Previous Year Question
Provision for the representation of Anglo-Indian Community in the Lok Sabha has been made in the Constitution under the article
331
221
121
139
Correct Answer: A
Detailed Solution
The correct answer to this question is Article 331. Under the original constitutional arrangement, Article 331 empowered the President, if in his opinion the Anglo-Indian community was not adequately represented in the Lok Sabha, to nominate not more than two members of that community to the House of the People.
This was not reservation through direct election; it was a system of special representation through Presidential nomination. It should therefore be distinguished from the reserved electoral constituencies provided for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
An important current update is that the 104th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2019 extended legislative seat reservation for SCs and STs but did not further extend nomination-based representation of the Anglo-Indian community. The amendment came into force on 25 January 2020.
Thus, under the constitutional arrangement applicable when this PYQ was asked—
Article 331 → Anglo-Indian representation in Lok Sabha by nomination
However, the effective period of this special nomination arrangement has now expired by operation of Article 334.
Among the other options, Article 221 concerns salaries etc. of High Court Judges, Article 121 limits discussion in Parliament regarding the conduct of Supreme Court and High Court Judges, and Article 139 concerns conferment of certain writ powers on the Supreme Court.