Preamble, Citizenship and Salient Features of the Constitution MCQ - Practice Questions with Answers

The 73rd and 74th Amendments of 1992 gave constitutional status to Panchayats and Municipalities. They also added the 11th and 12th Schedules and strengthened elections, reservation and local planning. Panchayats and Municipalities are the local democratic bodies through which constitutional democracy works beyond Parliament and state legislatures. Therefore, the correct matching is 73rd and 74th Amendments with 1992 status, schedules with local self-government, and Panchayats and Municipalities with local bodies.

Adoption and commencement are distinct. The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 by the Constituent Assembly, but it came into force on 26 January 1950. From that day, it replaced the Government of India Act, 1935 as the main governing law and India entered the new constitutional order as a sovereign democratic republic. The later January date also had national significance because of the Purna Swaraj resolution of 1930. Therefore, the commencement date is 26 January 1950.

The beneficiary word in each Article matters. Article 14 and Article 21 protect all persons, and Article 20 protects persons in criminal contexts. Article 19 is different: its freedoms, such as speech, assembly, movement, residence and profession, are available to citizens. Saying that Article 19 freedoms belong equally to all persons, including foreigners, reverses the citizen-specific rule.

The Indian Constitution provides for single citizenship, not dual citizenship. Therefore, dual citizenship is not one of its salient features. The Constitution is widely described as the longest written constitution because of its detailed structure and schedules. Universal adult franchise is a core democratic feature, allowing adult citizens to vote without property, education or gender qualifications. Many provisions were drawn from different constitutional sources, such as parliamentary government, fundamental rights, directive principles and emergency provisions, making borrowed features another recognised characteristic.

There is a sharp distinction about the Preamble. Kesavananda Bharati treated it as part of the Constitution and useful for understanding basic constitutional identity. It can guide interpretation when a provision has more than one possible reading. But Berubari and the later explanation make clear that the Preamble is not a source of substantive power and normally cannot by itself create a writ remedy. Thus the assertion is true, while the reason is false.