UPPSC 2025 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 54 of 150

Correct — C, 2 and 4, that is K. M. Panikkar and H. N. Kunzru. The Fazl Ali Commission is the popular name of the States Reorganisation Commission, constituted in December 1953 and reporting in September 1955. It had exactly three members: Justice Fazl Ali as chairman, the historian-diplomat K. M. Panikkar, and the parliamentarian and public figure Hriday Nath Kunzru (spelt 'Kunjaru' in the question paper). Since the chairman is not among the four names offered, the only members in the list are items 2 and 4. Its report led to the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 and the Seventh Constitutional Amendment, which reorganised India into 14 states and 6 union or centrally administered territories, largely on a linguistic basis.

• (a)1 and 3 — Neither name was on the commission. K. T. Shah was a Constituent Assembly member — best remembered for moving the amendment to describe India as a 'secular, federal, socialist' union — and had nothing to do with the States Reorganisation Commission. Pattabhi Sitaramayya (printed 'P. Sitaramaiah') belongs to the earlier JVP Committee, not to this body.
• (b)2 and 3 — K. M. Panikkar is right, but Pattabhi Sitaramayya is the deliberate trap. He was the third member of the JVP Committee of 1949 — J for Jawaharlal Nehru, V for Vallabhbhai Patel, P for Pattabhi Sitaramayya — which examined the same question of linguistic states four years earlier and advised against making language the sole basis. Mixing the JVP Committee with the later commission is the most common error on this topic.
• (d)1 and 2 — K. M. Panikkar is again correct, but K. T. Shah was never appointed to the States Reorganisation Commission. His public work belongs to the Constituent Assembly and to national planning debates, not to the reorganisation of states.

Three bodies examined the reorganisation of Indian states, and they must be kept apart. The Dhar Commission (the Linguistic Provinces Commission, 1948) under Justice S. K. Dhar rejected language as the sole basis and preferred administrative convenience. The JVP Committee (1949) — Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya — reached the same conclusion. Only after Potti Sriramulu's fast unto death and the creation of Andhra State in 1953 did the government appoint the States Reorganisation Commission in December 1953 under Justice Fazl Ali, with K. M. Panikkar and H. N. Kunzru as members. Its September 1955 report was largely accepted and implemented through the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 and the Seventh Constitutional Amendment.

UPPSC builds these questions out of the overlap between the three bodies, because every one of them dealt with linguistic states and each has three named people attached to it. The fastest way to be safe is to memorise the two three-name sets — Fazl Ali, Panikkar, Kunzru for the commission; Nehru, Patel, Pattabhi Sitaramayya for the JVP Committee — and to note that the JVP acronym itself encodes its membership. Watch the transliteration too: the paper prints 'H. N. Kunjaru' for Kunzru and 'P. Sitaramaiah' for Pattabhi Sitaramayya, which can make a familiar name look unfamiliar under exam pressure.

• The States Reorganisation Commission, popularly the Fazl Ali Commission, was constituted in December 1953 and submitted its report in September 1955
• It had three members: Justice Fazl Ali (chairman), K. M. Panikkar and H. N. Kunzru
• Its recommendations were carried out by the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 and the Seventh Constitutional Amendment, creating 14 states and 6 union or centrally administered territories
• The Dhar Commission (1948) under Justice S. K. Dhar and the JVP Committee (1949) of Nehru, Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya had both earlier advised against language as the sole basis for reorganisation
• Andhra State, created in October 1953 after Potti Sriramulu's fast unto death, was the trigger that led the Union government to appoint the commission

• Putting Pattabhi Sitaramayya on the Fazl Ali Commission — he is the P of the JVP Committee
• Assuming a familiar Constituent Assembly name such as K. T. Shah must have been on the commission
• Being thrown by the paper's spellings 'Kunjaru' for Kunzru and 'Sitaramaiah' for Sitaramayya

UPPSC asks for membership and dates of committees and commissions directly, and recycles the Dhar–JVP–Fazl Ali trio often; UPSC prefers the constitutional machinery — which article empowers Parliament to create a state, which schedule must be amended — so learn both the people and the provisions.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The States Reorganisation Commission submitted its report in which year?

  • (a)1953
  • (b)1955
  • (c)1956
  • (d)1960

  Answer(b) 1955 — it was constituted in December 1953 and reported in September 1955; the States Reorganisation Act followed in 1956.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The JVP Committee of 1949, which examined the demand for linguistic states, consisted of

  • (a)Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya
  • (b)Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Fazl Ali
  • (c)Jayaprakash Narayan, Vallabhbhai Patel and K. M. Panikkar
  • (d)Jawaharlal Nehru, V. V. Giri and Pattabhi Sitaramayya

  Answer(a) Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya — the initials J, V and P are the members' own.