Important Amendments to Indian Constitution

Important Amendments to Indian Constitution: General Awareness is an equally important section in SSC CGL, CHSL, MTS exams and has even more abundant importance in some other exams conducted by SSC. To let you make the most of GA section, we are providing notes on “Important Amendments to Indian Constitution”. Also, General Awareness is a major part to be asked in various exams. We have covered important notes focusing on these prestigious exams. We wish you all the best of luck to come over the fear of the General Awareness section

Some important amendments are:

• The Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951 the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951, enacted in 1951, made several changes to the Fundamental Rights provisions of the constitution. It provided against abuse of freedom of speech and expression, validation of zamindari abolition laws, and clarified that the right to equality does not bar the enactment of laws which provide “special consideration” for weaker sections of society.

• The Constitution (Second Amendment) Act, 1952 the Second Amendment, amended Article 81 in order to remove the prescribed limit of 7,50,000 of the population for one member to be elected to the Lok Sabha. According to the original provision, at least one member was to be elected to the Lok Sabha for every 7,50,000 of the population. It was further provided that the maximum number of elected member to the Lok Sabha should not exceed 500.
• The Constitution (Third Amendment) Act, 1954 the Third Amendment brought about changes in the Seventh Schedule consisting of the three Legislative Lists and entry 33 of the Concurrent List was substituted by a new one.
• The Constitution (Fourth Amendment) Act, 1955 article 31 and 31A were amended by the Constitution Fourth Amendment Act. As a result of these, the adequacy of the quantum of compensation paid for the compulsory acquisition of property for ‘a public purpose’ could not be questioned in a court of law. It also amended Article 305 and the Ninth Schedule.
• The Constitution (Fifth Amendment) Act, 1955 the Constitution (Fifth Amendment) Act amended Article 3. In the Constitution there was no time limit during which a State Legislature should express its boundaries, which the Centre may like to make. With the help of this amendment, it was provided that the State will be required to express its views on such matters within such period as may be specified in the reference or within such further period, as the President may allow.
• The Constitution (Sixth Amendment) Act, 1956 In this Act, the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution was amended and in the Union List, a new entry was added after Entry 92 in the State List, a new Entry was substituted for Entry 54. It also amended Articles 269 and 286 dealing with inter-state Sales-tax.
• The Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act,1956 the Seventh Amendment brought about the most comprehensive changes so far in the Constitution. This amendment was designed to implement the State Reorganisation Act. The Second and Seventh schedules were substantially amended for the purpose of the States Reorganization Act.
• The Constitution (Eight Amendment) Act, 1959 the Act extended the period of reservation seats in Lok Sabha and State Legislatures for the Anglo-Indians, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes by another 10 years.
• The Constitution (Ninth Amendment) Act, 1960 It provided for the transfer of certain territories of India to Pakistan under an agreement between India and Pakistan as a part of a comprehensive settlement of border disputes between the two countries.

• The Constitution (Tenth Amendment) Act, 1961 The Tenth Amendment integrates the areas of Free Dadra and Nagar Haveli with the Union of India and provides for their administration under the regulation making powers of the President.
• The Eleventh Amendment, 1962, Election of Vice President by Electoral College consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament, instead of election by a Joint Sitting of Parliament. Indemnify the President and Vice President Election procedure from challenge on grounds of existence of any vacancies in the electoral college.
• The Twelfth Amendment, 1962, incorporated the territories of Goa, Daman and Diu in the Indian Union.
• The Thirteenth Amendment, 1962, created Nagaland as a state of the Union of India.
• The Fourteenth Amendment, 1963, incorporated the former French territory of Puducherry into the Union.
• The Fifteenth Amendment, 1963, Raise retirement age of High court judges from 60 to 62 and other minor amendments for rationalizing interpretation of rules regarding judges etc.
• The Eighteenth Amendment, 1966 was made to facilitate the re-organisation of Punjab on a linguistic basis into Punjab and Haryana, and also created the UT called Chandigarh.
• The Twenty-first Amendment, 1967 included Sindhi as the 15th regional language in the Eighth Schedule.
• The Twenty-second Amendment, 1969, created a sub-state of Meghalaya within Assam.
• The Twenty-third Amendment, 1969, extended the reservation of seats for SC/STs and nomination of Anglo-Indians for a further period of 10 years (up to 1980).
• The Twenty-sixth Amendment, 1971, abolished the titles and special privileges of former rulers of princely states.
• The Twenty-seventh Amendment, 1971, provided for the establishment of the states of Manipur and Tripura and the formation of the UTs of Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.
• The Thirty-first Amendment, 1973, increased the elective strength of the Lok Sabha from 525 to 545.The upper limit of representatives of a state went up from 500 to 525.
• The Thirty-sixth Amendment, 1975, made Sikkim a state of the Indian Union.
• The Thirty-eighth Amendment, 1975, provided that the President can make a declaration of emergency, and the promulgation of ordinances by the President, Governors and administrative heads of UTs would be final and could not be challenged in any court. It also authorised the President to declare different kinds of emergencies at the same time.
• The Thirty-ninth Amendment, 1975, decreed that the election of a person holding the office of the Prime Minister or Speaker and the election of the President and Vice-President cannot be challenged in any court.
• The Forty-second Amendment, 1976, provided supremacy to the Parliament and gave primacy to the Directive Principles over the Fundamental Rights. It also added 10 Fundamental Duties in the Constitution. The Preamble of the Constitution was also altered from ‘Sovereign Democratic Republic’ to read ‘Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic’ and ‘Unity of the Nation’ to read ‘Unity and Integrity of the Nation’.
• The Forty-fourth Amendment, 1978, restored the normal duration of the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies to 5 years. The right to property was deleted from Part III. It also limited the power of the government to proclaim the internal emergency and corrected some distortions that had crept into the Constitution during the emergency.
• The Forty-fifth Amendment, 1980, extended reservation for SC/ST by an additional 10 years (up to 1990).
• The Fifty-second Amendment, 1985, inserted the Tenth Schedule in the Constitution regarding provisions for disqualification on the grounds of defection.
• The Fifty-fifth Amendment, 1986, conferred statehood on Arunachal Pradesh.
• The Fifty-sixth Amendment, 1987, the Hind version of the Constitution of India was accepted for all purposes and statehood was conferred on the UT of Goa.
• The Sixty-first Amendment, 1989, reduced the voting age from 21 years to 18 years for the Lok Sabha as well as the Assemblies.
• The Seventy-third Amendment, 1992 (Panchayati Raj Bill) seeks to provide, among other things, Gram Sabha in villages, constitution of Panchayats at the village and other levels, direct elections to all seats in Panchayats and reservation of seats for SC and ST and fixing of tenure of 5 years for Panchayats.
• The Seventy-fourth Amendment, 1993, (Nagarpalika Bill) provides for, among other things, the constitution of three types of municipalities and the reservation of seats in every municipality for the SC/ST, women and the OBCs.
• The Seventy-seventh Amendment, 1995, provides for continuing the existing policy of reservation in promotions for SC/STs. It also made changing of Article 16 of the Constitution mandatory by inserting a new Clause (4A).
• The Seventy-ninth Amendment, 1999 provides for the extension of reservations of seats for SC/STs and Anglo-Indians in the House of the people and in the State Legislative Assemblies for an additional 10 years.
• The Eightieth Amendment, 2000, provides for an alternative tax sharing scheme between the Union and state governments, as per recommendations of the 10th Finance Commission. Henceforth, 26 percent of the total Union taxes and duties would be assigned to the state governments in lieu of their existing share in income tax, excise, duties, special excise duties and grants in lieu of tax on railway passenger fares.
• The Eighty-fourth Amendment, 2001, states the number of representatives in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies were to freeze to current levels for the next 25 years (till 2026).
• The Eighty-sixth Amendment, 2002, deals with the insertion of a new Article 21A after Article 21. The new Article 21A deals with Right to Education. ‘The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children from the age to 6 to 14 years in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine’.
• The Eighty-ninth Amendment, 2003, provides for the Amendment of Article 338. There shall be a National Commission for the SCs and a National Commission for STs. ‘Subject to the provisions of any law made in this behalf by Parliament, the Commission shall consist of a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and three other Members and the conditions of service and tenure of office of the Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and other Members so appointed shall be such as the President may be rule determine’.
• The Ninety-first Amendment, 2003, provides for the Amendment of Article 75. The total number of Ministers, including the Prime Minister, in the Council of Ministers, shall not exceed 15 percent of the total number of members of the House of the people.
• The Ninety-Second Amendment, 2004, Include Bodo, Dogri, Santali and Maithali as official languages.
• The Ninety-Third Amendment, 2006, To enable provision of reservation (27%) for other backward classes(OBC)  in government as well as private educational  institutions.
• The Ninety-Ninth Amendment, 2015, Formation of a National Judicial Appointments Commission. 16 State assemblies out of 29 States including Goa, Rajasthan, Tripura, Gujarat and Telangana ratified the Central Legislation, enabling the President of India to give assent to the bill.The amendment was struck down by  Supreme Court on 16 October 2015
• The One Hundredth Amendment, 2015, 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
• The One Hundredth one Amendment, 2017, Introduced the Goods and Services Tax.
• One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act, 2019, introduces 10% reservation for economically weaker sections of society for admission to Central Government-run educational institutions and private educational institutions (except for minority educational institutions), and for employment in Central Government jobs. The Amendment does not make such reservations mandatory in State Government-run educational institutions or State Government jobs. However, some states have chosen to implement the 10% reservation for economically weaker sections.