RAS question
The 7th Schedule of the Indian Constitution contains:
Correct answer: (D) Union List, State List and Concurrent List.
The Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India contains the Union List, State List and Concurrent List, which distribute legislative subjects between Parliament and State legislatures.
Explanation
The Seventh Schedule is the constitutional home of the three legislative lists: List I, the Union List; List II, the State List; and List III, the Concurrent List. The official Constitution text also links these lists with Article 246, which sets out the subject-matter on which Parliament and State legislatures may make laws. That is why the schedule is central to Centre-State legislative relations: Union List subjects are associated with national law-making, State List subjects with State law-making, and Concurrent List subjects with law-making by both levels, including defence and banking, police and public health, and education and forests.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Languages recognised by the Constitution belong to the Eighth Schedule, while the Seventh Schedule is listed as containing the Union, State and Concurrent Lists.
- (B) Forms of oaths and affirmations are placed in the Third Schedule, so they do not identify the Seventh Schedule.
- (C) Allocation of seats in the Council of States, or Rajya Sabha, is placed in the Fourth Schedule, not in the Seventh Schedule.
Concept
This tests the Indian Constitution and Governance concept of constitutional schedules, especially Centre-State legislative powers. It recurs in RAS because schedule-matching questions reward precise separation of the Seventh Schedule from nearby schedules such as the Third, Fourth and Eighth.