Haryana: State Government, Legislature and Judiciary

What the official syllabus says

HCS Main Written Examination, Paper IV: General Studies-II:

• Related issues of Haryana.

This page applies the paper's polity areas to Haryana.

Topics in detail

Formation of the State

• Demand for a Punjabi-speaking State and the Hindi-speaking region of East Punjab
• Parliamentary committee under Sardar Hukam Singh (1965–66) and the Shah Commission (1966) on boundaries
• Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966: Haryana formed on 1 November 1966
• Chandigarh as a Union Territory and the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana
• Common institutions left by reorganisation: the High Court, the Bhakra management board

State executive

• Governor of Haryana: appointment, powers, role in the formation of government
• Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers; size limit under Article 164(1A)
• Advocate General of Haryana
• Haryana Civil Secretariat; Chief Secretary; administrative secretaries and departments
• Divisions headed by Divisional Commissioners; districts headed by Deputy Commissioners; sub-divisions and tehsils
• Role of the HCS officer: SDM, City Magistrate, Assistant Commissioner and other field postings

State legislature

• Haryana Vidhan Sabha: a unicameral legislature of 90 members, with seats reserved for Scheduled Castes
• Speaker, Deputy Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition
• Business of the House: sessions, budget, questions, committees
• Committees of the Vidhan Sabha: Public Accounts, Estimates, Public Undertakings, Subordinate Legislation, Petitions
• Haryana's seats in Parliament: 10 in the Lok Sabha and 5 in the Rajya Sabha
• Defections and the role of the Speaker in Haryana's political history (“Aaya Ram Gaya Ram”, 1967)

Judiciary

• Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh: a common High Court (Article 231) for Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh
• District and sessions courts; civil judges; Haryana Superior and Civil Judicial Services
• Haryana State Legal Services Authority; Lok Adalats
• Rajbala v. State of Haryana (2015): the Supreme Court upheld education and other conditions for panchayat candidates

State constitutional and statutory bodies

• Haryana Public Service Commission (Article 315): conducts the HCS examination
• Haryana Staff Selection Commission
• State Election Commission and State Finance Commission
• Haryana Lokayukta (Haryana Lokayukta Act, 2002)
• Haryana State Information Commission (RTI Act, 2005)
• Haryana Right to Service Commission (Haryana Right to Service Act, 2014)
• Haryana Human Rights Commission; Haryana State Commission for Women; State commissions for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes
• Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission; Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authorities

Issues for analysis

• Governor–State relations and the use of discretion
• Working of the Vidhan Sabha: number of sittings and committee scrutiny
• Vacancies and pendency in the High Court and subordinate courts
• State laws tested in court on Articles 14, 16 and 19, such as the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020 (reservation in private jobs for local residents)

Police and law and order

• Haryana Police Act, 2007, passed after the Supreme Court's Prakash Singh judgment (2006)
• Police complaints authorities; separation of investigation and law and order
• Policing in the NCR districts: cyber crime, organised crime, traffic

Timeline

Overlaps

Haryana's history, including the movement for a separate State, is covered in General Studies I.