RAS question
The 42nd Amendment transferred which subjects from State List to Concurrent List?
Correct answer: (B) Education, forests, protection of wild animals and birds, weights and measures, administration of justice.
The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 transferred education, forests, protection of wild animals and birds, weights and measures, and administration of justice from the State List to the Concurrent List.
Explanation
The 42nd Amendment changed the Seventh Schedule by removing key entries from the State List and placing them in the Concurrent List. Its text omitted administration of justice from State List entry 3 and inserted it as Concurrent List entry 11A, covering the constitution and organisation of all courts except the Supreme Court and High Courts. It also inserted forests as entry 17A, protection of wild animals and birds as entry 17B, substituted education under entry 25, and added weights and measures, except establishment of standards, as entry 33A. Therefore, option B is complete: it names all five subjects moved by the 1976 amendment, not just one or two of them.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Agriculture and land revenue are not among the five subjects identified in the amendment text as moved from the State List to the Concurrent List.
- (C) Police and public order remained outside this transfer; the cited change concerns education, forests, wildlife protection, weights and measures, and administration of justice.
- (D) Only education is too narrow because the amendment also moved forests, protection of wild animals and birds, weights and measures, and administration of justice.
Concept
This tests Centre-State legislative relations through the Seventh Schedule, especially how constitutional amendments can shift subjects between lists. It recurs in RAS because distribution of legislative power is central to Indian federalism and governance questions.