Magna Carta is a Latin word which in English means Great Charter. It is most important document of England signed on 15 June 1215 at Runnymede alongside the River Thames in the English county of Surrey. It had originated as a peace and truce treaty between King John and a group of rebellious barons within his kingdom. The document had written promises between King John and his subjects mentioning that the king will govern England and deal with its people according to the customs of feudal law

In December 1977, the Janta Government appointed a 13 member committee which was headed by Mr. Ashok Mehta. The committee was appointed for following:

• What are the causes responsible for poor performance of the PRIs?
• What measures should be taken to improve performance of the PRIs?

The Ashok Mehta committee submitted its report in 1978 and made more than 130 recommendations

The first official language commission was appointed in 1955 with B.G. Kher as chairman and it submitted its report in 1956 which was presented to parliament in 1957 and examined by a joint parliamentary committee.

Under Article 350B, a special officer for linguistic minorities has been enshrined in the constitution.

• This officer is to be appointed by the president.
• Its job is to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities and report to the president.
• Please note that this report is also one of those reports laid before each house of parliament and sent to the government of the states concerned.

Delimitation means the drawing of boundaries. The boundaries may be domestic, national and International, but the most general use of this term is in context with electoral boundaries. Article 82 (Readjustment after each census) makes provision for delimitation of the electoral boundaries. It is the process of allocation of number of Seats and their demarcation into territories.

Under Article 82, the Parliament by law enacts a Delimitation Act after every census. After coming into force commencement of the Act, the Central Government constitutes a Delimitation Commission. This Delimitation Commission demarcates the boundaries of the Parliamentary Constituencies as per provisions of the Delimitation Act.

Delimitation commissions have been set up four times in the past viz. 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002 under Delimitation Commission acts of 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002.

North Eastern Council is a statutory, advisory body established in 1971 via the North Eastern Council Act, 1971 for three key objectives viz. balanced development of the North Eastern Region; effecting better inter-state coordination; and maintaining security and public order in the region.

The council consists of eight member states of the North Eastern Region, viz., Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. In 2002, Sikkim became the eighth member state of the Council. The Secretariat (Headquarters) of the Council is located at Shillong, Meghalaya.

Tribal inhabited areas which are located in other parts of India than North East India. Tribal areas of the Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram are separately dealt with provisions given in 5th schedule

Immediately after independence, a major column of armed men from Pakistan had invaded Kashmir and they were nearly successful in capturing Srinagar. Confronted with the chances of losing Kashmir to Pakistan, Maharaja Hari Singh requested help from India. Immediately, Patel’s aid V P Menon arrived in Srinagar and told the maharaja that India could take action only if Kashmir acceded to India. It is widely believed that Maharaja wanted to keep is independence but reluctantly acceded to India due to the grave situation created by the Pakistani invaders. Thus, on October 26, 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession.

The 7 states with bicameral legislature are Bihar, Maharastra, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana