Important Constitutional Amendments

The power and procedure to amend the Constitution come from Article 368 in Part XX, which lets Parliament add to, vary or repeal any provision following a set procedure.

• The Bill can be introduced by a minister or a private member and needs no prior permission of the President.
• The Bill must be passed in each House by a special majority — a majority of the total membership of that House and a majority of two-thirds of the members present and voting.
• Each House must pass the Bill separately; there is no provision for a joint sitting in case of disagreement.
• Some amendments that affect the federal structure must also be ratified by the legislatures of at least half the states by a simple majority.
• After passage, the President must give his assent; the President can neither withhold assent nor return the Bill (made obligatory by the 24th Amendment, 1971).

• By a simple majority of Parliament (for matters outside Article 368, e.g. creation of new states).
• By a special majority of Parliament (most provisions).
• By a special majority of Parliament plus ratification by half the states (federal provisions).

• In the Kesavananda Bharati case (1973), the Supreme Court held that Parliament can amend any part of the Constitution but cannot alter its "basic structure".
• This came after the Golaknath case (1967), where the Court had held that Parliament could not curtail Fundamental Rights through amendment — a position the 24th Amendment (1971) sought to overturn.

The first amendments dealt mostly with land reform, the reorganization of states, and the absorption of new territories into the Union.

• The Seventh Amendment, 1956 reorganized states into 14 states and 6 Union Territories on a linguistic basis, abolishing the old Part A/B/C/D classification.
• Several amendments absorbed new territories — Dadra & Nagar Haveli (10th), Goa, Daman & Diu (12th), Puducherry (14th) — while the 9th ceded Berubari to Pakistan.
• The 21st added Sindhi as the 15th language in the Eighth Schedule.

This phase was dominated by the tug-of-war between Parliament and the judiciary over the power to amend Fundamental Rights, especially the right to property.

• The 25th Amendment, 1971 curtailed the fundamental right to property.
• The 31st raised Lok Sabha seats from 525 to 545, and the 35th made Sikkim an "associate state".

This is the most heavily tested period, containing the sweeping 42nd Amendment, its partial reversal by the 44th, the anti-defection law, and the local-government amendments.

• The 44th Amendment, 1978 reversed several 42nd Amendment changes: it restored the Lok Sabha/assembly term to 5 years, removed the Right to Property from the Fundamental Rights (making it only a legal right under Article 300A), and provided that Articles 20 and 21 cannot be suspended even during a national emergency.
• The 52nd Amendment, 1985 added the Tenth Schedule (Anti-defection law).
• The 61st Amendment, 1989 lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 years.
• The 73rd and 74th Amendments, 1992 gave constitutional status to local government — the 73rd to Panchayati Raj institutions (Part IX + Eleventh Schedule) and the 74th to Urban local bodies / municipalities (Part IXA + Twelfth Schedule).

Recent amendments focus on education, taxation, reservation and language, and are very frequently asked in current-affairs-linked questions.

• The 101st Amendment, 2016 introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
• The 103rd Amendment, 2019 granted 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) under Article 15.
• The 100th ratified the land boundary agreement with Bangladesh (2015), the 102nd made the NCBC a constitutional body (2018), and the 104th ended the Anglo-Indian nominated seats (2020).

The table below covers every important constitutional amendment — note the famous ones (1st, 42nd, 44th, 52nd, 61st, 73rd, 74th, 86th, 101st) which appear most often in exams.