National affairs for CLAT

National affairs is the biggest single slice of CLAT current affairs, and the one closest to law. A passage on a new Act, a ruling on Centre–state relations or a change in how an election body is appointed can sit in the GK section one year and in the Legal Reasoning section the next. Knowing the institutions well helps you in both.

The trick is not to follow every political story. It is to recognise the handful of institutions and processes that national news keeps returning to, learn them thoroughly, and then read each new story as an update to something you already know.

What to track

• Laws and bills: what a new Act does, what it replaces, and whether it is in force yet.
• Constitutional amendments: the number, the subject and the Articles touched.
• Constitutional and statutory bodies: appointments, reports, disputes over their powers.
• Elections: the process, the bodies that run them, rules on appointments and conduct.
• Centre–state relations: Finance Commission awards, GST Council decisions, Governors' powers, disputes before the Supreme Court.
• Major schemes: name, ministry, target group and the main benefit.
• States and union territories: any change in status or boundaries.

Constitutional, statutory or executive?

CLAT likes to test the source of a body's authority. Learn the three categories.

Parliament: the background that recurs

• How a bill becomes law: passed by both Houses, then assent under Article 111, then commencement on a notified date.
• Money bills (Article 110): introduced only in the Lok Sabha; the Speaker certifies them; the Rajya Sabha can only recommend changes, within 14 days.
• Joint sitting (Article 108): resolves a deadlock on an ordinary bill; not available for money bills or constitutional amendments.
• Ordinances (Article 123): issued by the President when Parliament is not in session; they must be approved within six weeks of Parliament reassembling.
• Constitutional amendments (Article 368): most need a special majority of both Houses, and some, such as those affecting the representation of states in Parliament, also need ratification by half the state legislatures. A few changes, such as creating a new state under Article 3, need only a simple majority and are not treated as amendments under Article 368.

Elections

The Election Commission runs elections to Parliament, state legislatures and the offices of President and Vice-President. State Election Commissions (Article 243K) run panchayat and municipal polls. Two background points recur:

• Delimitation: the number of Lok Sabha seats allotted to each state is frozen until the first census taken after 2026.
• Women's reservation: the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 reserves one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women, taking effect after a delimitation based on the first census after its commencement.

Schemes: how to note them

Scheme news changes constantly, and figures get revised. Note only what is stable: the name, the ministry, who benefits and the core benefit. Two examples of stable entries:

• PM-KISAN (2019), Ministry of Agriculture — income support to landholding farmer families — ₹6,000 a year in three instalments.
• Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY (2018), Ministry of Health — hospital cover for eligible families — up to ₹5 lakh per family per year.

A sample CLAT-style passage

Every five years, and sometimes earlier, the President appoints a body under Article 280 of the Constitution to answer a question that sits at the heart of Indian federalism: how should the money raised by the Union be shared with the states? The [1] consists of a chairperson and four other members, whose qualifications are laid down by a law of Parliament. Each commission's recommendations usually cover a five-year period, and the Union government gives it terms of reference that set out the questions it must address.

Its main task has two parts. The first, often called vertical devolution, is to recommend what share of the divisible pool of central taxes should go to the states as a whole. The second, horizontal devolution, is to recommend how that share should be divided among the states. For the horizontal split, commissions use a formula built on criteria such as population, area, forest cover and the gap between a state's income and that of the richest states. Each commission chooses its own criteria and weights, and states often argue over them: states that have slowed their population growth, for example, have objected to formulas that reward population size.

The Commission also recommends grants-in-aid to states that need assistance, and, since the 73rd and 74th Amendments, measures to strengthen state finances in support of panchayats and municipalities.

The Fourteenth Commission recommended that states receive 42 per cent of the divisible pool, a sharp rise from earlier awards. The Fifteenth recommended 41 per cent, the one-point reduction reflecting the conversion of Jammu and Kashmir into union territories. A recurring complaint of the states is that cesses and surcharges levied by the Union are outside the divisible pool altogether, so that a rising share of central revenue is never shared.

The states have a counterpart of their own. Under Article 243I, the Governor of each state must constitute a State Finance Commission every five years to review the finances of panchayats and recommend how state revenues should be shared with them, and Article 243Y extends the same exercise to municipalities. Many states have been slow to set up these commissions or to act on their reports, which is one reason local bodies still depend heavily on grants from above.

The recommendations are advisory, but by convention the Union accepts the tax-sharing recommendations. The Commission's report, with an explanatory memorandum of the action taken, is laid before each House of Parliament.

Q1. Which body fills [1]?

(a) NITI Aayog (b) GST Council (c) Finance Commission (d) Inter-State Council

Q2. "Horizontal devolution" in the passage refers to:

(a) the division of the states' share among individual states
(b) the share of central taxes given to all states together
(c) the transfer of funds from states to panchayats
(d) the sharing of GST between the Union and states

Q3. According to the passage, why did the Fifteenth Commission's recommended share fall to 41 per cent?

(a) Revenue from cesses fell.
(b) Population criteria were dropped.
(c) The GST Council reduced tax rates.
(d) Jammu and Kashmir became union territories.

Q4. Which of these bodies is chaired by the Union Finance Minister?

(a) Finance Commission (b) GST Council (c) NITI Aayog (d) Inter-State Council

Q5. Which statement is supported by the passage?

(a) Cesses and surcharges are shared with the states.
(b) The Commission's recommendations bind Parliament.
(c) States have disagreed with population-based criteria.
(d) The Commission has seven members.

Answers:

1. (c) Article 280, a chairperson and four members, and tax-sharing: the Finance Commission.
2. (a) Defined in the passage.
3. (d) Stated in the passage.
4. (b) Background. The GST Council (Article 279A) is chaired by the Union Finance Minister. NITI Aayog and the Inter-State Council are chaired by the Prime Minister. The Finance Commission has its own chairperson.
5. (c) Stated. (a) is contradicted, (b) is wrong because they are advisory, and (d) is wrong: one chairperson plus four members makes five.

Common mistakes

• Mixing up constitutional and statutory bodies. Learn the table above until you can reproduce it.
• Confusing the Finance Commission with the GST Council. One recommends the division of taxes every five years; the other decides GST rates and rules.
• Treating "passed" as "in force". Check whether a law has been notified.
• Memorising scheme amounts early. They change. Learn the structure first and confirm figures near the exam.

What to do next

• Reproduce the bodies table from memory, with Articles and Acts.
• Make topic sheets for the Election Commission, Finance Commission and GST Council.
• For every national story this week, write which body or Article it connects to.
• Read Constitution basics for CLAT and legal current affairs.