Important Constitutional Amendments - with years and major points

Important Amendments to Indian Constitution – year and major points
1. 1st Amendment

• 1951
• Added Ninth Schedule.

2. 7th Amendment

• 1956
• Result of Reorganization of States on a linguistic basis.

3. 8th Amendment

• 1959
• Extended special provisions for reservations of seats for SCs, STs and Anglo – Indians in Lok Sabha and Leg.

Assemblies for a period of 10 years from 1960 to 1970.
4. 9th Amendment

• 1960
• Transfer of certain territories to Pak following the 1958 Indo – Pak agreement.

5. 10th Amendment

• 1961
• Dadra & Nagar Haveli recognized as a UT.

6. 12th Amendment

• 1962 
• Goa, Daman & Diu recognized as a UT.

7. 13th Amendment

• 1962
• Created Nagaland as a State.

8. 14th Amendment

• 1963
• Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam, the former French territories - included in the schedule as UT of Pondicherry.

9. 18th Amendment

• 1966
• Reorganized Punjab into Punjab, Haryana and UT of Chandigarh.

10. 21st Amendment

• 1967
• Included Sindhi as the Fifteenth Regional language.

11. 22nd Amendment

• 1969
• sub – state of Meghalaya created within Assam.

12. 23rd Amendment

• 1969
• Extension of the reservation of seats for SC / ST and nomination of Anglo – Indians for a further period of 10 years (till 1980).

13. 26th Amendment

• 1971
• Abolishment of the titles and special privileges of former rulers of princely states.

14. 27th Amendment

• 1971
• Established Manipur and Tripura as States and Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh as UTs.

15. 31st Amendment

• 1973
• Increased the elective strength of LS from 525 to 545.
• The upper limit of representatives of States went up from 500 to 525.

16. 36th Amendments

• 1975
• Sikkim a new State.

17. 38th Amendment

• 1975
• President can make a declaration of emergency, and the promulgation of ordinances by the President, Governors and the Administrative Heads of UTs would be final and could not be challenged in any court.
• Authorized the President to declare different kinds of emergencies.

18. 39th Amendment

• 1975
• Placed beyond challenge in courts, the election to Parliament of a person holding the office of PM or Speaker and election of the President and Prime Minister.

19. 42nd Amendment

• 1976
• Provided supremacy of Parliament and gave primacy to Directive Principles over Fundamental Rights. It also added 10 Fundamental Duties.
• New words – Socialist, Secular and Unity and Integrity of the Nation, were added in the preamble.

20. 44th Amendment

• 1978
• The Right to Property deleted from Part III.
• Article 352 amended to provide ‘Armed Rebellion’ as one of the circumstances for declaration of emergency.

21. 45th Amendment

• 1985
• Extended reservation for SC / ST by another 10 years (till 1990).

22. 52nd Amendment

• 1985
• Added the Tenth Schedule (regarding anti – defection).

23. 53rd Amendment

• 1986
• Mizoram was made a state.

24. 55th Amendment

• 1986
•  Conferred statehood to Arunachal Pradesh.

25. 56th Amendment

• 1987
•  Hindi version of the Constitution of India was accepted for all purposes.
• The UT of Goa, Daman and Diu was divided and Goa was made a State. Daman and Diu remained as a UT.

26. 61st Amendment

• 1989
• Reduced the voting age from 21 to 1 8 years for the LS as well as Assemblies.

27. 61st Amendment

• 1989
• Also extended reservation of seats for SC / ST till 2000 AD.

28. 71st Amendment

• 1992
• Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were included in the VIII Schedule.

29. 73rd Amendment

• 1993
• Panchayat Raj Bill - Provided 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 the SC and ST and fixing of tenure of 5 years for panchayats.

30. 74th Amendment

• 1993
• Nagarpalika Bill - Provides for, among other things, constitution of three types of municipalities, reservation of seats in every municipality for the SC and ST, women and the backward classes.

31. 82nd Amendment

• 2000 
• Reinstalled the provision of reservation of SC and STs in matters related to promotion.
• Besides, the qualifying marks for passing an examination for them have also been lowered.

32. 84th Amendment

• 2001 
• Extended freeze on Lok Sabha and State Assembly seats till 2026.

33. 86th Amendment

• 2002
• Education a fundamental right for children in the age group of 6 – 14 years.

34. 87th Amendment

• 2003
• Made the 2001 census the basis for delimitation of constituencies of the Lower House of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and State assemblies (Vidhan Sabhas).

35. 91st Amendment

• 2003
• Amended the Anti – Defection Law and
• made a provision that the number of ministers in the Central & State Govts, cannot be more than 15% of the strength of Lok Sabha & respected Vidhan Sabha.

36. 92nd Amendment

• 2003
• Bodo, Maithili, Santhali and Dogri added into the VIII Schedule.

37. 93rd Amendment

• 2005
• To reserve seats for socially and educationally backward classes, besides the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, in private unaided institutions other than those run by minorities

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