UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — SC seeks action on illegal constructions, warns civic authorities of contempt
Q1. Consider the following statements regarding contempt jurisdiction in India:
1. Articles 129 and 215 of the Constitution recognise the power to punish for contempt in the Supreme Court and the High Courts respectively.
2. Under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court constitutes criminal contempt.
3. The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 additionally enables a High Court to punish for contempt of courts subordinate to it.
4. Were the definition of contempt to be deleted from the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, the superior courts would cease to have the power to punish for their contempt.
Which of the statements given above are NOT correct?
- Articles 129 and 215 of the Constitution recognise the power to punish for contempt in the Supreme Court and the High Courts respectively.
- Under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court constitutes criminal contempt.
- The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 additionally enables a High Court to punish for contempt of courts subordinate to it.
- Were the definition of contempt to be deleted from the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, the superior courts would cease to have the power to punish for their contempt.
- A. 1 and 3
- B. 2 and 4
- C. 1, 2 and 4
- D. 3 and 4
Q2. Under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, which one of the following is the correct description of 'civil contempt'?
- A. Any publication or act which scandalises, or tends to lower the authority of, a court of record
- B. Wilful disobedience of a judgment, decree, direction, order or writ of a court, or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court
- C. Any act or publication which prejudices, or interferes with the due course of, a pending judicial proceeding
- D. Disobedience of a court's order by a public servant, punishable by detention in a civil prison for up to two years
Q3. Consider the following functions:
1. Regulation of land-use and construction of buildings
2. Urban planning, including town planning
3. Slum improvement and upgradation
4. Minor irrigation, water management and watershed development
Which of the above are correctly identified as functions listed in the Twelfth Schedule of the Constitution, which States were empowered to devolve upon municipalities?
- Regulation of land-use and construction of buildings
- Urban planning, including town planning
- Slum improvement and upgradation
- Minor irrigation, water management and watershed development
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 2, 3 and 4
- C. 1, 2 and 3
- D. 1, 3 and 4
Q4. Consider the following statements comparing the constitutional scheme for municipalities with that for panchayats:
1. The 74th Amendment inserted Part IXA on municipalities, a Part distinct from the one inserted for panchayats by the 73rd Amendment.
2. The functions that the 74th Amendment enables States to devolve upon urban local bodies are enumerated in a schedule referred to in Article 243W and number eighteen.
3. Unlike the schedule applicable to panchayats, the schedule applicable to municipalities is self-executing, so that all its functions vest in municipal bodies without any State legislation.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- The 74th Amendment inserted Part IXA on municipalities, a Part distinct from the one inserted for panchayats by the 73rd Amendment.
- The functions that the 74th Amendment enables States to devolve upon urban local bodies are enumerated in a schedule referred to in Article 243W and number eighteen.
- Unlike the schedule applicable to panchayats, the schedule applicable to municipalities is self-executing, so that all its functions vest in municipal bodies without any State legislation.
- A. 1 only
- B. 1 and 2 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q5. In the Supreme Court's proceedings of 5 August 2026 on illegal constructions, civic bodies were directed to file compliance affidavits within three weeks. Which one of the following best describes such a filing?
- A. A sworn statement by the petitioner listing the violations that remain unremedied despite the Court's earlier directions
- B. A certificate by the Union's law officer that the Court's directions are consistent with the existing municipal statutes
- C. A sworn statement by the authority to which the directions were issued, setting out the steps it has actually taken to implement them
- D. A report by a court-appointed expert body independently verifying on the ground the action claimed by the authority
Q6. Consider the following statements about the Supreme Court's August 2026 proceedings on illegal constructions as compared with the earlier stages of the same matter:
1. The proceedings arose from a Tamil Nadu dispute over construction violating land-use norms and building bye-laws, but the directions issued in August 2026 extend to civic bodies across the country.
2. Earlier, in March 2026, the Court had widened the matter by issuing notices to civic bodies in several State capitals seeking details of the action taken against similar violations.
3. The August 2026 order confines its warning of contempt exclusively to municipal officers, expressly leaving State governments and private individuals outside its reach.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- The proceedings arose from a Tamil Nadu dispute over construction violating land-use norms and building bye-laws, but the directions issued in August 2026 extend to civic bodies across the country.
- Earlier, in March 2026, the Court had widened the matter by issuing notices to civic bodies in several State capitals seeking details of the action taken against similar violations.
- The August 2026 order confines its warning of contempt exclusively to municipal officers, expressly leaving State governments and private individuals outside its reach.
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 1 and 3 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q7. In the context of Public Interest Litigation in India, the liberalisation of the principle of locus standi refers to the practice of:
- A. Treating a letter or a newspaper report as a writ petition without insistence on a formal filing
- B. Appointing commissioners to visit the site and gather facts on which the court then proceeds
- C. Allowing a person who is not personally aggrieved to move the court on behalf of those unable to approach it themselves
- D. Retaining a decided matter on the board and issuing successive directions to supervise its implementation
Q8. The Supreme Court Project Committee on Restatement of Indian Law, working with the Indian Law Institute, brought out its first set of Restatements of Indian Law. Consider the following branches of law:
1. Public Interest Litigation
2. Contempt of Court
3. Legislative Privilege
4. Judicial review of constitutional amendments
Which of the above are correctly identified as branches covered by that first set of Restatements?
- Public Interest Litigation
- Contempt of Court
- Legislative Privilege
- Judicial review of constitutional amendments
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 2 and 3 only
- C. 1 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q9. In its order of 7 November 2025 directing that free-ranging cattle be removed from national and State highways and relocated to gaushalas or cattle pounds, the Supreme Court placed the primary responsibility for that removal and relocation on which one of the following?
- A. The municipal corporations and Panchayati Raj institutions within whose limits the stretch of highway falls
- B. The district veterinary officers, acting in coordination with the local police stations concerned
- C. The State animal husbandry departments, operating through registered gaushalas and cattle pounds
- D. The State and national highway authorities, in whom the Court vested the duty of removal and relocation
Q10. In February 2025 the Madras High Court held that the Supreme Court's directives on the grant of building plan permission had become the law of the land and bound the CMDA, the Greater Chennai Corporation and other local bodies. Which one of the following correctly states the undertaking that those directives require to be obtained from the builder or applicant?
- A. That construction will commence only after a no-objection certificate has been obtained from the State Pollution Control Board and the fire service
- B. That any deviation within the limits permitted by the development rules will be regularised on payment of a compounding fee before the building is occupied
- C. That the sanctioned plan will be displayed at the site and the structure insured against collapse until the building is certified fit for use
- D. That possession of the building will be entrusted to buyers only after the completion certificate or occupation certificate is obtained from the authorities concerned
Q11. After the Saket building collapse of 30 May 2026 in which six persons died, the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi directed that a time-bound strategy to tackle unauthorised constructions be implemented, and two engineers were suspended. Which single agency was charged with strictly enforcing the building bye-laws for this purpose?
- A. The Delhi Development Authority
- B. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi
- C. The New Delhi Municipal Council
- D. The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board
Q12. An Additional Solicitor-General appeared for the Union in the Supreme Court's illegal-construction proceedings. The office of the senior-most among the Union's law officers, under whom the Solicitor-General and the Additional Solicitors-General function, is created by which one of the following provisions of the Constitution?
- A. Article 165
- B. Article 88
- C. Article 76
- D. Article 148