Important Amendments of the Indian Constitution |

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Important Amendments Of the Indian Constitution

First Amendment Act, 1951

Empowered the state to make special provisions for the advancement of socially and economically backward classes.
Added Ninth Schedule to protect the land reform and other laws included in it from the judicial review.
Added three more grounds of restrictions on freedom of speech and expression, viz., public order, friendly relations with foreign states and incitement to an offence. Also, made the restrictions “reasonable” and thus, justiciable in nature.
Provided that state trading and nationalisation of any trade or business by the state is not to be invalid on the ground of violation of the right to trade or business.

Seventh Amendment Act, 1956

Abolished the existing classification of states into four categories i.e., Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D states, and reorganised them into 14 states and 6 union territories.
Extended the jurisdiction of high courts to union territories.
Provided for the establishment of a common high court for two or more states.
Provided for the appointment of additional and acting judges of the high court.

Eleventh Amendment Act, 1961

Changed the procedure of election of the vice-president by providing for an electoral college instead of a joint meeting of the two Houses of Parliament.
Provided that the election of the president or vice-president cannot be challenged on the ground of any vacancy in the appropriate electoral college.

Twenty-Fourth Amendment Act, 1971

Affirmed the power of Parliament to amend any part of the Constitution including fundamental rights.
Made it compulsory for the president to give his assent to a Constitutional Amendment Bill.

Twenty-Fifth Amendment Act, 1971

Curtailed the fundamental right to property.
Provided that any law made to give effect to the Directive Principles contained in Article 39 (b) or (c) cannot be challenged on the ground of violation of the rights guaranteed by Articles 14, 19 and 31.

Twenty-Sixth Amendment Act, 1971

Abolished the privy purses and privileges of the former rulers of princely states.

Thirty-First Amendment Act, 1972

Increased the number of Lok Sabha seats from 525 to 545.

Thirty-Eighth Amendment Act, 1975

Made the declaration of emergency by the president non-justiciable.
Made the promulgation of ordinances by the president, governors and administrators of union territories non-justiciable.
Empowered the president to declare different proclamations of national emergency on different grounds simultaneously.

Forty-Second Amendment Act, 1976

(The most comprehensive amendment made so far to the Constitution; it is known as “Mini- Constitution’; it gave effect to the recommendations of Swaran Singh Committee.)

Added three new words (i.e., socialist, secular and integrity) in the Preamble.
Added Fundamental Duties by the citizens (new Part IV A).
Made the president bound by the advise of the cabinet.
Provided for administrative tribunals and tribunals for other matters (Added Part XIV A).
Froze the seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies on the basis of 1971 census till 2001.

Made the constitutional amendments beyond judicial scrutiny.
Curtailed the power of judicial review and writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and high courts.
Raised the tenure of Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies from 5 to 6 years.
Provided that the laws made for the implementation of Directive Principles cannot be declared invalid by the courts on the ground of violation of some Fundamental Rights.
Empowered the Parliament to make laws to deal with anti-national activities and such laws are to take precedence over Fundamental Rights.

Added three new Directive Principles viz., equal justice and free-legal aid, participation of workers in the management of industries and protection of environment, forests and wild life.
Facilitated the proclamation of national emergency in a part of territory of India.
Extended the one-time duration of the President’s rule in a state from 6 months to one year.
Empowered the Centre to deploy its armed forces in any state to deal with a grave situation of law and order.
Shifted five subjects from the state list to the concurrent list, viz, education, forests, protection of wild animals and birds, weights and measures and administration of justice, constitution and organisation of all courts except the Supreme Court and the high courts.

Did away with the requirement of quorum in the Parliament and the state legislatures.
Empowered the Parliament to decide from time to time the rights and privileges of its members and committees.
Provided for the creation of the All- India Judicial Service.
Shortened the procedure for disciplinary action by taking away the right of a civil servant to make representation at the second stage after the inquiry (i.e., on the penalty proposed).

Forty-Fourth Amendment Act, 1978

(Enacted by the Janata Government mainly to nullify some of the other distortions introduced by the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976)

Restored the original term of the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies (i.e., 5 years).”
Restored the provisions with regard to quorum in the Parliament and state legislatures.
Omitted the reference to the British House of Commons in the provisions pertaining to the parliamentary privileges.
Gave constitutional protection to publication in newspaper of true reports of the proceedings of the Parliament and the state legislatures.
Empowered the president to send back once the advice of cabinet for reconsideration. But, the reconsidered advice is to be binding
on the president.
Deleted the provision which made the satisfaction of the president, governor and administrators final in issuing ordinances.

Restored some of the powers of the Supreme Court and high courts.
Replaced the term “internal disturbance” by “armed rebellion” in respect of national emergency.
Made the President to declare a national emergency only on the written recommendation of the cabinet.
Made certain procedural safeguards with respect to national emergency and President’s rule.
Deleted the right to property from the list of Fundamental Rights and made it only a legal right.
Provided that the fundamental rights guaranteed by Articles 20 and 21 cannot be suspended during a national emergency.
Omitted the provisions which took away the power of the court to decide the election disputes of the president, the vice-president, the prime minister and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

Fifty-Second Amendment Act, 1985

popularly known as Anti- Defection Law
Provided for disqualification of members of Parliament and state legislatures on the ground of defection and added a new Tenth Schedule containing the details in this regard.

Sixty-First Amendment Act, 1989

Reduced the voting age from 21 years to 18 years for the Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly elections.

Sixty-Ninth Amendment Act, 1991

Accorded a special status to the Union Territory of Delhi by designing it as the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The amendment also provided for the creation of a 70-member legislative assembly and a 7-member council of ministers for Delhi.

Seventy-Third Amendment Act, 1992

Granted constitutional status and protection to the panchayati raj institutions.
For this purpose, the Amendment has added a new Part-IX entitled as “the panchayats” and a new Eleventh Schedule containing 29 functional items of the panchayats.

Seventy-Fourth Amendment Act, 1992

Granted constitutional status and protection to the urban local bodies.
For this purpose, the Amendment has added a new Part IX-A entitled as “the municipalities” and a new Twelfth Schedule containing 18 functional items of the municipalities.

Seventy-Sixth Amendment Act, 1994

Included the Tamil Nadu Reservation Act of 1994 (which provides for 69 per cent reservation of seats in educational institutions and posts in state services) in the Ninth Schedule to protect it from judicial review.
In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that the total reservation should not exceed 50 per cent.

Eighty-Fourth Amendment Act, 2001

Extended the ban on readjustment of seats in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies for another 25 years (i.e., up to 2026) with the same objective of encouraging population limiting measures. In other words, the number of seats in the Lok Sabha and the assemblies are to remain same till 2026.
It also provided for the readjustment and rationalisation of territorial constituencies in the states on the basis of the population figures of 1991 census.

Eighty-Sixth Amendment Act, 2002

Made elementary education a fundamental right.
The newly-added Article 21-A declares that “the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may determine”.
Changed the subject matter of Article 45 in Directive Principles. It now reads—“The State shall endeavour to
provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years”.
Added a new fundamental duty under Article 51-A which reads—“It shall be the duty of every citizen of India who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or ward between the age of six and fourteen years”.

Eighty-Ninth Amendment Act, 2003

Bifurcated the erstwhile combined National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes into two separate bodies, namely, National Commission for Scheduled Castes and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.
Both the Commissions consist of a Chairperson, a vice-chairperson and three other members. They are appointed by the President.

Ninety-First Amendment Act, 2003

Made the following provisions to limit the size of Council of Ministers, to debar defectors from holding public offices, and to strengthen the anti-defection law:

The total number of ministers, including the Prime Minister, in the Central Council of Ministers shall not exceed 15% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha.
A member of either house of Parliament belonging to any political party who is disqualified on the ground of defection shall also be disqualified to be appointed as a minister.
The total number of ministers, including the Chief Minister, in the Council of Ministers in a state shall not exceed 15% of the total strength of the legislative Assembly of that state. But, the number of ministers, including the Chief Minister, in a state shall not be less than 12.
A member of either House of a state legislature belonging to any political party who is disqualified on the ground of defection shall also be disqualified to be appointed as a minister.
A member of either House of Parliament or either House of a State Legislature belonging to any political party who is disqualified on the ground of defection shall also be disqualified to hold any remunerative political post.
The provision of the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) pertaining to exemption from disqualification in case of split by one-third members of legislature party has been deleted. It means that the defectors have no more protection on grounds of splits.

Ninety-Second Amendment Act, 2003

Included four more languages in the Eighth Schedule. They are Bodo, Dogri (Dongri), Mathilli (Maithili) and Santhali.
With this, the total number of constitutionally recognised languages increased to 22.

Ninety-Fourth Amendment Act, 2006

Freed Bihar from the obligation of having a tribal welfare minister and extended the same provision to Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
This provision will now be applicable to the two newly formed states and Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, where it has already been in force.

Ninety-Seventh Amendment Act , 2011

Gave a constitutional status and protection to co-operative societies. In this context, it made the following three changes in the constitution:

It made the right to form co-operative societies a fundamental right.
It included a new Directive Principle of State Policy on promotion of cooperative societies.
It added a new Part IX-B in the constitution which is entitled as “The Co-operative Societies”.

Ninety-Ninth Amendment Act, 2014

Replaced the collegium system of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts with a new body called the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
However, in 2015, the Supreme Court has declared this amendment act as unconstitutional and void. Consequently, the earlier collegium system became operative again.

One Hundredth Amendment Act, 2015

Gave effect to the acquiring of certain territories by India and transfer of certain other territories to Bangladesh (through exchange of enclaves and retention of adverse possessions) in pursuance of the Land Boundary Agreement of 1974 and its Protocol of 2011.
For this purpose, this amendment act amended the provisions relating to the territories of four states (Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura) in the First Schedule of the Constitution.

One Hundred and First Amendment Act, 2016

Paved the way for the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) regime in the country. The GST shall replace a number of indirect taxes being levied by the Union and the State Government. Accordingly, the amendment made the following provisions:

Conferred concurrent taxing powers upon the Parliament and the State Legislatures to makes laws for levying GST on every transaction of supply of goods or services or both.
Dispensed the concept of “declared goods of special importance” under the constitution.
Provided for the levy of Integrated GST on inter-state transactions of goods and services.
Provided for the establishment of a Goods and Services Tax Council by a presidential order.
Made the provision of compensation to the states for loss of revenue arising on account of introduction of GST for a period of five years.
Substituted and ommitted certain entries in the Union and State Lists of the Seventh Schedule.

One Hundred and Second Amendment Act, 2018

Conferred a constitutional status on the National Commission for Backward Classes which was set up in 1993 by an Act of Parliament.
Relieved the National Commission for Scheduled Castes from its functions with regard to the backward classes.
Empowered the President to specify the socially and educationally backward classes in relation to a state or union territory.

One Hundred and Third Amendment Act, 2019

Empowered the state to make any special provision for the advancement of any economically weaker sections of citizens.
Allowed the state to make a provision for the reservation of up to 10% of seats/posts for such sections in admission to educational institutions and in appointments of government jobs.
This reservation of up to 10% would be in addition to the existing reservations.

One Hundred and Fourth Amendedment Act, 2020

To extent the reservation of seats for SCs and STs in the Lok Sabha and states assemblies from seventy years to eighty years.
Removed the reserved seats for the Anglo-Indian community in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

One Hundred and Fifth Amendedment Act, 2021

To restore the power of the state governments to identify Other Backward Classes (OBSs) that are socially and economically backward.
This amendment annulled the Supreme Court judgement of 11 May 2021, which had empowered only the Central government for such identification.

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