Previous Year Question

Option (b) is correct. The Government of India Act, 1919 begins with the classification of governmental subjects into Central and Provincial subjects. Section 1 expressly provided for such classification in order to distinguish the functions of the Governor-General in Council and the Indian Legislature from those of Provincial Governments and Provincial Legislatures. This is the statutory basis for the answer, “the jurisdiction of the Central and Provincial Governments.”

The Act went beyond merely naming two categories. It also provided for the devolution of authority over Provincial subjects to Provincial Governments. Among Provincial subjects, some were further classified as Transferred Subjects, to be administered by the Governor acting with Ministers, while the remaining Reserved Subjects were administered by the Governor in Council.

An important qualification is that the 1919 Act did not create full provincial autonomy or an equal federal distribution of sovereignty. The Governor-General and British authorities retained extensive supervisory and overriding powers. Thus, defining Central and Provincial jurisdictions did not mean that the Provinces became constitutionally independent of the Centre.

Option (a) is incorrect. A constitutional separation of powers between the Judiciary and Legislature was not the defining structural division created by this Act.

Option (c) is also incorrect. Although the Secretary of State and Viceroy possessed important constitutional powers, the specific structural division clearly laid down by the Act was between Central and Provincial spheres of government.