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Important Amendments
- May 24, 2021
- Posted by: Admin
- Category: Free Resouces Indian Polity Study Materials
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 Important Amendments.
IMPORTANT AMENDMENTS |
Till January 2020, there are 104 amendments have been made in the Indian Constitution since its inception in 1950.
AMENDMENTS | DESCRIPTION | |
1 | First Amendment Act, 1951
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1. Empowered the state to make the advancement of socially and economically backward classes.
2. Provided for the saving of laws providing for the acquisition of estates etc. 3. Added 9th Schedule to protect the land reform and other laws included in it from the judicial review. 4. Added three more grounds of restrictions on freedom of speech and expression, viz., public order, friendly relations with foreign states and incitement to an offense. It also made the restrictions ‘reasonable’ and thus, justifiable in nature. 5. 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. |
2 | Constitutional (13th Amendment) Act,1963 | 1. Formation of State of Nagaland, with special protection under Article 371A.
2. It amended Article 170 (Composition of the Legislative Assemblies) |
3 |
Constitutional (15th Amendment) Act, 1963
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1. Enabled the High court’s to issue writs to any person or authority even outside its terrorist’s jurisdiction if the cause of action arises within its territorial limits.
2. Increased the retirement age of high court judges from 60 to 62 years. 3. Provided for the appointment of retired judges of the high court’s as acting judges of the same court. 4. Provided the compensatory allowance to judges who are transferring from one High court to another. 5. Enabled the retired judge of the High Court to act as ad-hoc judge of the Supreme Court. 6. Provided for the procedure for determining the age of the Supreme Court and High Court judges. |
4 |
The Constitution (24th Amendment) Act, 1971
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1. Affirmed the power of Parliament to amend any part of the Constitution including Fundamental Rights.
2. Made it compulsory for the president to give his assent to a constitutional Amendment Bill. |
5 | The Constitution (36th Amendment) Act, 1975 | 1. By this Act, Sikkim became the 22nd State of the Indian Union. |
6 | The Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act, 1976
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1. It was enacted during the period of internal emergency. It was passed by Parliament on November 11, 1976 and received Presidential assent on December 18, 1976.
2. The Amendment established beyond doubt the supremacy of Parliament over the other wings of Government; gave the Directive Principles precedence over fundamental rights enumerated for the first time a set of ten Fundamental Duties. 3. It further imposed limits on the power and jurisdiction of the judiciary; raised the term of the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha from five to six years; authorised the use of Central armed forces in any State to deal with law and order problems, made the President bound by the advice of the Council of Ministers and envisaged the establishment of administrative tribunals for service matters of Government employees and also other tribunals for economic offences. 4. The Act also clearly laid down that no Constitutional Amendment could be questioned in any court of law. |
7 | The Constitution (43rd Amendment) Act, 1978
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1. This Act repeals the obnoxious provisions of the Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act passed during the Emergency. It restores civil liberties by deleting Article 3ID which gave powers to Parliament to curtail even legitimate trade union activity under the guise of legislation for the prevention of anti-national activities.
2. The new law, which was ratified by more than half of the States in accordance with the Constitution, also restores legislative powers to the States to make appropriate provision for anti-national activities consistent with the Fundamental Rights. Under the Act, the judiciary has also been restored to its rightful place. 3. The Supreme Court will now have the power to invalidate state laws, a power taken away by the 42nd Amendment Act. The High Courts will also be able to go into the question of the constitutional validity of Central laws thereby enabling persons living in distant places to obtain speedy justice without having to come to the Supreme Court. |
8 | The Constitution (44th Amendment) Act, 1978
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1. The Constitution (45 th Amendment) Bill, re-numbered as the 44th Amendment came into force on April 30, 1979, when the President gave his assent.
2. The Act removes major distortions in the Constitution introduced during the Emergency. The duration of the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies has been reduced from six to five years—the normal term which was extended during the Emergency under the 42nd Amendment to achieve some political purposes. 3. The Right to Property ceases to be a Fundamental Right and becomes only a legal right according to the Constitution 44th Amendment. 4. The Act also extends, for the first time since independence, constitutional protection for publication of the proceedings of Parliament and State Legislatures, except in cases where it is proved to be “malicious”. 5. Another important feature of the Act is that any proclamation of Emergency needs henceforward, be issued by the President only after receiving the advice of the Cabinet as a whole in writing. The President will not be called upon to act on the basis of advice by the Prime Minister on his own without consulting his Cabinet. Other safeguards provide that the proclamation will have to be adopted by a two-thirds majority of the members of both Houses of Parliament within a month. 5. The 44th Amendment provides safeguards against future subversion of the Constitution for establishing an authoritarian regime. It contains provisions that are designed to make it impossible to impose the kind of emergency the country had experienced for 19 months. |
9 | The Constitution (52nd Amendment) Act, 1985
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1. The Act has made defection to another party, after elections illegal. Any member defecting to another party after elections will be disqualified from being Member of parliament or State Legislature. |
10 | The Constitution (61st Amendment) Act, 1989 | 1. It lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.
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11 | The Constitution (66th Amendment) Act, 1990 | 1. To bring land reforms within the purview of 9th Schedule of the Constitution. |
12 | The Constitution (69th Amendment) Act, 1991
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1. Delhi made National Capital Region. The Act also made provision for Legislative assembly and a council of ministers for Delhi. |
13 | The Constitution (70th Amendment) Act, 1992
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1. Before this act was made Article 54 relating to the election of the President provided for an electoral college consisting only of the elected members of Parliament as well as the legislative assemblies of the States (not of Union Territories). The amendment provides for the inclusion of members of the legislature of Pondicherry and Delhi. |
14 | The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992
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1. To ensure direct election to all seats in Panchayats; to reserve seats for SCs and STs in proportion to their population; and for reservation of not less than one-third of the seats in Panchayats for women. |
15 | The Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992 | 1. It was made to ensure direct election to all seats in Nagar Palikas and Municipalities. |
16 | The Constitution (78th Amendment) Act, 1995 | 1. It includes land reform laws in the Ninth Schedule so that they cannot be challenged before the courts. |
17 | The Constitution (81st Amendment) Act, 2000
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1. It provides that the unfilled vacancies of a year reserved for SC/ST kept for being filled up in a year as per Article 16, shall be considered separately for filling vacancies in the succeeding year and the previous list will not be considered for filling the 50% quota of the respective year. |
18 | The Constitution (83rd Amendment) Act, 2000
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1. The Act amended Article 243 M to provide that no reservation in Panchayats be made in favour of SC/ST in Arunachal Pradesh where the whole population is tribal. |
19 | The Constitution (85th Amendment) Act, 2001
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1. Provided for ‘consequential seniority’ in the case of promotion by the virtue of rule of reservation for the government servants belonging to the SCs and STs with retrospective effect from June 1995. |
20 | The Constitution (86th Amendment) Act, 2002 | 1. Provides Right to Education until the age of fourteen and early childhood care until the age of six.
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21 | The Constitution (87th Amendment) Act, 2003
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1. Provided for readjustment and rationalisation of territorial constituencies in the states on the basis of the population figures of 2001 census and not 1991 census as provided earlier by the 84th Amendment Act of 2001.
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22 | The Constitution (89th Amendment) Act, 2003
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1. Bifurcated the erstwhile combined National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes into two separate bodies, namely, National Commission of SCs (Article- 338) and National Commission of STs (338-A) |
23 | The Constitution (91st Amendment) Act, 2004
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1. Restricted the size of the Council of Ministers (CoM) to 15 percent of legislative members & strengthened the Anti Defection laws. |
24 | The Constitution (93rd Amendment) Act, 2006
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1. Provided for 27 percent reservation for other backward classes in government as well as private higher educational institutions. |
25 | The Constitution (94th Amendment) Act, 2006
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1. To provide for a Minister of Tribal Welfare in newly created Jharkhand and the Chhattisgarh States including Madhya Pradesh and Orissa |
26 | The Constitution (97th Amendment) Act, 2012
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1. Added the words “or co-operative societies” after the word “or unions” in Article 19(l) (c) and inserted article 43B related to the promotion of co-operative societies and added Part-IXB that is The Co-operative Societies |
27 | The Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, 2014 | 1. The amendment provides for the formation of a National Judicial Appointments Commission. |
28 | The Constitution (100th Amendment) Act, 2015
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1. The term the Constitution (100th Amendment) Act, 2015 was in news in the fourth week of May 2015 as the President of India Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013 that related to the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) between India and Bangladesh. |
29 | The Constitution (101th Amendment) Act, 2017 | Introduced the Goods and Services Tax in the country since 1 July 2017. |
30 | The Constitution (102th Amendment) Act,2018 | It gave Constitutional status to National Commission for Backward Classes.
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31 | The Constitution (103th Amendment) Act,2019 | It provided a maximum of 10% Reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWSs). |
32 | The Constitution (104th Amendment) Act, 2020 | It extended the reservation of seats for SCs and STs in the Lok Sabha and states assemblies. |