Day-512 | Daily MCQs | UPSC Prelims | POLITY

Answer: B
Explanation:
Option B is incorrect. All the other three statements 1, 2 & 4 are correct. The details are as follows:
● The PM CARES Fund has been registered as a Public Charitable Trust under the Registration Act, 1908 and NOT under the Societies Registration Act 1860.
● Objectives : To undertake and support relief or assistance of any kind relating to a public health emergency or any other kind of emergency, calamity or distress, either man-made or natural, including the creation or upgradation of healthcare or pharmaceutical facilities, other necessary infrastructure, funding relevant research or any other type of support.
● Constitution of the Trust : Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman of the PM CARES Fund and Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance, Government of India are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund.
● The Chairperson of the Board of Trustees (Prime Minister) shall have the power to nominate three trustees to the Board of Trustees who shall be eminent persons in the field of research, health, science, social work, law, public administration and philanthropy.
Other details about the PM CARES Fund:
● The fund consists entirely of voluntary contributions from individuals/organizations and does not get any budgetary support. The fund will be utilised in meeting the objectives as stated above.
● Donations to PM CARES Fund would qualify for 80G benefits for 100% exemption under the Income Tax Act, 1961. Donations to PM CARES Fund will also qualify to be counted as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure under the Companies Act, 2013.
● PM CARES Fund has also got exemption under the FCRA and a separate account for receiving foreign donations has been opened. This enables PM CARES Fund to accept donations and contributions from individuals and organizations based in foreign countries. This is consistent with respect to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF). PMNRF has also received foreign contributions as a public trust since 2011.
About Trusts
● Trusts are legally created as modes of property arrangement/settlement dedicated for definite charitable and religious purposes.
● Trust is a special form of organisation which emerges out of a will. The will maker exclusively transfers the ownership of a property to be used for a particular purpose.
● If the purpose is to benefit particular individuals, it becomes a Private Trust and if it concerns some purpose of the common public or the community at large, it is called a Public Trust.
● Under Schedule 7 of the Indian Constitution, the subject ‘Trust and Trustees’ finds mention in the Concurrent List.
● The laws on Trusts are: The Indian Trusts Act, 1882 and the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950.

Answer: A
Explanation:
Option A is incorrect. It is to retain bare minimum and NOT maximum or majority. All other options are correct. The government unveiled its new policy in 2020 for the CPSEs. Thee details are follows:
● The strategy of the government for the CPSEs will be
i. To retain bare minimum stake
ii. Privatise or can be closed, or
iii. Merge, or make subsidiary or
iv. Go for strategic disinvestment
● A new roadmap has been prepared by the government for which it has also set up a new decision making process led by the NITI Aayog, DIPAM and a GoM (group of ministers).
● Niti Aayog is the main think tank for decision-making related to privatisation, disinvestment and strategic sale.
● The Alternative Mechanism led by GoM will decide which is the bare minimum that would be retained in any particular sector.
● The strategic sectors have been classified in four broad baskets — national security, critical infrastructure, energy and minerals and financial services OR
Disinvestment/Strategic Disinvestment Policy and identified four sectors — Atomic energy, Space and Defence; Transport and Telecommunications; Power, Petroleum, Coal and other minerals; and Banking, Insurance and financial services — as strategic sectors, where bare minimum CPSEs would be retained.
● Strategic disinvestment would imply the sale of substantial portion of the Government shareholding of a central public sector enterprise (CPSE) of upto 50%, or such higher percentage as the competent authority may determine, along with transfer of management control-as per DIPAM definition.

Answer: C
Explanation:
● Option C is incorrect. They can be empowered to take decisions but CANNOT override the role of the Cabinet. GoMs decisions can be reviewed by the Cabinet and can be overridden.
● All other options A, B & D are correct. The practice of GoMs has become a new trend. They are generally constituted by the Prime Minister.
● Even though they are extra-constitutional devices for in-depth analysis and coordination, they are created under the Business Rules of the Government 1961.
● Some of them are even empowered to take decisions subject to the overriding powers of the Cabinet. Mostly, they are created for coordination and in-depth analysis.
● Although usually they consist of Cabinet Ministers, other ministers are not barred and can be members of GoMs.
● The present government has created more than 10 GoMs on GST for promoting effective coordination.

Answer: B
Explanation:
Option B is Correct. All other Options are incorrect. The details are as follows:
● Article 123: Ordinance is a delegated power given to the executive that should be invoked only in the extreme urgency situation. Since there is separation of powers, the law making power lies with the legislature and the executive is for the law execution. Hence, the latter gets law making power as delegated power from the legislature.
● Ordinances CANNOT be proclaimed even to amend the provisions of the Constitution as the executive doesn’t have the constituent powers.
● It is not necessary that each and every proclamation of ordinance is subject to judicial review.
Any act of re-promulgation of ordinance CANNOT necessarily be declared unconstitutional. It is because of the following reasons:
● In DC Wadhwa case 1987 re-promulgation was allowed
● In the Krishna Kumar Singh case 2017, the Supreme Court went on saying repromulgation as unconstitutional but it has not overridden the DC Wadhwa judgement. It means any act of repromulgation is not necessarily unconstitutional.
● The Centre has re-promulgated at least two ordinances since the 2017 judgement. One the Indian Medical Council Ordinance and second, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region Ordinance.

Answer: D
Explanation:
All the statements are correct. They promote the supremacy of the Constitution due to following factors:
● The Fundamental Rights under the Part-III of the Constitution: Justiciable and enforceable by the court with constitutional remedies under article 32. As per Article 13, any law which contravenes this part will be declared null and void.
● Judiciary as the guardian and final interpreter of the Constitution: Can become the basis to declare any act of government/legislature unconstitutional.
● The powers of Parliament to amend the Constitution: Parliament enjoys only limited powers to amend the Constitution.
● A federal polity with bicameral legislature: A federal polity generally needs a written and rigid Constitution as the federal units derive powers directly from the Constitution and without their participation, the federal provisions cannot be amended. Also, a bicameral legislature can absorb the excesses of the popular house.
● Due to such factors, India has adopted supremacy of constitution as against judicial supremacy of the US and parliamentary supremacy of the UK.