UPSC Prelims 2019 GS Paper I · Q47 of 100 Polity & Governance easy

The Ninth Schedule was introduced in the Constitution of India during the prime ministership of

  1. (a) Jawaharlal Nehru ✓ UPSC's answer
  2. (b) Lal Bahadur Shastri
  3. (c) Indira Gandhi
  4. (d) Morarji Desai

Why the answer is (a)

• The Ninth Schedule was added by the First Constitutional Amendment Act, 1951, under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, along with Article 31B — option (a).

• It was designed to shield land-reform laws from judicial challenge on fundamental-rights grounds after courts struck down zamindari-abolition Acts.

• The Schedule now has over 280 laws; in I.R. Coelho (2007) the Supreme Court held that laws added after 24 April 1973 are open to basic-structure review.

• Shastri (b), Indira Gandhi (c) and Morarji Desai (d) came later.

• Hence option (a).

Why the other options are wrong

(b) Lal Bahadur Shastri
Shastri became PM in 1964, after the Schedule existed.
(c) Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi added many laws to it but did not introduce it.
(d) Morarji Desai
Morarji Desai's tenure was 1977–79.

Asked in the GS Paper I of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2019, held on 2 June 2019. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.

Reading the answer is not the same as getting it right under a clock. Practise this question with UPSC's negative marking, and anything you miss goes into an error notebook until you get it right twice.

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