UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — PARLIAMENT QUESTION: IMPLEMENTATION OF SHANTI ACT

Q1. The SHANTI Act, 2025 is widely described as the single most sweeping overhaul of India's civilian nuclear legal regime since the enactment of which one of the following?

  • A. The Atomic Energy Act, 1948
  • B. The Atomic Energy Act, 1962
  • C. The AERB constitution order, 1983
  • D. The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010

Q2. The 'no-fault operator liability' principle for nuclear damage, which the SHANTI Act carries forward in a modified form, was originally introduced into Indian law by which one of the following statutes?

  • A. The Atomic Energy Act, 1948
  • B. The Atomic Energy Act, 1962
  • C. The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010
  • D. The AERB (Regulation) order, 1983

Q3. The SHANTI Act, 2025 — which consolidates the two repealed nuclear statutes — is administered and operationalised by which one of the following?

  • A. The Ministry of Power
  • B. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)
  • C. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
  • D. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

Q4. How many pre-existing Central statutes does the SHANTI Act, 2025 repeal and consolidate into a single framework?

  • A. One
  • B. Two
  • C. Three
  • D. Four

Q5. In the context of the SHANTI Act, 2025, granting 'statutory status' to the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) most precisely means that:

  • A. the AERB's powers, functions and organisational structure are now defined and protected by an Act of Parliament rather than by an executive order
  • B. the AERB has become a constitutional body created directly under Entry 6 of the Union List
  • C. the AERB has been merged into the Atomic Energy Commission
  • D. the AERB has been placed under the administrative control of the Ministry of Power

Q6. Under the SHANTI Act, 2025, to which one of the following is the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) made directly accountable, reflecting its strengthened regulatory independence?

  • A. The Atomic Energy Commission
  • B. The Department of Atomic Energy
  • C. Parliament
  • D. The NITI Aayog

Q7. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), the nodal department for implementing the SHANTI Act, 2025, functions directly under which one of the following?

  • A. The Prime Minister's Office
  • B. The Ministry of Power
  • C. The Ministry of Science and Technology
  • D. The Cabinet Secretariat

Q8. The nuclear operator/supplier liability regime under the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 — now reformed by the SHANTI Act — was legislated largely in the wake of which one of the following?

  • A. The India-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation (123) Agreement, 2008
  • B. India's accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
  • C. The founding of the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 1974
  • D. India's signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty