Mumbai University Solved Question Papers
Indian Constitutional Law New Challenges
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
LLM · Foundation Course
2024 - Group I Examination
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LLM Foundation Course Indian Constitutional Law New Challenges 2024 - Group I Question Paper with Solutions
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First published on munotes.in on 12 August 2026.
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Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
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The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.
The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by the University of Mumbai at the 2024 - Group I examination.
The answers in this volume state the law as it stands today, not as it stood when the paper was set, and in this subject the difference is large. Five changes alter answers here. Aligarh Muslim University v. Naresh Agarwal, 8 November 2024, overruled Azeez Basha on the minority status of an institution incorporated by statute. State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh, 1 August 2024, permitted sub-classification within the Scheduled Castes. The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023 replaced the appointment committee directed in Anoop Baranwal. The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 came into force on 16 April 2026 and is not yet operative. And the advisory opinion of 20 November 2025 held that no timeline may be set for assent to a Bill. Where a provision has since been replaced, the answer gives the position then and now, and says which is which.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as the University of Mumbai set it at the 2024 - Group I examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2024 - Group I examination, reproduced as the University of Mumbai set them, in the order it set them. Nothing has been reworded, added or left out. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 7 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
SECTION I
Attempt any four questions, all questions carry equal marks
any four of seven · 100 Marks
1.Explain fully, the principle of "Federalism" embodied in the constitution of India and relationship of trust and faith between Centre and States.[25]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what federalism means and why the Constitution avoids the word; the federal features and the unitary ones; the legislative, administrative and financial distribution; the case law from State of West Bengal v. Union of India to S.R. Bommai and NCT of Delhi; and then the "trust and faith" half, which is cooperative federalism, Article 263, the Goods and Services Tax Council and the Governor's office, ending with the Supreme Court's opinion of 20 November 2025.
Start with the word the Constitution does not use. Article 1(1) says India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States. Dr Ambedkar explained the choice in the Constituent Assembly: the Union is not the result of an agreement between the States, and the States have no right to secede from it. The federation is a creature of the Constitution, not of a compact, and that single sentence explains most of what follows.
The federal features are real and must be stated first. There is a written and supreme Constitution; a division of legislative power by Article 246 and the Seventh Schedule into the Union List (ninety-seven entries originally), the State List (sixty-six) and the Concurrent List (forty-seven); a rigid amending procedure for federal provisions, since the proviso to Article 368(2) requires ratification by not less than half the State legislatures for any amendment touching the election of the President, the executive or legislative powers of the Union or the States, the Seventh Schedule, the representation of States in Parliament or Article 368 itself; an independent judiciary headed by a Supreme Court with exclusive original jurisdiction over federal disputes under Article 131; and bicameralism, with the Rajya Sabha representing the States under Article 80 and the Fourth Schedule.
The unitary features are equally real, and a good answer lists them without apology. Article 3 permits Parliament to form a new State, alter boundaries and change names on the recommendation of the President and after merely ascertaining the views of the State legislature, which are not binding: no Indian State has a guaranteed territorial existence. Article 249 permits Parliament to legislate on a State List entry if the Rajya Sabha so resolves by two-thirds in the national interest; Article 250 during a Proclamation of Emergency; Article 252 at the request of two or more States; and Article 253 to implement an international treaty. Article 200 lets the Governor reserve a Bill for the President, and Article 201 gives the President an unqualified power to withhold assent. Articles 256, 257 and 365 give the Union power to direct a State and to treat non-compliance as failure of constitutional machinery. Article 356 permits President's rule. There is a single citizenship, a single integrated judiciary, All India Services under Article 312 whose officers serve the States but are controlled from the centre, and a Comptroller and Auditor General and an Election Commission common to both levels. The residuary power is with the Union under Article 248 and entry 97 of List I, the opposite of the American and Australian arrangements.
The financial distribution is where dependence bites. Articles 268 to 281 distribute taxing powers, Article 275 provides grants-in-aid and Article 280 establishes the Finance Commission every five years to recommend the distribution of net proceeds of taxes and the principles governing grants. The One Hundred and First Amendment, 2016 introduced the Goods and Services Tax, inserting Article 246A, which gives Parliament and the State legislatures concurrent power to make laws on goods and services tax, Article 269A on inter-State supply, and Article 279A establishing the GST Council. The Council's weighted voting, the Union holding one-third and all States together two-thirds, with a three-fourths majority required, is the most important institutional innovation in Indian fiscal federalism since 1950.
How the courts have described the arrangement. In State of West Bengal v. Union of India (AIR 1963 SC 1241) the Court rejected the argument that the States are sovereign and held that the Constitution is not federal in the strict sense and that Indian federalism is a matter of degree. In State of Rajasthan v. Union of India (1977) 3 SCC 592 Beg C.J. described the States as satellites of the Union. But the corrective came in S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994) 3 SCC 1, where a nine-judge bench held that federalism is part of the basic structure, that a Proclamation under Article 356 is justiciable, that the satisfaction of the President must rest on relevant material, that the floor of the House and not the Governor's opinion is the test of a government's majority, and that the dissolution of an Assembly before parliamentary approval is impermissible and can be undone. Kuldip Nayar v. Union of India (2006) 7 SCC 1 upheld the removal of the domicile requirement for the Rajya Sabha and, in doing so, described the Indian model as quasi-federal. Government of NCT of Delhi v. Union of India (2018) 8 SCC 501 and (2023) 9 SCC 1 developed the idea of collaborative federalism, holding that the Lieutenant Governor is bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers except on police, public order and land, though Parliament then altered that position by the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2023.
Now the second half of the question, which most candidates ignore: the relationship of trust and faith.
The constitutional machinery for trust is thin and mostly permissive. Article 263 permits the President to establish an Inter-State Council to enquire into and advise upon disputes and to investigate subjects of common interest. The Sarkaria Commission (1988) recommended its establishment and it was set up only in 1990; the Punchhi Commission (2010) recommended that it meet at least thrice a year, which it has not. The Zonal Councils under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 do the same work regionally. Article 261 requires full faith and credit to be given to public acts, records and judicial proceedings, and Articles 301 to 307 guarantee freedom of trade, commerce and intercourse throughout the territory of India, subject to Article 302 and to the requirement of Presidential sanction in Article 304(b), the whole scheme having been re-read by a nine-judge bench in Jindal Stainless Ltd. v. State of Haryana (2017) 12 SCC 1, which overruled the compensatory tax doctrine.
Where trust has actually broken down is the Governor's office, and a current answer must say so. The Governor is appointed by the President under Article 155, holds office during pleasure under Article 156, and is in practice a Union nominee exercising discretion under Articles 163 and 200 in a State governed by a different party. The two recurring flashpoints are the choice of the person invited to form a government, on which Bommai and Rameshwar Prasad v. Union of India (2006) 2 SCC 1 supply the law, and delay in assenting to Bills.
On the second, the law has moved twice in two years. In State of Tamil Nadu v. Governor of Tamil Nadu, decided 8 April 2025, a two-judge bench held the Governor's withholding of assent to ten Bills illegal and laid down time limits, going so far as to declare the Bills deemed to have been assented to. The President then made a Reference under Article 143(1), and on 20 November 2025 the Supreme Court delivered its advisory opinion, holding that no rigid timelines can be prescribed for a Governor or the President to act under Articles 200 and 201, that "deemed assent" is alien to the Constitution, and that these decisions are not ordinarily justiciable, while holding that a Governor may not sit on a Bill indefinitely and that a limited judicial review lies where delay is unexplained. That is the present state of the law and it should be stated exactly so.
Conclusion. The Indian Constitution is federal in its structure and unitary in its emergencies, which is why Bommai preferred to call it federal in a sense of its own rather than measure it against Wheare's classical model. The distribution of powers, the Seventh Schedule and the Article 368 proviso are genuine federal guarantees, and federalism is now part of the basic structure, so they cannot be amended away. But the relationship of trust and faith rests almost entirely on convention and on institutions the Constitution merely permits: an Inter-State Council that rarely meets, a Finance Commission whose recommendations are not binding, and a Governor who is a Union appointee. The GST Council shows what a properly constituted forum of shared decision can do, and the Presidential Reference of November 2025 shows what happens when trust fails and the parties reach instead for the Court. Federalism in India is therefore secured by law at the level of power and left to good faith at the level of practice, and it is the second that has been failing.
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