UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — SC mulls guidelines for police conduct
Q1. Under Article 19(3) of the Constitution of India, the first-enumerated ground on which the State may impose reasonable restrictions on the right to assemble peaceably and without arms is:
- A. Decency or morality in the conduct of public gatherings
- B. Friendly relations of India with foreign States
- C. The sovereignty and integrity of India
- D. Public order in the territory of any State
Q2. In the pleas before the Supreme Court on police conduct during protests, repeated orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita were challenged. Section 163 is best described as the provision that:
- A. Enables an Executive Magistrate or an officer in charge of a police station to command an assembly to disperse and to use force for dispersing it
- B. Enables a specified Magistrate to issue prohibitory orders restricting gatherings in cases of nuisance or apprehended danger, corresponding to the erstwhile Section 144 of the CrPC
- C. Defines an unlawful assembly as a gathering of five or more persons united by a common object that is criminal in nature
- D. Enables the appropriate Government to declare an association unlawful and thereafter prohibit its public meetings and processions
Q3. The Supreme Court Bench which, on 27 July 2026, decided to hear together the petitions alleging police excesses during protests and called for a uniform nationwide protocol, was headed by:
- A. Justice Joymalya Bagchi
- B. Justice V. Mohana
- C. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union of India
- D. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant
Q4. Consider the following statements regarding the Supreme Court's handling of pleas arising from the July 2026 protests over examination paper leaks:
1. On 22 July 2026, the Chief Justice-led Bench declined the request for urgent listing of a plea against police action at the Cockroach Janata Party's march, refusing to view video material at the mentioning stage.
2. On 27 July 2026, the same Bench agreed to hear the related petitions together and observed that mere agitation cannot justify police excess, calling for a clear and uniform protocol to manage protests across the country.
3. At the hearing, the petitioners seeking nationwide guidelines were represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, while the Union Government was represented by Senior Advocate Vikas Singh.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- On 22 July 2026, the Chief Justice-led Bench declined the request for urgent listing of a plea against police action at the Cockroach Janata Party's march, refusing to view video material at the mentioning stage.
- On 27 July 2026, the same Bench agreed to hear the related petitions together and observed that mere agitation cannot justify police excess, calling for a clear and uniform protocol to manage protests across the country.
- At the hearing, the petitioners seeking nationwide guidelines were represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, while the Union Government was represented by Senior Advocate Vikas Singh.
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 1 and 3 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q5. The expert committee set up by the Union Government in 2016 to find substitutes for pellet-firing guns in crowd control identified which one of the following as its principal recommended alternative?
- A. A complete and permanent withdrawal of every firearm-based munition from all crowd-control duties
- B. Exclusive reliance on water cannons and baton charges in each and every protest situation
- C. PAVA (nonivamide) chilli-based less-lethal shells
- D. Plastic bullets, to be adopted as the sole means of dispersing every unlawful assembly
Q6. Consider the following statements regarding efforts to replace pellet guns used for crowd control in the Kashmir valley:
1. The expert committee to explore alternatives to pellet guns was constituted in July 2016 by the Ministry of Defence.
2. PAVA shells, whose active compound also occurs naturally in chilli pepper, were tested for over a year at the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, a CSIR laboratory.
3. The bulk supply of PAVA shells as a replacement munition was to be undertaken by the Tear Smoke Unit of the Border Security Force at Gwalior.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- The expert committee to explore alternatives to pellet guns was constituted in July 2016 by the Ministry of Defence.
- PAVA shells, whose active compound also occurs naturally in chilli pepper, were tested for over a year at the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, a CSIR laboratory.
- The bulk supply of PAVA shells as a replacement munition was to be undertaken by the Tear Smoke Unit of the Border Security Force at Gwalior.
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 1 and 3 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q7. Among the reliefs pressed by the petitioners whose pleas the Supreme Court took up in July 2026, the lead relief sought was:
- A. A court-monitored independent investigation into the events of the march to Parliament
- B. The framing of uniform nationwide guidelines regulating police action during public protests
- C. A bar on the deployment of personnel in plain clothes for crowd-control duty
- D. The quashing of repeatedly issued prohibitory orders under the new criminal procedure law
Q8. When the plea against police action at the July 2026 protest march was taken up by the Chief Justice's Bench at the 'mentioning' stage, the term 'mentioning' denotes:
- A. The stage at which the Court issues notice to the respondents and admits the matter for final hearing
- B. The Court's practice of recording in its daily order the names of all counsel who have appeared for the parties
- C. A written application filed before the Registry seeking an early date after a case has already been listed once
- D. An oral request made before the Bench, usually at the commencement of the day's proceedings, seeking urgent listing of a case out of turn
Q9. In the proportionality standard applied by the Supreme Court to State action restricting fundamental rights, as laid down in K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017), the threshold requirement that must be satisfied first is that:
- A. The measure adopts the least intrusive means available for achieving its object
- B. The measure is directed at a legitimate aim
- C. The measure bears a reasonable nexus with the object that is sought to be achieved
- D. The benefit secured by the measure outweighs the injury it causes to the right
Q10. Within a proportionality analysis of State action, the limb described as 'necessity' is best understood as the enquiry into whether:
- A. The object that the State seeks to secure is itself a permissible one in a constitutional democracy
- B. There exists a rational connection between the measure adopted and the object sought to be achieved
- C. A less intrusive alternative capable of achieving the same object was available to the State
- D. The extent of the harm caused to the right is outweighed by the public benefit that is secured
Q11. The Rapid Action Force, whose conduct during the July 2026 march to Parliament is under a post-event assessment, functions as a specialised wing of which one of the following?
- A. The Border Security Force, deployed on the international borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh
- B. The Central Industrial Security Force, which guards industrial undertakings and airports
- C. The Sashastra Seema Bal, deployed along the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders
- D. The Central Reserve Police Force, the country's largest central armed police force
Q12. According to a report on the use of pellet-firing shotguns for crowd control in the Kashmir valley, how many persons had been blinded by pellets since their introduction in 2010?