Criticism of the Amendment Procedure

To prepare for Indian Polity for any competitive exam, aspirants have to know about the basics of the Amendment of the Constitution. It gives an idea of all the topics important for IAS Exam and the polity syllabus (GS-II). Amendment of the Constitution and related topics are extremely important for the UPSC Exam. This is an essential portion of the polity. As IAS aspirants, you should be thorough with the Amendment of the Constitution. This article will provide you with relevant details about the Criticism of the Amendment Procedure.

• No provision for a special body like Constitutional Convention (as in USA) or Constitutional Assembly for amending the Constitution.
• The constituent power is vested in the Parliament and only in few cases, in the state legislatures.
• The power to initiate an amendment to the Constitution lies with the Parliament. (Unlike in USA)
• State legislatures cannot initiate any bill or proposal for amending the Constitution except in one case – passing a resolution requesting the Parliament for the creation or abolition of legislative councils in the states. Here also, the Parliament can either approve or disapprove such a resolution or may not take any action on it.
• Only in few cases, the consent of the state legislatures is required and that too, only half of them (In USA à three-fourths of the states).

• No time frame within which the state legislatures should ratify or reject an amendment submitted to them. Also, it is silent on the issue whether the states can withdraw their approval after according the same.
• No provision for holding a joint sitting (Art.108) of both the Houses of Parliament if there is a deadlock over the passage of a constitutional amendment bill.
• The provisions relating to the amendment procedure are too sketchy. Hence, they leave a wide scope for taking the matters to the judiciary.