Which of the following are included in the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court? 1) A dispute between the Government of India and one or more states 2) A dispute regarding elections to either Houses of the Parliament or that of Legislature of a state 3) A dispute between the Government of India and a Union Territory 4) A dispute between two or more states Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

Statements 1 and 4 are correct, so the answer is C. Article 131 gives the Supreme Court exclusive original jurisdiction over disputes between the Government of India and one or more states, between the Centre and states on one side and other states on the other, and between two or more states, provided the dispute involves a question of law or fact on which a legal right depends.

• Statement 2 is wrong. Article 329 bars courts from interfering in electoral matters. Election disputes go to the High Court through election petitions under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and the Supreme Court hears only appeals.
• Statement 3 is wrong. Article 131 does not mention Union Territories. A UT is not a state for this purpose, so a Centre-UT dispute does not fall under original jurisdiction.

Core concept: the Supreme Court as umpire of the federal balance. This links to Mains GS2 on Centre-state relations and the role of courts in federalism. The position in Article 131 has not changed since 2012.

Trap: Aspirants assume every Centre-related dispute goes straight to the Supreme Court and pick the option containing 3. Others forget the election carve-out in Article 329 and wrongly tick statement 2.