UPSC Prelims 2021— Question 70

Mitakshara and Dayabhaga are schools of Hindu law dealing primarily with inheritance and coparcenary/property rules. Under Mitakshara, coparcenary rights traditionally arise by birth, whereas under Dayabhaga the son's right is linked to the father's death. The first statement incorrectly reduces the schools to caste-based civil law, while the third makes an inaccurate gender-based distinction. Thus only statement 2 is correct. The final answer-key position for Set C identifies option B as the correct option. Option A — 1 and 2 — is not correct because it does not satisfy the specific condition tested in the question; it represents an alternative that is contradicted, incomplete, or less precise than the accepted answer. Option B — 2 only — is correct because it is the alternative that matches the constitutional, historical, geographical, scientific or economic principle established above. Option C — 1 and 3 — is not correct because it does not satisfy the specific condition tested in the question; it represents an alternative that is contradicted, incomplete, or less precise than the accepted answer. Option D — 3 only — is not correct because it does not satisfy the specific condition tested in the question; it represents an alternative that is contradicted, incomplete, or less precise than the accepted answer. For PYQ interpretation, the distinction between the correct alternative and merely related facts is important. UPSC often places plausible distractors beside the precise statement that matches the underlying rule, chronology, definition or empirical relationship. The answer should therefore be read against the exact wording of the question rather than against a broadly related fact.