Which of the following statements are correct ? (a) Rajya Sabha is a permanent…
2017
Which of the following statements are correct ?
(a) Rajya Sabha is a permanent House which can be dissolved only during national emergency.
(b) Rajya Sabha does not represent the local interests of the States.
(c) Members of the Rajya Sabha are not bound to vote at the dictates of the states they represent.
(d) No Union territory has a representative in the Rajya Sabha.
Select the correct answer from the codes given below :
Codes :
Answer: B. (b) and (c) — Concept — Article 83(1) of the Constitution makes the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) a continuing chamber: it "shall not be subject to dissolution", and…
- A.
(a) and (d)
- B.
(b) and (c)
- C.
(b), (c) and (d)
- D.
(a), (b), (c) and (d)
Attempted by 4 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept — Article 83(1) of the Constitution makes the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) a continuing chamber: it "shall not be subject to dissolution", and instead one-third of its members retire on the expiry of every second year. Its members are chosen under Article 80(4) by the elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies, but the Constitution attaches no instruction, mandate or power of recall to that election. A second chamber built this way speaks for the States as constituent units of the Union; it is not a body of delegates carrying local mandates.
Application — Test each of the four statements against those provisions.
Statement | Constitutional position |
|---|---|
(a) A permanent House, dissolvable only during a national emergency | Article 83(1) states that the Council of States shall not be subject to dissolution at all, and it carves out no emergency exception. A Proclamation of Emergency under Article 352 lets Parliament extend the life of the Lok Sabha by one year at a time; it creates no power to dissolve the Rajya Sabha. The statement is false. |
(b) Does not represent the local interests of the States | Members are elected by MLAs but hold no delegate mandate, and since the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2003 a candidate need not even be ordinarily resident in the State returning them. The chamber therefore represents the States as units of the federation rather than pressing their local or regional interests. The statement holds. |
(c) Members are not bound to vote at the dictates of the States they represent | Neither Article 80 nor Article 83 binds a member to any State instruction, and no State enjoys a power of recall. A member votes on their own judgement, disciplined only by the party whip under the Tenth Schedule. The statement holds. |
(d) No Union territory has a representative in the Rajya Sabha | Article 80(5) provides that representatives of the Union territories shall be chosen in such manner as Parliament may by law prescribe. Delhi and Puducherry have returned Rajya Sabha members for decades, and Jammu and Kashmir has done so since 2019. The statement is false. |
Cross-check — Both the dissolution claim and the Union-territory claim are contradicted by the text of Articles 83(1) and 80(5). Every combination that carries either of them therefore carries a false statement: the pair (a) and (d), the trio (b), (c) and (d), and the all-four selection. What survives is the pair made up only of the local-interests claim and the free-vote claim.
Result — Statements (b) and (c) alone are correct, so the answer is the pair (b) and (c). This is the official key for UGC NET Paper 1, January 2017.