National Commissions — NHRC, NCW, NCSC, NCST and NCBC, and the Constitutional-versus-Statutory Test

India has a dozen national commissions and they all sound alike — a chairperson, members, an annual report, a set of powers over complaints. Because they sound alike, examiners write option lists in which any one could plausibly replace another.

There is one question that separates them, and it is worth learning before any name or date. Was this body created by the Constitution itself, or by an ordinary Act of Parliament?

A constitutional body is written into the Constitution and can be altered only by a constitutional amendment. A statutory body is created by an Act, and Parliament can change or abolish it by passing another ordinary law. That difference is not decorative. It decides how secure the body is, and it is the most frequently asked fact about every commission on this list.

So store each commission with one of two tags — an article number, or an Act and its year. Once tagged, the commissions stop being interchangeable, and the option list stops working.

1. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes is:

2. The National Human Rights Commission was established under:

3. The National Commission for Backward Classes was given constitutional status by which amendment?

4. The recommendations made by the National Human Rights Commission are:

5. Which article of the Constitution provides for the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes?

6. The National Commission for Women is:

7. Provision for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities is made under which article?

8. Which of the following is a statutory body and not a constitutional one?