Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon – October 4

Both Statements are correct

• The Constitution does not contain any specific procedure for the selection and appointment of the Chief Minister. Article 164 only says that the Chief Minister shall be appointed by the governor. However, this does not imply that the governor is free to appoint any one as the Chief Minister. In accordance with the convections of the parliamentary system of government, the governor has to appoint the leader of the majority party in the state legislative assembly as the Chief Minister.
• A person who is not a member of the state legislature can be appointed as Chief Minister for six months, within which time, he should be elected to the state legislature, failing which he ceases to be the Chief Minister.3 According to the Constitution, the Chief Minister may be a member of any of the two Houses of a state legislature. Usually Chief Ministers have been selected from the Lower House (legislative assembly), but, on a number of occasions, a member of the Upper House (legislative council) has also been appointed as Chief Minister.

All the statements are correct

• International Criminal Court (ICC) ICC based in The Hague, Netherlands is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal.
• It has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
• It was established by the Rome Statute which was adopted in July 1998 end entered into force in July 2002.
• The multilateral treaty of Rome Statute serves as the ICC’s foundational and governing document.
• Currently, there are 124 states which are party to Rome Statute and therefore members of the ICC (India and China are not its members).

Statement 1 is Incorrect:

The Oath of Office to the President of India is administered by Chief Justice of India and in his absence the senior most judge of Supreme Court available.

Statement 2 and 3 is Correct:

• In Order to be elected as President, one should be qualified for election as a member of the LokSabha.
• President cannot be arrested or imprisoned. However, after giving two months notice, civil proceedings can be instituted against him during his term of office in respect of his personal acts.

Statement 1 is correct:

The president can declare a national emergency even before the actual occurrence of war or external aggression or armed rebellion, if he is satisfied that there is an imminent danger.

Statement 2, 3 and 4 are Incorrect:

• The proclamation of Emergency must be approved by both the Houses of Parliament within one month from the date of its issue. Originally, the period allowed for approval by the Parliament was two months, but was reduced by the 44th Amendment Act of 1978.
• The 38th Amendment Act of 1975 made the declaration of a National Emergency immune from the judicial review. But, this provision was subsequently deleted by the 44th Amendment Act of 1978. Further, in the Minerva Mills case 4 , (1980), the Supreme Court held that the proclamation of a national emergency can be challenged in a court on the ground of malafide or that the declaration was based on wholly extraneous and irrelevant facts or is absurd or perverse.
• If approved by both the Houses of Parliament, the emergency continues for six months, and can be extended to an indefinite period with an approval of the Parliament for every six months. This provision for periodical parliamentary approval was also added by the 44th Amendment Act of 1978.

Statement 1 and 2 are incorrect:

• Like the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker is also elected by the LokSabha itself from amongst its members. He is elected after the election of the Speaker has taken place. The date of election of the Deputy Speaker is fixed by the Speaker.
• Deputy Speaker is not subordinate to the Speaker. He is directly responsible to the House.

Statement 3 is correct:

• The Deputy Speaker has one special privilege, that is, whenever he is appointed as a member of a parliamentary committee, he automatically becomes its chairman.

Closure Motion

It is a motion moved by a member to cut short the debate on a matter before the House. If the motion is approved by the House, debate is stopped forthwith and the matter is put to vote.

There are four kinds of closure motion:

(a) Simple Closure: It is one when a member moves that the ‘matter having been sufficiently discussed be now put to vote’.

(b) Closure by Compartments: In this case, the clauses of a bill or a lengthy resolution are grouped into parts before the commencement of the debate. The debate covers the part as a whole and the entire part is put to vote.

(c) Kangaroo Closure: Under this type, only important clauses are taken up for debate and voting and the intervening clauses are skipped over and taken as passed.

(d) Guillotine Closure: It is one when the undiscussed clauses of a bill or a resolut-ion are also put to vote along with the discussed ones due to want of time (as the time allotted for the discussion is over).

In the following matters, the powers and status of the RajyaSabha are unequal to that of the LokSabha:

1. A Money Bill can be introduced only in the LokSabha and not in the RajyaSabha.
2. RajyaSabha cannot amend or reject a Money Bill. It should return the bill to the LokSabha within 14 days, either with recommendations or without recommendations.
3. The LokSabha can either accept or reject all or any of the recommendations of the RajyaSabha. In both the cases, the money bill is deemed to have been passed by the two Houses.
4. A financial bill, not containing solely the matters of Article 110, also can be introduced only in the LokSabha and not in the RajyaSabha. But, with regard to its passage, both the Houses have equal powers.
5. The final power to decide whether a particular bill is a Money Bill or not is vested in the Speaker of the LokSabha.
6. The Speaker of LokSabha presides over the joint sitting of both the Houses.
7. The LokSabha with greater number wins the battle in a joint sitting except when the combined strength of the ruling party in both the Houses is less than that of the opposition parties.
8. RajyaSabha can only discuss the budget but cannot vote on the demands for grants (which is the exclusive privilege of the LokSabha).
9. A resolution for the discontinuance of the national emergency can be passed only by the LokSabha and not by the RajyaSabha.
10. The RajyaSabha cannot remove the council of ministers by passing a no-confidence motion. This is because the Council of ministers is collectively responsible only to the LokSabha. But, the RajyaSabha can discuss and criticise the policies and activities of the government.