UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Old rules, New rebels
Q1. The Law Commission's draft 'Prohibition of Unlawful Assembly (Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances) Bill, 2011' proposed to punish participation in an assembly convened to condemn a lawful marriage on grounds of caste or community honour with imprisonment for a maximum term of:
- A. Six months, along with a fine which may extend to Rs 10,000
- B. One year, along with a fine which may extend to Rs 10,000
- C. Three years, along with a fine which may extend to Rs 50,000
- D. Seven years, along with a fine which may extend to Rs 5 lakh
Q2. Under the Maharashtra Protection of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2016 — the first law of its kind in India — the term 'caste panchayat' is defined as:
- A. A judicial forum established under a State enactment to try petty civil suits and minor criminal disputes arising within a village, commonly described as a nyaya panchayat
- B. A body constituted at the village level under the State Panchayati Raj law, in which seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes in proportion to their share of the village population
- C. A committee or body formed by a group of persons of any community, whether registered or not, which regulates practices within that community, controls the personal and social behaviour of members, and decides disputes by issuing oral or written dictums
- D. An association of members of a caste registered under the Societies Registration Act for running welfare, hostel and educational institutions meant for members of that caste and their families
Q3. Which one of the following most precisely reflects what amounts to 'social boycott' under the Maharashtra Protection of People from Social Boycott Act, 2016?
- A. Any act of discrimination against a member of the community, but only where the decree is reduced to writing and results in physical injury to the person or damage to their property
- B. Preventing a person from taking part in social and religious programmes, festivals, processions or rallies, or from using common institutions such as schools, club houses and medical facilities
- C. The expulsion of a family from a village pursuant to a resolution moved in, and passed by, the gram sabha of that village and executed through the elected gram panchayat
- D. The denial of access to public wells, roads and burial grounds to a person on the ground of untouchability, an offence dealt with under the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955
Q4. The Maharashtra Protection of People from Social Boycott Act, 2016 requires that the trial of an offence under it be concluded within a period of how long from the date of filing of the charge sheet?
- A. Six months
- B. Three months
- C. Nine months
- D. Twelve months
Q5. With reference to Shakti Vahini v. Union of India, consider the following:
1. It arose from a writ petition instituted in 2010 by a non-governmental organisation and was decided in March 2018.
2. The Bench was headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and included Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud.
3. The Court directed that the norms it laid down would hold the field until a suitable legislation was enacted by Parliament.
4. The Court upheld the entitlement of khap panchayats to pronounce on sagotra marriages, while restraining them only from ordering violence.
Which of the above is/are correctly identified?
- It arose from a writ petition instituted in 2010 by a non-governmental organisation and was decided in March 2018.
- The Bench was headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and included Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud.
- The Court directed that the norms it laid down would hold the field until a suitable legislation was enacted by Parliament.
- The Court upheld the entitlement of khap panchayats to pronounce on sagotra marriages, while restraining them only from ordering violence.
- A. 1 and 4
- B. 2, 3 and 4
- C. 3 and 4
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q6. In the debate on khap diktats and extra-judicial punishment, an 'honour killing' is most accurately described as:
- A. The killing of a bride by her husband's relatives on account of unmet demands for dowry made at or after the solemnisation of the marriage, dealt with as a distinct offence in criminal law
- B. The killing of a person by members of a rival clan in retaliation for an earlier killing, in settlement of a long-standing feud between landholding lineages over land and succession
- C. The killing of a person, usually by relatives, flowing from the belief that a family's honour is bound to a woman's chastity, triggered by conduct such as premarital relations or marriage outside caste or religion
- D. The killing of a person carried out only in execution of a formal death sentence pronounced by an assembly of village elders after a hearing at which both the families concerned were represented
Q7. Under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the sapinda relationship of a person extends farthest along which line of ascent, and up to which generation?
- A. Through the mother, up to the fifth generation (inclusive)
- B. Through the father, up to the fifth generation (inclusive)
- C. Through the father, up to the third generation (inclusive)
- D. Through the mother, up to the seventh generation (inclusive)
Q8. Among the conditions for a Hindu marriage under Section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the bridegroom must have completed how many years of age at the time of the marriage?
- A. Eighteen years
- B. Twenty years
- C. Twenty-one years
- D. Twenty-five years