In the Government of India Act 1919, the functions of Provincial Government were divided into "Reserved" and "Transferred" subjects. Which of the following were treated as "Reserved" subjects?

1. Administration of Justice

2. Local Self-Government

3. Land Revenue

4. Police

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

The correct answer is 1, 3 and 4.

Key Points

• The Government of India Act 1919 was an act of the British Parliament that sought to increase the participation of Indians in the administration of their country.
• The act was based on the recommendations of a report by Edwin Montagu, the then Secretary of State for India, and Lord Chelmsford, India’s Viceroy between 1916 and 1921.
• Hence the constitutional reforms set forth by this act are known as Montagu-Chelmsford reforms or Montford reforms.

Features of the Act:

• It relaxed the central control over the provinces by demarcating and separating the central and provincial subjects.
• The central and provincial legislatures were authorized to make laws on their respective list of subjects. However, the structure of government continued to be centralized and unitary.
• It further divided the provincial subjects into two parts—transferred and reserved.
• The reserved subjects, on the other hand, were to be administered by the governor and his executive council without being responsible to the Legislative Council.
  • It included subjects such as law and order, finance, land revenue, irrigation, etc. Hence Option 3 is correct.
  • All important subjects were kept in the reserved subjects of the Provincial Executive.
• The transferred subjects were to be administered by the governor with the aid of ministers responsible to the Legislative Council.
  • It included subjects such as education, health, local government, industry, agriculture, excise, etc.
  • In case of failure of constitutional machinery in the province, the governor could take over the administration of transferred subjects also.
• The Act introduced a diarchy (rule of two individuals/parties) for the executive at the level of the provincial government.
• It introduced, for the first time, bicameralism and direct elections in the country.
  • Thus, the Indian Legislative Council was replaced by a bicameral legislature consisting of an Upper House (Council of State) and a Lower House (Legislative Assembly).
  • The majority of members of both the Houses were chosen by direct election.
• It required that three of the six members of the Viceroy’s Executive Council (other than the commander-in-chief) were to be Indian.
• It extended the principle of communal representation by providing separate electorates for Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, and Europeans.
• It granted franchises to a limited number of people on the basis of property, tax, or education.
• It created a new office of the High Commissioner for India in London and transferred to him some of the functions hitherto performed by the Secretary of State for India.
• It provided for the establishment of a public service commission. Hence, a Central Public Service Commission was set up in 1926 for recruiting civil servants.
• It separated, for the first time, provincial budgets from the Central budget and authorized the provincial legislatures to enact their budgets.
• It provided for the appointment of a statutory commission to inquire into and report on its working after ten years of its coming into force.