrent List without reading it. Entry 33 is not general trade and commerce: it covers trade, production, supply and distribution only in the products of industries the Union has taken control of, foodstuffs including edible oilseeds and oils, cattle fodder, raw cotton and raw jute. General trade and commerce within a State stays with the State under Entry 26 of List II.
- (c)Only 1 — The single item it keeps is the one item that does not belong, and it discards the two that do. It would be correct only if adulteration and succession were State or Union subjects, and neither is — both are named in the Concurrent List, at Entries 18 and 5 respectively.
The Seventh Schedule distributes legislative power in three lists. List I (Union) has the subjects on which only Parliament may legislate, List II (State) those reserved to State legislatures, and List III (Concurrent) those on which both may legislate, with Union law prevailing in the event of repugnancy under Article 254. The Concurrent List holds the subjects where a national standard is desirable but local administration is unavoidable — criminal law and procedure, contracts, evidence, bankruptcy, forests, education, electricity, factories, price control, economic and social planning, and the whole cluster of personal law. Adulteration and succession are classic Concurrent subjects for exactly that reason: purity standards need to be uniform, and personal law needs both a national frame and State-level variation.
This item is decided entirely by the qualifier the examiner left off. 'Trade and Commerce' is not a single constitutional subject at all — the Constitution slices it by geography and drops each slice in a different list: within the State (List II, Entry 26), with foreign countries (List I, Entry 41), between States (List I, Entry 42), and a short commodity-specific strip in the Concurrent List (Entry 33). A bare 'Trade and Commerce' in an exam stem defaults to the State List, and that is what makes item 1 false here. Succession is the entry students most often misplace, because they associate inheritance with land and land is a State subject. The distinction is worth carrying: Entry 5 of List III covers wills, intestacy and succession as part of personal law, while Entry 6 of the same list expressly limits itself to 'transfer of property other than agricultural land' and agricultural land is left to the State under Entry 18 of List II. Learn each list not as a memorised catalogue but as a logic — national uniformity to the Union, local administration to the States, and shared ground where both are needed.
- Concurrent List Entry 18: 'Adulteration of foodstuffs and other goods.' Adulteration is therefore a Concurrent subject.
- Concurrent List Entry 5: 'Marriage and divorce; infants and minors; adoption; wills, intestacy and succession; joint family and partition...' — succession sits in the personal-law entry of the Concurrent List.
- State List Entry 26: 'Trade and commerce within the State subject to the provisions of Entry 33 of List III.' Unqualified trade and commerce is a State subject.
- Union List Entry 41 covers trade and commerce with foreign countries and import and export across customs frontiers; Entry 42 covers inter-State trade and commerce.
- Concurrent List Entry 33 is a narrow carve-out only — trade and commerce in, and the production, supply and distribution of, the products of Union-controlled industries, foodstuffs including edible oilseeds and oils, cattle fodder, raw cotton and raw jute.
- Concurrent List Entry 6 covers 'transfer of property other than agricultural land'; agricultural land is left to the States under State List Entry 18.
Trade and commerce is split by geography across all three lists; adulteration and succession are named outright in the Concurrent List. Two of the three items qualify, so the answer is (d) 2 and 3.
- Treating an unqualified 'Trade and Commerce' as Concurrent because Entry 33 of List III mentions trade. Entry 33 is commodity-specific; general trade within a State is State List Entry 26.
- Filing succession under land and therefore under the States. Wills, intestacy and succession are Concurrent (Entry 5); only agricultural land is carved out to the State List.
- Forgetting that the lists were amended. Education and forests are Concurrent today but were State subjects until the 42nd Amendment, 1976, so an old textbook list can mislead.
UPPSC asks the Seventh Schedule as a three-item 'which of these are in List X' code, or as a Schedule-to-subject matching pair; UPSC prefers to embed one list entry inside a wider statement question on federalism or on a specific law. Either way, learn the qualifier attached to each entry, not just the subject word.
Consider the following statements: 1. National Development Council is an organ of the Planning Commission. 2. The Economic and Social Planning is kept in the Concurrent List in the Constitution of India. 3. The Constitution of India prescribes that Panchayats should be assigned the task of preparation of plans for economic development and social justice. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(b) 2 and 3 only
Its statement 2 is the identical drill — 'Economic and Social Planning is kept in the Concurrent List' is true because of Entry 20 of List III, just as adulteration and succession are true here because of Entries 18 and 5.
Which one of the following subjects is under the Union List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India?
- (a) Regulation of labour and safety in mines and oilfields
- (b) Agriculture
- (c) Fisheries
- (d) Public health
Answer(a) Regulation of labour and safety in mines and oilfields
The mirror image: instead of asking what is Concurrent, it asks what is exclusively Union, with agriculture, fisheries and public health as the State-List decoys. Same skill — place a bare subject word in the right list.
Which one of the following pairs (Schedule - Subjects) is not correctly matched?
- (a) Third Schedule – Forms of Oaths or Affirmations
- (b) Ninth Schedule – Allocation of seats in the Council of States
- (c) Eight Schedule – Languages
- (d) Tenth Schedule – Provisions as to disqualification on ground of defection
Answer(b) Ninth Schedule – Allocation of seats in the Council of States
The same examinable unit one year earlier — matching a Schedule to the subject it actually contains, with the falsifier again buried in a plausible-sounding pair. The Seventh Schedule tested here is the legislative-lists member of that same family.
Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R): Assertion (A): Indian federalism is called 'Quasi-federal'. Reason (R): India has an independent judiciary with power of Judicial Review. 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)
Explains why the three-list split matters at all: India is called quasi-federal precisely because the Union keeps the larger list, takes the residuary power, and prevails over State law on every Concurrent subject.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, 'Trade and commerce within the State' falls under which List?
- (a)Union List
- (b)State List
- (c)Concurrent List
- (d)It is a residuary subject
Answer(b) State List — Entry 26 of List II, 'Trade and commerce within the State subject to the provisions of Entry 33 of List III'; trade with foreign countries and inter-State trade are Union List Entries 41 and 42.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following pairs is correctly matched with respect to the Seventh Schedule?
- (a)Adulteration of foodstuffs and other goods – Union List
- (b)Wills, intestacy and succession – State List
- (c)Economic and social planning – Concurrent List
- (d)Inter-State trade and commerce – Concurrent List
Answer(c) Economic and social planning – Concurrent List — it is Entry 20 of List III. Adulteration (Entry 18) and succession (Entry 5) are also Concurrent, not Union or State, and inter-State trade and commerce is Union List Entry 42.