Polity · NCW / NCPCR / NCM & Other Statutory Bodies
The concept being tested: Article 263 — Inter-State Council (Constitutional provision).
With reference to India, consider the following: I. The Inter-State Council. II. The National Security Council. III. Zonal Councils. How many of the above were established as per the provisions of the Constitution of India?
Article 263 of the Constitution empowers the President to set up an Inter-State Council whenever it appears that the public interest would be served by a body to inquire into and advise on disputes between States, or to coordinate policy between the Union and the States. Acting on this provision, and on the Sarkaria Commission's recommendation, the government constituted the Inter-State Council through a Presidential Order in 1990. This makes it the only one of the three bodies whose creation traces directly to a constitutional article. Zonal Councils were instead set up under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, an ordinary Parliamentary statute grouping States into five zones. The National Security Council is purely an executive body, created by a 1998 Cabinet decision to advise the Prime Minister on security matters, with no constitutional or statutory basis at all.
What UPSC was testing
The question bundles a constitutional body, a statutory body and a purely executive body into one statement set, betting that aspirants who know all three exist will wrongly assume 'exists officially' means 'constitutional' — only the Inter-State Council traces to Article 263, while Zonal Councils rest on the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, and the National Security Council rests on a bare Cabinet decision.
How often this comes up
This concept has appeared 12 times in UPSC Prelims General Studies Paper I between 2015 and 2025 — in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2025.
The option-by-option autopsy for this question — why each of the other three is wrong, and which neighbouring concept each one was built from — is in the app.
Other past-year questions touching NCW / NCPCR / NCM & Other Statutory Bodies.