UPSC IAS Exam: Important Amendments in Indian Constitution

Under the article 368 the India Constitution provides the parliament provisions to amend the constitution and its procedures. Amendments to the constitution of India are not easy and need to comply with certain provisions before they can come into effect.

The Constitution of India is rigid in parts. Amending some of its provisions can difficult while others can be amended very easily. Article 368, of the Constitution provides for two special methods of amendment:

(i) Most of the provisions of the Constitution can be amended by the Union Parliament by passing an Amendment Bill by a majority of total membership and 2/3rd majority of members present and voting in each of its two Houses.

(ii) For the amendment of some specified parts, a very rigid method has been provided. Under it, first the Union Parliament passes the Amendment Bill by a majority of total membership and 2/3rd majority of members present and voting in each house , and then it goes to the State Legislatures for ratification. The Amendment gets passed only when it is approved by not less than one half of the several states of the Union.

Notably, some provisions of the Constitution can be amended by a simple majority of the Parliament in the manner of ordinary legislative process. These amendments do not come under Article 368.

Important Amendments of the Indian Constitution

Below is the list of important amendments in Indian Constitution with their dates, articles-added and changes (if any) brought:

Important Amendment Acts	Newly added, removed and Amended Articles/Scheduled/Parts	Details of the Amendments
7th Amendment Act 1956	Article 1 Article 3 Article 49 Article 80 Article 81 Article 82 Article 131 Article 153 Article 158 Article 168 Article 170 Article 171 Article 216 Article 217 Article 220 Article 222 Article 224 Article 230 Article 231 Article 232 Part VIII First, Second, Fourth and Seventh Schedules of Indian Constitution	Reorganisation of states on linguistic basis Abolition of Class A, B, C and D states Introduction of Union Territories
9th Amendment Act, 1960	Schedule 1 of Indian Constitution	Adjustments to Indian Territory as a result of an agreement with Pakistan.
10th Amendment Act,  1961	Article 240 First Schedule	Dadra, Nagar, and Haveli incorporated in the Union of Indian as a Union Territory
12th Amendment Act 1961	Article 240 First Schedule	Goa, Daman and Diu incorporated in the Indian Union as a Union Territory
13th Amendment Act, 1963	Article 170 Added new article 371A	Nagaland was formed with special status under Article 371A
14th Amendment Act, 1962	Articles 81 and 240 First and fourth Schedules Added Article 239A	Pondicherry incorporated into the Indian Union
21st Amendment Act, 1967	Eighth Schedule	Sindhi language was language into 8th Schedule of Indian Constitution
26th Amendment Act 1971	Article 366 Added Article 363A Removed Articles 291 and 362	Privy Purse was abolished.
36th Amendment Act 40th Amendment Act 1975	Articles 80 and 81 First and fourth Schedules Added Article 371F Removed Article 2A	Sikkim incorporated as an Indian state
42nd Amendment Act 1976	Article 31 Article 31C Article 39 Article 55 Article 74 Article 77 Article 81 Article 82 Article 83 Article 100 Article 102 Article 103 Article 105 Article 118 Article 145 Article 150 Article 166 Article 170 Article 172 Article 189 Article 191 Article 192 Article 194 Article 208 Article 217 Article 225 Article 226 Article 227 Article 228 Article 311 Article 312 Article 330 Article 352 Article 353 Article 356 Article 357 Article 358 Article 359 Article 366 Article 368 Article 371F Seventh Schedule   Added Articles 31D, 32A, 39A, 43A, 48A, 131A, 139A, 144A, 226A, 228A and 257A   Added Parts IVA and XIVA	Fundamental Duties prescribed, India became Socialist Secular Republic
44th Amendment Act 1978	Article19 Article 22 Article 30 Article 31A Article 31C Article 38 Article 71 Article 74 Article 77 Article 83 Article 103 Article 105 Article 123 Article 132 Article 133 Article 134 Article 139A Article 150 Article 166 Article 172 Article 192 Article 194 Article 213 Article 217 Article 225 Article 226 Article 227 Article 239B Article 329 Article 352 Article 356 Article 358 Article 359 Article 360 Article 371F   Ninth Schedule   Added Articles 134A and 361A   Deletion of Articles 31, 257A and 329A	Right to Property removed from the list of fundamental rights
61st Amendment Act 1989	Article 326	Voting age decreased from 21 to 18.
71st Amendment Act 1992	Article 332	Manipuri, Konkani, and Nepali were added in the 8th Schedule of Indian Constitution
73rd Amendment Act 1992	Added Part IX	Introduction of Panchayat Raj Addition of Part IX to the Indian Constitution
74th Amendment Act  1992	Article 280 Article 280 Added Part IXA	Introduction of Municipalities and Nagarpalikas
86th Amendment Act 2002	Amended Articles 45 and 51A Added Article 21A	Free and compulsory education to children between 6 and 14 years
87th Amendment Act 2003	Eighth Schedule	Santhali, Bodo, Dogri, and Maithili in the 8th Schedule of Indian Constitution Service Tax introduced.
95th Amendment Act 2010	Article 334	Extension of reservation of seats for SC/ST Nomination of Anglo-Indian members in Parliament and State Assemblies
96th Amendment Act 2011	Eighth Schedule	Replaced Odia for Oriya in the 8th Schedule to the Indian Constitution
97th Amendment Act 2012	Articles 19 Added Part IXB	Introduction of Part IXB in the Constitution of India relating to Co-operative Societies
100th Amendment Act 2015	Amendment of First Schedule	Exchange of some enclave territories with Bangladesh Conferment of citizenship rights to citizens of enclave’s resulting to signing of Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) Treaty between India and Bangladesh.
101st Amendment Act 2016	Article 248 Article 249 Article 250 Article 268 Article 269 Article 270 Article 271 Article 286 Article 366 Article 368 Amended Sixth Schedule and Seventh Schedule Deletion of Article 268A	Introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST)
102nd Amendment Act 2018	Addition of articles 338B, 342A, and Added Clause 26C Omitted Article 340 Modification of articles 338, 366	Constitutional Status to National Commission for Backward Classes
103rd Amendment Act 2019	Amendment to Article 15, added Clause 6 Amendment to Article 16, added Clause 6	A maximum of 10% Reservation for Economically Weaker Sections of citizens of classes other than the classes mentioned in clauses (4) and (5) of Article 15, i.e. Classes other than socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

This is a very important part of the UPSC syllabus and it is important to know these amendments extremely well to be able to answer related question.