# Important Amendments of the Constitution:

The first Amendment Act 1951: Articles 15, 19, 85, 87, 174, 176, 341, 342, and 376 were amended and Articles 31A and 3IB inserted and Ninth Schedule was added.

24th Amendment Act, 1971: It affirmed the power of the Parliament to amend any part of the Constitution. After this amendment, the President is bound to assent to Constitution Amendment Bill. Education was transferred to the Concurrent List by this amendment.

31st Amendment Act, 1973: Increased the elective strength of the Lok Sabha from 525 to 545. Under the Act, the upper limit of representatives of the States goes up from 500 to 525 and that of the Union Territories decreases from 25 to 20.

36th Amendment Act, 1975: Sikkim became the 22nd State of the Indian Union.

37th Amendment Act, 1975: Parliament on April 26, 1975, to provide for a Legislative Assembly and a Council of Ministers to Arunachal Pradesh.

39th Amendment Act, 1975: The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha and received Presidential assent.The Act places beyond challenge in courts the election to Parliament of a person holding the office of Prime Minister or Speaker and the election of President and Vice-President.

40th Amendment Act, 1976: This Amendment has a three-fold objective: (1) It places beyond challenge in courts some major Central laws (2) It gives similar protection to several State enactments, mostly relating to land legislation, by including them in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution; and (3) It provides that the limits of the territorial waters, the Continental Shelf, the Exclusive Economic Zone and the maritime zones of India shall be specified from time to time by law made by Parliament.

42nd Amendment Act, 1976: 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.

The Amendment established beyond doubt the supremacy of Parliament over the other wings of Government; gave the Directive Principles precedence over the Fundamental Rights; enumerated for the first time a set of ten Fundamental Duties. 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. The Act lso clearly laid down that no Constitutional Amendment could be questioned in any court of law.

43rd Amendment Act, 1978: It received the Presidential assent on April 13, 1978. 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. 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. The Supreme Court will now have power to invalidate State laws, a power ta en away by the 42nd Amendment Act. The High Courts will also be able to go into the question of constitutional validity of Central laws thereby enabling persons living in distant places to obtain speedy justice without having to come to the Supreme Court.

44th Amendment Act, 1978: 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. The Right to Property ceases to be a Fundamental Right and becomes only a legal right. Any proclamation of Emergency need 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. Safeguards against future subversion of the Constitution for establishing an authoritarian regime. It contains provisions which are designed to make it impossible to impose the kind of emergency the country had experienced for 19 months.

45th Amendment Act, 1980: Reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in Parliament and the State Assemblies and the representation of Anglo-Indians by nomination for a further period of 10 years.

46th Amendment Bill, 1982: It seeks to authorise the government to prepare an authoritative text of the Constitution, in Hindi.

52nd Amendment Act, 1985: 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.

53rd Amendment Act, 1986: It confers Statehood on Mizoram and ensures against unnecessary interference by the Central Government with the laws relating to spheres f s cial relationship and community conduct applicable to Mizoram.

54th Amendment Act, 1986: It enhances the salaries of Judges of High Courts and Supreme Court of India. The salary of Chief Justice of India will be Rs 10,000; Chief Justice of High Courts Rs 9000; Judges of Supreme Court Rs 9000; and Judges of High Courts Rs 8000.

55th Amendment Act, 1987: It grants Stateh d to Arunachal Pradesh which consequently became the 24th State of the Indian Union.

56th Amendment Act, 1987: It confers Statehood on Goa and forms a new Union Territory of Daman and Diu.

Goa thus became the 25th State of the Indian Republic.

57th Amendment Act, 1987: It made a special provision for the setting up of the new State of Goa.

Consequently Daman and Diu were separated from the former to form a Union Territory.

58th Amendment Act, 1988: It provides for special arrangements with regard to reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya. By amending Article 322 the adjustment of se ts has been frozen until 2000 A.D.

59th Amendment Act, 1988: It empowered the Central Government to impose Emergency in Punjab when deemed necessary. Under the amendment, President’s rule can be extended upto three years. Earlier maximum period as t o years.

61st Amendment Act, 1989: It lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.

62nd Amendment Act, 1989: It provided for the extension by another 10 years of reservation of seats in the Parliament and State Assemblies for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes and reservation for Anglo Indian community by nomination.

66th Amendment Act, 1990: To bring land reforms within the purview of 9th Schedule of the Constitution.

69th Amendment Act, 1991: Delhi made National Capital Region. The Act also made provision for Legislative assembly and a council of ministers for Delhi.

70th Amendment Act, 1992: 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 provide for inclusion of members of legislature of Pondicherry and Delhi.

71st Amendment Act, 1992: The act amends the 8th Schedule to the Constitution to include Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali Languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.

72nd Amendment Act, 1992: To make temporary provision for the determination of the number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in the State assembly of Tripura, until the re-adjustment of seats is made on the basis of the first census after the year 2000 under article 170 f the Constitution.

73rd Amendment Act, 1992: 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.

74th Amendment Act, 1992: was made to ensure direct election to all seats in Nagarpalikas and Municipalities.

75th Amendment Act 1994: It provides for setting up of State-level Rent Tribunals to exclude the jurisdiction of all courts, except that of the Supreme Court, under Article 136 of the Constitution.

76th Amendment Act, 1994: It relates to the Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutes and of appointments or posts in the Services under a State, for Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The Supreme Court had ruled on November 16, 1992, that the total reservations under Article 16(40) of the Constitution should not exceed 50 per cent.

77th Amendment Act, 1995: According to this Act, the Government have decided to continue the existing policy of reservation in promotion for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

78th Amendment Act, 1995: It includes land reform laws in the Ninth Schedule so that they cannot be challenged before the courts.

79th Amendment Act, 1999: It extends the reservation of seats for SC, ST and Anglo-Indians in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies for next 10 years.

80th Amendment Act, 2000: It deals with an alternative scheme for sharing taxes between the Union and the States.

81st Amendment Act, 2000: 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.

82nd Amendment Act, 2000: It provides that nothing in the Article 355 shall prevent the State from making any provisions in favour of the members of SC/ST for relaxation in qualifying marks with respect to examination/job/promotion.

83rd Amendment Act, 2000: 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.

86th Amendment Act, 2002: Provides Right to Education until the age of 14 and early childhood care until the age of 6.

89th Amendment Act, 2003: The National Commission f r S heduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was bifurcated into The National Commission for Scheduled Castes and The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.

91st Amendment Act, 2004: Restrict the size of council of ministers to 15% of legislative members & to strengthen Anti Defection laws. Amended articles 75 and 164. Insert article 361B. Amended schedule 10.

97thAmendment Act, 2012: The amendment objective is to encourage economic activities of cooperatives which in turn help progress of rural India. It is expected to not only ensure autonomous and democratic functioning of cooperatives, but lso the accountability of the management to the members and other stakeholders

98thAmendment Act, 2013: To empower the Governor of Karnataka to take steps to develop the Hyderabad-Karnataka Region i stered Article 371J in the Constitution