Answer: B

Explanation:

Statement 1 is incorrect: The Supreme Court bench dismissed a PIL seeking to declare hanging as inhumane and unconstitutional, ruling that hanging cannot be conclusively regarded as wholly inhumane based on available scientific evidence. However, the Court kept the door open for future scientific alternatives.

Statement 2 is correct: Section 354(5) of the old Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973 (and corresponding provisions in the BNSS) explicitly specifies that a person sentenced to death shall "be hanged by the neck till he is dead."

Answer: B

Explanation:

Statement 1 is incorrect: Zonal Councils are statutory bodies, not constitutional bodies. They were established under Sections 15 to 22 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, and not under Article 263 (which relates to the Inter-State Council).

Statement 2 is correct: The Union Home Minister is the common Chairman of all the five Zonal Councils (Northern, Central, Eastern, Western, and Southern).

Statement 3 is incorrect: The Zonal Councils are high-level advisory bodies. Their function is purely advisory and deliberative; their recommendations do not possess statutory or legally binding force over the member states.

Answer: C

Explanation:

States included: The Southern Zonal Council comprises the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala (Keralam), Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, alongside Union Territories like Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep.

Exclusion of Goa: Goa falls under the jurisdiction of the Western Zonal Council, not the Southern Zonal Council.

Significance: Forums like the recent 31st meeting held in Tamil Nadu provide a structural platform to address regional matters, cross-border infrastructure, and inter-state river water sharing in the spirit of cooperative federalism. The Chief Minister of the host State acts as the Vice-Chairman of the council by rotation for that year.

Answer: B

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: Under the recent August 2026 orders and the notification of the relevant citizenship rules, District Collectors in designated jurisdictions have replaced the multi-agency Empowered Committees to handle CAA applications directly.

Statement 2 is incorrect: The order applies only to eight specific States and UTs (Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh). Furthermore, it explicitly excludes Sixth Schedule tribal areas (in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura) and areas covered by the Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime.

Statement 3 is correct: The CAA provides a fast-track naturalization route specifically for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014.

Answer: A

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: The MHA's recent order stream-lines the workflow by shifting pending files and future processing from central Empowered Committees (consisting of officials from IB, Census, and Postal departments) directly to District Collectors in the eight designated States and UTs.

Statement 2 is incorrect: Under the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution, Citizenship, naturalization, and aliens fall exclusively under the Union List (List I, Entry 17). Because it is a central subject, the Union government holds absolute authority over citizenship policy and implementation framework, meaning State governments cannot veto or override these statutory rules.

Answer: C

Explanation:

Pair 1 is correctly matched: Dharma Guardian is the premier annual bilateral military training exercise conducted between the armies of India and Japan.

Pair 2 is correctly matched: JIMEX / JAIMEX is the dedicated bilateral maritime exercise conducted between the Indian Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

Pair 3 is correctly matched: Veer Guardian is the bilateral combat air exercise between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF).

Pair 4 is incorrectly matched: While India and Japan actively participate in multilateral setups, the specific landmark trilateral naval PASSEX highlighted during the recent high-level security assessments was conducted in February 2026 involving India, Japan, and Indonesia, not Australia.