Amending the Constitution

The rules of Article 368 (Part XX):

• An amendment Bill can be introduced only in Parliament, in either House, by a minister or a private member. No prior sanction of the President is needed. A State legislature cannot start an amendment.
• Each House must pass it separately by a special majority: a majority of its total membership and two-thirds of the members present and voting.
• There is no joint sitting for an amendment Bill; the joint sitting under Article 108 is only for ordinary Bills.
• Amendments touching the federal structure (election of the President, the Supreme Court and High Courts, the division of powers, representation of States in Parliament, Article 368 itself) also need ratification by half the State legislatures. Other amendments do not.
• The President must give assent (24th Amendment, 1971).
• Some provisions, such as forming new States under Article 3, change by a simple majority and do not count as amendments at all.

The cases in order:

• Shankari Prasad (1951): Parliament can amend Fundamental Rights.
• Golaknath (1967): Parliament cannot amend Fundamental Rights at all.
• 24th Amendment (1971): Parliament replied that it can amend any part of the Constitution.
• Kesavananda Bharati (1973): Parliament can amend any part, but not the basic structure. This is the basic structure doctrine, a limit on Article 368, enforced by judicial review.
• Minerva Mills (1980): a limited amending power is itself part of the basic structure.
• Judicial review, the supremacy of the Constitution, secularism, federalism and free and fair elections are among the features the courts have held basic.

The ones CDS names:

• 42nd (1976): added socialist, secular and integrity to the Preamble, added the Fundamental Duties (Article 51A), and moved five subjects to the Concurrent List.
• 44th (1978): removed the Right to Property from the Fundamental Rights (it is now a legal right under Article 300A), replaced 'internal disturbance' with 'armed rebellion' as a ground for national emergency, and protected Articles 20 and 21 during an emergency.
• Sikkim: the 35th (1974) made it an associate State; the 36th (1975) made it a full State (Article 371F).
• New States: Nagaland's special provision came by the 13th (1962), Mizoram by the 53rd (1986), Arunachal Pradesh by the 55th (1986), Goa by the 56th (1987).

The ones CDS names:

• 86th (2002): Article 21A, free and compulsory education for children of 6 to 14 as a Fundamental Right.
• 91st (2003): the Council of Ministers capped at 15 per cent of the Lok Sabha or the State Assembly.
• 101st (2016): GST. It added Article 246A, letting the Union and the States tax the same supply together, and Article 269A for GST on inter-State trade. An amendment was needed because Article 246 had split taxes between them and had no room for one tax levied by both.
• 102nd (2018): constitutional status for the National Commission for Backward Classes, and Article 342A.
• 103rd (2019): 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections.
• 105th (2021): under Article 342A the President notifies a Central List of backward classes for each State, and every State may keep its own list, which can differ.
• 106th (2023): one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, the State Legislative Assemblies and the Delhi Assembly; not the Rajya Sabha or the Legislative Councils. Women already had one-third of seats in Panchayats (Article 243D, 1992).