Important Amendments to Indian Constitution

Important Amendments to Indian Constitution

List of amendments to Indian constitution highly important for all competitive exams, Complied with special care by Subject Experts for every aspirant of UPSC and other Exams

Amendments to Indian Constitution

Classified according to the categories

• 1.     Amendments Related to Schedules
• 2.     Amendments Relating to Seats in Lok Sabha and State Legislative assemblies
• 3.     Amendments Relating to Division and Formation of States
• 4.     Amendments Relating to Languages

Other Highly Important Amendments for All other Competitive Exams

Amendments Related to Schedules

1st Amendment 1951	Added 9th schedule-validation of certain acts and regulations
52nd Amendment 1985	10th schedule-anti-defection laws
73rd Amendment 1993	11th schedule-powers, authority and responsibilities of panchayats (29 subjects)
74th Amendment 1993	12th schedule-powers authority and responsibilities of municipalities etc(18 subjects)

Amendments relating to Seats in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies

8th Amendment act (1959)	Extended provisions for reservation of seats for SC’s, S.T.’s and Anglo Indians in Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies for a period of 10 years from 1960-1970
23rd Amendment act (1969)	Extended provisions for reservation of seats for SC’s, S.T.’s and Anglo Indians in Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies for a period of 10 years till 1980
45th Amendment act (1985)	Extended provisions for reservation of seats for SC’s, S.T.’s and Anglo Indians in Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies for a period of 10 years till 1990
62nd Amendment act (1989)	Extended provisions for reservation of seats for SC’s, S.T.’s and Anglo Indians in Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies for a period of 10 years till the year 2000
84th Amendment act (2001)	Extended and freezed the reservation of seats for SC’s and S.T’s and Anglo Indians in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies till the year 2016

Amendments to Indian constitution relating to Division and formation of States

The state reorganization act 1956 divided country into 14 states and 6 UT’s

7th Amendment act 1956	Reorganization of States on linguistic Basics
9th Amendment act 1960	Gave effect to transfer certain territories to Pakistan following 1958 India - Pak Agreements
10th Amendment act 1961	Dadra and Nagar Havaeli as U.T
12th Amendment act 1962	Incorporated Goa, Daman and Diu as U.T
13th Amendment act 1962	Created Nagaland as a State
14th Amendment act 1963	Pondicherry Karaikal, Mahi and Yanam French territories were included in schedule as U.I of Pondicherry (based on Shah Commission Recommendations)
18th Amendment act 1966	Reorganized Punjab-into Punjab, Haryana and UT as Chandigarh
22nd Amendment act 1969	Created a Sub State of Meghalaya within Assam
27th Amendment act 1971	Established Manipur, Tripura as states and Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh as UT
36th Amendment act 1975	Made Sikkim as State
53rd Amendment act 1986	Mizoram made as a State
55th Amendment act 1986	Confined State hood to Arunachal Pradesh
56th Amendment act 1987	UT of Goa, Daman and Diu was divided and Goa made State
In the year 2000	3rd Experiment of states reorganization, other 2 being in mid 1950’s and 1960’s Himachal formed in late 1960’s
9th November 2000	Chhattisgarh State was formed
13th November 2000	Jharkhand President rule imposed due to partition issue
2nd June 2014	Telangana State formed, Separated from Andhra Pradesh

Amendments related to Languages

21st Amendment act 1967	Included Sindhi as 15th regional language
71st Amendment act 1992	Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were included in VIII Schedule
92nd Amendment act 2003	Bodo, Maithili, Santhali and Dogri

The Government of India has awarded the distinction of classical language to Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Odia.

Odia became the sixth classical language.

The criteria for declaring a language as classical mandates high antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1,500-2,000 years, a body of ancient literature/texts which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers and a literary tradition that is original and not borrowed from another speech community.

Benefits - Once a language is declared classical, it gets financial assistance for setting up a center of excellence for the study of that language and also opens up an avenue for two major awards for scholars of eminence.

Others Important Amendments to Indian constitution for all competitive examinations

26th Amendment act 1971: Abolition of titles and special privileges to former ruler and princely states

31st Amendment act 1973: Increased the strength of LS from 525 to 545, upper limit of representatives of states went 500 to 525

38th Amendment act 1975

President can declare Emergency provisions of making ordinance by president, governors and administrative heads of UT’s would be final and could not be challenged in any court, also authorized the president to declare the president rule and different kinds of emergencies

39th Amendment act 1975

Placed beyond challenge in courts to the election of parliaments of a person holding the office of PM/speaker and election of president and PM

42nd Amendment act 1976 (highly important) Highly Important to remember for any competitive exams

• ·    Provides supremacy of the parliament and gave primacy to directive principles over fundamental rights
• ·        Added 10 fundamental Duties
• ·    Added the words Socialistic, Secularist, Unity and Integrity of the Nation were added in Preamble

44th Amendment 1978

Rights to property deleted from part III

Article 352 amended to provide are armed rebellion as one of circumstances for declaration of emergency

61st Amendment act 1989

Amended Article 326 of the Indian constitution decreased the voting rights of the citizens of India from 21 to 18 years for both Lok Sabha and legislative Assemblies of State

73rd Amendment Act 1993 (Highly Important) Panchayat raj Bill

74th Amendment Act 1993 (Highly Important) Nagar palika Bill

82nd Amendment act 2000

Reinstalled the provision of reservation of SC’s and ST’s in matters related to promotion besides qualifying marks for passing an examination

86th Amendment act 2002

Makes education a fundamental rights for children in age 6-14 years

87th Amendment act 2003

Make 2001 basics for delimitation of constitution of lower house of parliament seats (lok sabha) and state assemblies (Vidhansabha)

89th Amendment act 2003

National commission for SC’s

91st Amendment act 2003

Amendment to Anti-defection laws and also made a provision that number of ministers in central and state government can’t be more than 15% of strengths of Lok Sabha and respected vidhansabha

93rd Amendment act 2005

To reserve seats for socially and educationally backward classes besides the SC’s and ST’s in private unaided institutional other than those run by minorities

94th Amendment act 2006

Ministers of tribal welfare in newly created Jharkhand state

97th Amendment act 12th Jan 2012

Added co-operative societies in article 19(1)

Added part IXB

100th Amendment to Indian constitution

100th Amendment Act, 2015 - May 2015  the President of India Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the Constitution that related to the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) between India and Bangladesh.

And goes on...