Important Constitutional Amendments
1. The First Amendment, 1951 to overcome certain practical difficulties related to Fundamental Rights. It made provision for special treatment of educationally and socially backward classes, and added Ninth Schedule to Constitution.
2. The Third Amendment, 1954 it substituted entry 33 of List III (Concurrent List) of the Seventh Schedule to make it correspond to Article 369.
3. The Seventh Amendment, 1956 was necessitated on account of reorganization of states on a linguistic basis, and changed First and Fourth Schedules.
4. The Eighth Amendment, 1959 extended special provision for reservation of seats for SCs, STs and Anglo-Indians in Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies for a period of 10 years from 1960 to1970.
5. The Ninth Amendment, 1960 transferred certain territories to Pakistan following September 1958 Indo-Pak Agreement.
6. The Tenth Amendment, 1961 incorporated the territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli in Indian Union.
7. The Twelfth Amendment, 1962 incorporated the territories of Goa, Daman and Diu in Indian Union.
8. The Thirteenth Amendment, 1962 created Nagaland: as a State of the Union of India.
9. The Fourteenth Amendment, 1963 incorporated form French territory of Pondicherry in Indian Union.
10. The Eighteenth Amendment, 1966 was made to facilitate reorganization of Punjab into Punjab and Haryana, and also created the UT of Chandigarh.
11. The Twenty First Amendment, 1967 included Sindhi as the 15th regional language in the Eighth Schedule.
12. The Twenty Second Amendment, 1969 created a sub-state of Meghalaya from within Assam.
13. The 7wenty Third Amendment, 1969 extended the reservation of seats for SC/ST and nomination of Anglo Indians for a further period of 10 years (up to 1980).
14. The Twenty Sixth Amendment, 1971 abolished titles and special privileges of former rulers of princely states.
15. The Twenty Seventh Amendment, 1971 provided for the establishment of the states of Manipur and Tripura; the formation of the Union Territories of Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.
16. The Thirty First Amendment, 1973 increased elective strength of Lok Sabha from 525 to 545. Upper limit of representatives of state became 525 from 500.
17. The Thirty Sixth Amendment, 1975 made Sikkim a state of the Indian Union.
18. 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.
19. The Thirty-Ninth Amendment, 1975 placed beyond challenge in courts, the election to Parliament of person holding the office of Prime Minister or Speaker and election of the President and Vice President.
20. The Forty-Second Amendment, 1976 provided Supremacy of Parliament and gave primacy to Directive Principles over Fundamental Rights; added 10 Fundamental Duties and altered the Preamble.
21. The Forty-Fourth Amendment, 1978 restored the normal duration of Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies to 5 years; Right to property was deleted from Part III; limited the power of the government to proclaim internal emergency.
22. The Forty-Fifth Amendment, 1985 extended reservation for SC/ST by 10 years (up to 1990).
23. The Fifty-Second Amendment, 1985 inserted the Tenth Schedule in the Constitution regarding provisions as to disqualification on the grounds of defection.
24. The Fifty-Fourth Amendment, 1986 enhanced salaries of Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts.
25. The Fifty-Fifth Amendment, 1986 conferred statehood on Arunachal Pradesh.
26. The Fifty-Sixth Amendment, 1987 Hindi version of the Constitution of India was accepted for all purposes and statehood was conferred on the UT of Goa.
27. The Fifty-Eighth Amendment, 1987 provided reservation of seats in legislatures for the four north- eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.
28. The Sixty-First Amendment, 1989 reduced voting age from 21 to 18 years for Lok Sabha and Assemblies.
29. The Sixty-Second Amendment, 1989 extended reservation of seats for SC/ST up to the year 2000.
30. The Sixty-Third Amendment carried out in 1990 repealed the 59th Amendment which empowered the government to impose Emergency in Punjab.
31. The Seventy-Second Amendment, 1992 (Panchayati Raj Bill) provided Gram Sabha in villages, constitution of panchayats at village and other levels, direct elections to all seats in panchayats and reservation of seats for SC/ST and fixing of Panchayat's tenure to 5 years.
32. The Seventy- Third Amendment, 1992 (Nagarpalika Bill) provided for constitution of municipalities, reservation of seats in every municipality for the SC and ST, women and the backward classes.
33. The Seventy-Fourth Amendment, 1993 inserted anew part IX-A relating to the municipalities, in the Constitution to provide, among other things, constitution of three types of municipalities, that is, Nagar Panchayats' for areas in transition from a rural area to urban area, Municipal Councils for smaller urban area and Municipal Corporations' for larger urban areas.
34. The Seventy-Eighth Amendment, 1995 provides for some land reforms acts included in Ninth Schedule which consists of list of laws enacted by the central governments and various state governments which, interalia, affect rights and interest in property including land.
35. The Seventy-Ninth Amendment, 2000 extended reservation for the SC/ST for further period of ten years, that is, up to 25 January 2010.
36. The Eightieth Amendment, 2000 was for certain changes to be made to tax distribution provided under Articles 269, 270 and 272 of the constitution.
37. The Eighty-First Amendment, 2000 The unfulfilled vacancies/seats of a year, which were reserved for SC/ST candidates, for being filled up in that year in accordance With any provision for reservations made under Article 16 of the Constitution, shall be considered as a separate class of vacancies to be filled up in any succeeding year or years, and such class of vacancies shall not be considered together with vacancies of the year in which they were filled up for determining the ceiling of fifty per cent reservation against total number of vacancies of that year.
38. The Eighty-Fourth Amendment, 2001 The number of represent actives in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies to freeze to current levels for the next 25 years (till 2026)
39. The Eighty-Fifth Amendment, 2001 provided for consequential seniority in case of promotion (with retrospective effect from 17 June 1995) by virtue of the rule of reservation for government servant’s belonging to SCs/STs.
40. The Eighty-Sixth Amendment, 2002 The Act 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 of 6 to 14 years in such a manner as the state may, by law, determine."
41. The Eighty-Eight Amendment, 2003 provides for the insertion of a new article 268A, service tax levied by Union and collected and appropriated by the Union and the States, amendment of article 270 amendment of Seventh Schedule.
42. The Eighty-Ninth Amendment, 2003 provides for the amendment of article 338. There shall be a National Commission for the SCs/STs.
43. The Ninety-First Amendment, 2003 amended the anti defection laws and provided for amendment of article75. The total number of Ministers, including the Prime Minister, in the Council of Ministers shall not exceed fifteen per cent of the total number of members of the House of the people.
44. The Ninety-Second Amendment, 2003 provided for the amendment of Eighth Schedule by adding four new regional languages (Bodo, Maithili, Santhali and Dogri) thus, extending the list to 22 languages.
45. The Ninety-Third Amendment, 2005 (came into effect on January 20th 2006) provided for special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the SCs/STs in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions.
46. The Ninety-Fourth Amendment, 2006 provides for the exclusion of Bihar from the proviso to Clause (I) of Article 164 of the constitution which provides that there shall be a Minister in charge of tribal welfare who may in addition be in charge of the welfare of the scheduled castes and backward classes in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orrisa. It also proposes to extend the provisions of Clause (I) of Article 164 to the newly found states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
47. The Ninety-Fifth Amendment, 2010, extends the reservation of seats and special reservation of SC and ST in the House of People and in the Legislative Assemblies of states for 10 more years under Article 334.
48. The Ninety-Sixth Amendment, 2011, alters language ‘Oriya' as 'Odia' in the Eighth Schedule.
49. The Ninety-Seventh Amendment, 2012 (Date on which the Act came into force 12.01.2012. Date of ascent) add the words "or co-operative societies after the Word "or unions" in Article 19(1)(c) and insertion of Article 43B i.e., Promotion of co-operative societies and added Part-IXB i.e., The Co-operative Societies.
50. The 101st Amendment Act, 2016 was enacted to introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India, marking a significant indirect tax reform. It came into effect on 8th September 2016 and allowed both the Centre and States to make laws on GST by inserting Article 246A in the Constitution.
51. The 103rd Amendment Act, 2019 was enacted to provide 10% reservation in education and government jobs for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of the General (Unreserved) category, who are not covered under any existing reservations for SC, ST, or OBC. This amendment inserted Clause (6) in Article 15 and Article 16 of the Constitution, enabling the State to make special provisions for the advancement of EWS in matters of admission to educational institutions (including private unaided institutions) and public employment.
52. The 104th Amendment Act, 2020 came into effect on 25th January 2020 and primarily aimed to abolish the reserved seats for the Anglo-Indian community in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. It amended Article 334 of the Constitution by removing the provision for the nomination of two Anglo-Indian members by the President to the Lok Sabha and by Governors to the State Assemblies. However, the amendment extended the reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the Parliament and State Assemblies for another 10 years, i.e., up to 2030.
53. The 106th Amendment Act, 2023 popularly known as the Women’s Reservation Bill (Nārī Śakti Vandan Adhiniyam) was enacted to reserve one third (33 %) of seats in the Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, and the Delhi Legislative Assembly for women, including those seats already reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It amended Article 239AA (Delhi) and inserted Articles 330A (Lok Sabha) and 332A (State Assemblies), along with Article 334A, which sets out a 15‑year sunset clause, mandates implementation only after the first census and delimitation following its commencement, and provides for rotation of reserved seats via parliamentary law.
