Important Constitutional Amendments

Constitution is an important subject when you are preparing for any exams. In this blog you will learn about some important constitutional amendments that are made in Indian Constitution. If you are preparing for KAS, PSI, KPTCL, KPC exams, Oliveboard has mock tests for each exam

Constitutional Amendment

Amendments to constitutions are modifications to the constitutions of polities, organizations, or other types of entities. A constitutional amendments are often incorporated into sections of an existing constitution, thereby directly changing the text.

Important Constitutional Amendments

• 1^st Amendment (1951) :  special provision was given to states to empower economically or socially backward classes of society or for the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes(SC’s and ST’s). The 9th schedule was added as a new constitutional device to protect against laws that are contrary to constitutional guaranteed fundamental rights and by virtue of which right to property was converted from fundamental right to legal right. This amendment fully secures constitutional validity for abolition of Zamindari abolition laws and also gives state power validates nationalization of businesses and trade at the same time can also invalidate when violated the right to trade and business.
• 7^th  Amendment (1956) : reorganization of states on linguistic basis. changes were introduced in the 1st and 4^th schedule. Abolition of class A, B, C and D states. 7 union territories and 14 new states were formed. Provision of having a common high court for two or more states was introduced.

• 9^th Amendment(1960) : minor adjustment of territory of union of India was done by cession of Berubari union (west Bengal) to Pakistan according to treaty made in 1958
•   10^th Amendment(1961) : Dadar and Nagar Haveli were incorporated in Indian union as union territory consequent to acquisition from Portugal.
• 12^th  Amendment(1962) : Goa, Daman and Diu were incorporated in Indian union as union territory consequent to acquisition from Portugal.
• 13^th  Amendment (1962) : Nagaland state was formed with special protection under article 371A. 
• 14^th Amendment (1962) :Incorporated Pondicherry into Indian union as union territory consequent to acquisition from France and legislative assembly for Himachal Pradesh, Tripura and Goa was created.
• 18^th Amendment(1966) : recognized Punjab into states of Punjab, Haryana and union territory of Chandigarh.
• 26^th Amendment(1971) : abolition of privy of purse paid to former rulers of princely states which are incorporated into the Indian union.
• 27^th Amendment(1971): Established Manipur and Tripura as states and Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh as Union territory.

• 31^st Amendment(1973):Increased number of seats in Lok Sabha from525 to 545 these new seats were going to new states formed in  North east India.
• 42^nd Amendment(1976):Amendment was passed during internal emergency by Indira Gandhi. This amendment provided supremacy of parliament and gave very limited primacy to directive principles over fundamental duties. changes in preamble  were made by adding ‘sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic’.
• 44^th Amendment(1978):Limited power of the government to proclaim internal emergency. Normal duration of Lok Sabha and Legislative assembly to 5 years. Right to property was removed from part 3. Repeals some of the anti-freedom amendments enacted through the 42nd  amendment bill.
• 52^nd Amendment(1985):(Anti-Defection law) 10^th schedule was added through this amendment which provided disqualification of members from parliament and assembly in case of defection from one party to another.
• 61^st amendment (1989): Reduced age of voting from 21 to 18 for Lok sabha as well as for state legislative assembly.
• 62^nd Amendment(1989):Extended period of reservation for SC/ST and nomination of Anglo Indian members in Lok Sabha and state legislative to 2000 AD.
• 69^th Amendment(1991):provided legislative assembly and council of ministers for National Capital Territory of Delhi but Delhi will continue to be union territory.
• 73^rd Amendment(1992):(Panchayat raj) panchayat election was introduced to provide a third level of administration in villages. The tenure of the panchayat was fixed to 5 years.
• 74^th Amendment(1992):(Nagar Palika) to administration of urban areas like cities and towns constitutional status was provided.

Amendments made after 2000s

• 86^th Amendment(2002):Article 21(A) is introduced to make elementary education a fundamental right to provide elementary education to children of age 6-14 and early childhood care was provided to children until age of 6. Article 45 of directive principles was added and through this 11^th fundamental duties was added
• 92^nd Amendment (2003):4 more language were added to 8^th schedule. Bodo, Dogri, Santhali and Maithili languages were the added languages which increased the number of official languages from 18-22.
• 93^rd Amendment(2006):Clause 5 was added to article 15 giving 27% reservation to (OBC) in government as well as private educational institutions.
• 94^th Amendment(2006): provide new minister of tribal welfare  for newly formed states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh including Madya Pradesh and Orissa
• 95^th Amendment(2010): To extend reservation of seats in lok sabha and assemblies for SC/ST and Anglo Indians from 60 years to 70 years.
• 96^th Amendment(2011): Substituted ‘Odia’ for ‘Oriya’.

• 97^th Amendment(2012): Co-operative societies were given constitutional rights by adding the words “or co-operative societies” after the word “or union” in article 19(I)(c). For promotion of co-operative societies Article 43(B) was intersected and part IX-B was added in constitution for co-operative societies. In July 2021 Supreme court struck part of the amendment as it was not ratified by the state.
• 98^th Amendment(2013): this empowered the Governor of Karnataka to take steps to develop the Karnataka-Hyderabad region.
• 99^thAmendment(2015): The amendment provided for the formation of the National Judicial Appointment commission. The Amendment was struck down by the supreme court of India on 16 October 2015.
• 100^th Amendment(2015): Exchange of certain enclave territories with Bangladesh and conferment of citizenship rights to residents of enclaves consequent to signing of land boundary agreement(LBA) treaty between India and Bangladesh.
• 101^st Amendment(2016): introduced Goods and Service Tax bill by amending the articles 248, 249, 250, 268, 269, 270, 271, 286, 366, 368 ,6^th schedule, 7^th schedule and deletion of article 268A.
• 102^nd Amendment(2018): Constitutional status was granted to the National Commission for Backward Classes.
• 103^rd Amendment(2019): A maximum of 10% reservation was given for economically weaker sections of citizens of classes other than the classes mentioned in clause (4) and (5) of article 15 I.e. class classes other than socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or the schedule caste and the schedule tribes inserted clause (6) under article 15 as well as inserted clause (6) under article 16.
• 104^th Amendment(2020): To extend reservation of seats for SC’s and ST’s in Lok Sabhas and state assemblies from seventy years to eighty years and removed reserved seats for Anglo Indian community in Lok Sabhas and state assemblies.
• 105^th Amendment(2021): To restore states’ power to make their own OBC lists. Annulling Supreme court judgement of 11 may 2021.