Indian Constitution at Work

Committed judiciary i.e. a judiciary committed to the policies of the government. Such judiciary will never go against the government's policies. Therefore, will not be able to protect the liberty. So, option (a) is not correct.

Centralization of power refers to a setup in which the decision-making powers are concentrated in a few leaders at the top of the organizational structure. Decisions are made at the top and communicated to lower-level for implementation. This leads to authoritarian tendencies, impacting the liberty. So, option (b) is also not correct.

Elected government is representative of the people. It is expected to ensure liberty. This is not the best safeguard to ensure liberty.

Separation of power (executive, legislature and judiciary) checks the abuse of power by other organs. So, this helps in checking the authoritarian tendencies. This is the best safeguard to safeguard liberty. So, option (d) is the correct answer.

Source: NCERT

According to Supreme Court judgment Jyoti Basu vs Debi Ghosal - A right to elect, fundamental though it is to democracy, is, anomalously neither a fundamental right nor a Common Law Right. It is a statutory right. So is the right to be elected, and the right to dispute an election.

NOTE - As per NCERT One of the important decisions of the framers of the Indian Constitution was to guarantee every adult citizen in India, the right to vote i.e. universal adult franchise. The article 326 of the Constitution provides for the right to vote and to be elected in India. What is true of the right to vote is also true of right to contest election. All citizens have the right to stand for election and become the representative of the people.

Source Attribution:

• Union of India vs. Association for Democratic Reforms and Anr. (2002) 5 SCC
• People’s Union for Civil Liberties vs. Union of India (2003)
• Article of the Constitution
• NCERT: 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Chapter

Statement 1 is not correct: The Congress party won 364 of the 489 seats in the first Lok Sabha and finished way ahead of any other challenger. The Communist Party of India that came next in terms of seats won only 16 seats.

Statement 2 is correct: In 1969, an official leader of opposition was recognised for the first time. However, it was given statutory recognition in 1977.

Statement 3 is not correct: The leader of the largest Opposition party having not less than one-tenth seats of the total strength of the House is recognised as the leader of Opposition in that House.

Source Citation:

• Indian Polity by M. Laxmikanth
• NCERT: Politics in India Since Independence Chapter 2

Right to Equality (Article 14-18) protects the citizens against any discrimination by the State on the basis of religion, caste, race, sex, or place of birth.

Article 14 says that all citizens enjoy equal privileges and opportunities.

Article 15 provides that the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

Article 16 says that no citizen can be discriminated against or be ineligible for any employment or office under the State on grounds of only religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth or residence.

Article 17 abolishes “untouchability” and forbids its practice in any form.

Article 18 abolishes all titles national or foreign which create artificial distinctions in social status amongst the people.

Source Citation:

• Laxmikanth: Indian Polity - Ch: Fundamental Rights
• NCERT: Indian Constitution At Work; Ch: Rights in the Indian Constitution

Committed judiciary i.e. a judiciary committed to the policies of the government. Such judiciary will never go against the government's policies. Therefore, will not be able to protect the liberty. So, option (a) is not correct.

Centralization of power refers to a setup in which the decision-making powers are concentrated in a few leaders at the top of the organizational structure. Decisions are made at the top and communicated to lower-level for implementation. This leads to authoritarian tendencies, impacting the liberty. So, option (b) is also not correct.

Elected government is representative of the people. It is expected to ensure liberty. This is not the best safeguard to ensure liberty.

Separation of power (executive, legislature and judiciary) checks the abuse of power by other organs. So, this helps in checking the authoritarian tendencies. This is the best safeguard to safeguard liberty. So, option (d) is the correct answer.

Source: NCERT