UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Monsoon Session sees multiple lows in Parliament productivity

Q1. In the session-wise figures published for Parliament, the 'productivity' of a House is arrived at on the basis of which one of the following?

  • A. The proportion of Bills passed by the House to the Bills introduced in it during the session
  • B. The proportion of the total sitting time devoted to legislative business as against non-legislative business
  • C. The proportion of the time the House actually transacted business to the time it was scheduled to sit
  • D. The proportion of sittings actually held by the House to the number of sittings originally notified for the session

Q2. How many sittings did the Monsoon Session, 2026 of Parliament provide, and over what period were they spread?

  • A. 19 sittings spread over a period of 25 days
  • B. 15 sittings spread over a period of 21 days
  • C. 21 sittings spread over a period of 26 days
  • D. 25 sittings spread over a period of 25 days, with no non-sitting day at all

Q3. Consider the following activities: 1. Running a year-long fellowship that places young citizens with Members of Parliament 2. Publishing Vital Stats on the functioning of Parliament and State legislatures 3. Publishing legislative briefs and Bill summaries on Bills pending before Parliament 4. Certifying the official verbatim record of the proceedings of the two Houses Which of the above is/are correctly identified as activities of PRS Legislative Research?

  1. Running a year-long fellowship that places young citizens with Members of Parliament
  2. Publishing Vital Stats on the functioning of Parliament and State legislatures
  3. Publishing legislative briefs and Bill summaries on Bills pending before Parliament
  4. Certifying the official verbatim record of the proceedings of the two Houses
  • A. 1, 2 and 4
  • B. 1, 2 and 3
  • C. 2 and 3 only
  • D. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Q4. Consider the following statements about PRS Legislative Research: 1. It is an independent, not-for-profit body and is not a statutory institution created by an Act of Parliament. 2. Its published output includes analysis of the Demands for Grants of Union ministries. 3. It was set up in the middle of the first decade of the 2000s and is based in New Delhi. 4. The session productivity percentages it publishes are the official figures tabled by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Which of the above is/are NOT correct?

  1. It is an independent, not-for-profit body and is not a statutory institution created by an Act of Parliament.
  2. Its published output includes analysis of the Demands for Grants of Union ministries.
  3. It was set up in the middle of the first decade of the 2000s and is based in New Delhi.
  4. The session productivity percentages it publishes are the official figures tabled by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
  • A. 1 and 4
  • B. 2 and 3
  • C. 3 only
  • D. 4 only

Q5. A Joint Parliamentary Committee to examine a Bill, such as the one that took up the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, comes into existence in which one of the following ways?

  • A. By an order of the President made on the advice of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs
  • B. By a motion adopted in one House and concurred in by the other House
  • C. By a joint direction of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha under the Rules of Procedure
  • D. By a resolution adopted at a joint sitting of the two Houses convened for that purpose under Article 108

Q6. Consider the following statements about parliamentary committees in India: 1. A Joint Parliamentary Committee is an ad hoc body constituted for a specified subject and duration. 2. The strength of a Joint Parliamentary Committee and its distribution between the two Houses is fixed by the motion constituting it, and is not a uniform figure. 3. A Department-related Standing Committee has 31 members, of whom 21 are from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. 4. The Public Accounts Committee has 31 members drawn in equal numbers from the two Houses and is reconstituted once every five years. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. A Joint Parliamentary Committee is an ad hoc body constituted for a specified subject and duration.
  2. The strength of a Joint Parliamentary Committee and its distribution between the two Houses is fixed by the motion constituting it, and is not a uniform figure.
  3. A Department-related Standing Committee has 31 members, of whom 21 are from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.
  4. The Public Accounts Committee has 31 members drawn in equal numbers from the two Houses and is reconstituted once every five years.
  • A. 1 and 2 only
  • B. 2, 3 and 4
  • C. 1, 2 and 3
  • D. 1, 3 and 4

Q7. The Bill of 2026 amending the law that regulates the acceptance and utilisation of contributions from abroad by associations in India was piloted in Parliament by which one of the following?

  • A. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, through the Registrar of Companies, which oversees not-for-profit companies
  • B. The Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, which regulates receipts through the direct tax laws
  • C. The Ministry of Home Affairs, which administers the parent Act through its Foreigners Division
  • D. The Ministry of External Affairs, which processes grants received from foreign governments and agencies

Q8. During the Monsoon Session, 2026, exactly one Bill before Parliament was referred to a Joint Committee of the two Houses. Which one was it?

  • A. The Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2026
  • B. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026
  • C. The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026
  • D. The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026

Q9. Under the anti-paper-leak amendment enacted in 2026, the expression 'Special Fast Track Court' refers to which one of the following?

  • A. Newly created courts presided over by a retired judge of a High Court, required to dispose of examination-related trials within three months
  • B. Courts of Session designated as such, required to complete the trial within three months of the filing of the charge sheet
  • C. Courts of the Judicial Magistrate of the first class notified by the State Government, required to complete the trial within six months of taking cognisance
  • D. Special tribunals constituted by the National Testing Agency, required to decide examination-related complaints within three months

Q10. With reference to the changes made in 2026 to the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, consider the following statements: 1. The imprisonment prescribed for a person resorting to unfair means is raised from three to five years to five to ten years. 2. For a service provider, the maximum fine is raised from one crore rupees to five crore rupees and the period of debarment from conducting any public examination is extended from four years to eight years. 3. The maximum fine on a person resorting to unfair means is raised from ten lakh rupees to twenty-five lakh rupees. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. The imprisonment prescribed for a person resorting to unfair means is raised from three to five years to five to ten years.
  2. For a service provider, the maximum fine is raised from one crore rupees to five crore rupees and the period of debarment from conducting any public examination is extended from four years to eight years.
  3. The maximum fine on a person resorting to unfair means is raised from ten lakh rupees to twenty-five lakh rupees.
  • A. 1 only
  • B. 1 and 2 only
  • C. 2 and 3 only
  • D. 1, 2 and 3

Q11. Instructions to Union ministries on the handling of parliamentary questions, and the coordination of government business between the two Houses and the ministries, are the responsibility of which one of the following?

  • A. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, which coordinates government business between the Houses and the ministries
  • B. The Cabinet Secretariat, which allocates business among the departments of the Government of India
  • C. The Legislative Department of the Ministry of Law and Justice, which drafts and vets government legislation
  • D. The Question Branch of the Lok Sabha Secretariat, which ballots notices and examines their admissibility

Q12. Article 85 of the Constitution caps at six months the interval between which two points of time?

  • A. The date of prorogation of one session and the date on which the next session is summoned
  • B. Two consecutive sittings of a House falling within the same session
  • C. The last sitting of a House in one session and the first sitting appointed for it in the next session
  • D. The last sitting of one Budget Session and the first sitting of the Budget Session of the following year