Constitution · 24 min read

Amendments & Basic Structure

Two things make this topic examinable out of proportion to its length. First, the amendment procedure is genuinely intricate — three different routes, and the hardest questions are about which one a given change requires. Second, the basic structure doctrine is entirely judge-made: it appears nowhere in the text, and it is the single most consequential idea in Indian constitutional law.

The amendment list below is not a register of all of them. It is the set that exams actually ask about, each with what it did and why it mattered. The running total is deliberately flagged rather than stated as a permanent fact, because it grows.

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Current affairs · 19 September 2026

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What to note today

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    No charges on UPI payments up to ₹2,000 and on RuPay debit cards, by notification

    Economy and banking14 SeptemberMinistry of Finance notification of 14 September 2026

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    Retail inflation rose to 4.82 per cent in August 2026

    Economy and banking14 SeptemberMoSPI CPI press release of 14 September 2026

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    SEMICON India 2026 opened at Yashobhoomi on the theme “Silicon to Systems”

    Science and technology17–19 SeptemberPrime Minister’s Office note of 16 September 2026; inauguration confirmed by agreeing reports of 17 September

  4. 04

Why it matters

Amendments & Basic Structure in the exam

Direct question counts move between cycles, so treat these as ranges rather than promises. Check the notification for the pattern you are sitting.
ExamExpected questionsHow it usually appears
UPSC Prelims GS Paper 13–5 questionsUsually on what a named amendment did, or on the basic structure cases.
SSC CGL / CHSL Tier 13–4 questionsWhich amendment did what — asked very directly, with adjacent numbers as distractors.
State PSC Prelims3–5 questionsThe 42nd, 44th, 73rd and 74th Amendments carry most of the weight.
RRB NTPC / Group D2–3 questionsThe famous ones — anti-defection, voting age, Panchayati Raj, GST.
CLAT / AILET Legal Reasoning3–4 questionsKesavananda Bharati and its successors, often as passage-based questions.

The three routes to amendment

Article 368

Article 368 describes two of the three routes; the third operates outside it altogether, which is why questions about it catch candidates out.

The three routes compared
RouteMajority requiredExamples of what it covers
By simple majority, outside Article 368A simple majority of members present and voting in each House, as for any ordinary lawAdmission or establishment of new states, alteration of state boundaries or names, creation or abolition of a Legislative Council, changes to citizenship, the Second Schedule, quorum, salaries, and the use of English.
By special majority under Article 368A majority of the total membership of each House and at least two-thirds of the members present and voting, in each House separatelyFundamental Rights, Directive Principles, and every other provision not falling in the other two routes. This is the default.
By special majority plus state ratificationThe same special majority, and in addition ratification by the legislatures of at least half the states, by simple majorityElection of the President, extent of the executive power of the Union and the states, the Supreme Court and High Courts, the distribution of legislative powers, the Seventh Schedule, representation of states in Parliament, and Article 368 itself.
Where a bill may be introduced
In either House. There is no requirement of prior presidential recommendation, and a private member may introduce an amendment bill. This distinguishes it sharply from a money bill.
No joint sitting
Each House must pass the bill by the special majority separately. If one House does not, the bill fails — there is no deadlock-resolving mechanism, because Article 108 applies only to ordinary bills.
The President must assent
Since the 24th Amendment of 1971, the President is obliged to give assent to a constitutional amendment bill. There is no power to withhold or to return it.
The state role is narrow
Where ratification is needed, half the states must ratify, but there is no time limit for doing so, and a state that has ratified cannot withdraw. States have no power to initiate an amendment, and the resolution required under Article 169 for creating or abolishing a Legislative Council is not an amendment at all.
Amendments outside Article 368 are not "amendments"
Changes made by simple majority under provisions such as Articles 2, 3, 4, 169 and 239A are not deemed to be amendments of the Constitution for the purposes of Article 368. This is why a state reorganisation Act, which alters the First Schedule, needs only a simple majority.

Shankari Prasad to the NJAC

The amendment cases

The question of whether Parliament can amend away the fundamental rights was litigated for a quarter of a century. The sequence is asked as a sequence, so learn it in order.

The sequence of decisions
CaseYearWhat it held
Shankari Prasad v. Union of India1951A constitutional amendment is not "law" within Article 13, so Parliament may amend any part of the Constitution including the Fundamental Rights. The First Amendment was upheld.
Sajjan Singh v. State of Rajasthan1965Reaffirmed Shankari Prasad, though two judges expressed doubt — the first crack in the position.
I. C. Golaknath v. State of Punjab1967Reversed the earlier view: an amendment is "law" under Article 13, so Parliament cannot abridge the Fundamental Rights at all. Applied prospectively.
Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala1973Overruled Golaknath by a thirteen-judge bench, 7 to 6. Parliament may amend any part of the Constitution, including the Fundamental Rights, but may not damage or destroy its basic structure.
Indira Nehru Gandhi v. Raj Narain1975The first application of the doctrine to strike down a constitutional amendment — the 39th Amendment, which had placed the election of the Prime Minister beyond judicial scrutiny.
Minerva Mills v. Union of India1980Struck down parts of the 42nd Amendment. Held that limited amending power and the balance between Parts III and IV are themselves part of the basic structure.
Waman Rao v. Union of India1981Fixed 24 April 1973, the date of Kesavananda Bharati, as the cut-off: laws placed in the Ninth Schedule after it are open to challenge.
I. R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu2007Confirmed that laws added to the Ninth Schedule after 24 April 1973 can be tested against the basic structure, so the Schedule is no longer an absolute shield.
SC Advocates-on-Record Association v. Union of India2015Struck down the 99th Amendment and the NJAC, holding that the independence of the judiciary and the collegium mechanism protecting it fall within the basic structure.

Why 24 April 1973 matters

It is the date of the Kesavananda Bharati judgment, and it functions as a constitutional watershed. Laws placed in the Ninth Schedule before that date remain protected; those placed in it afterwards can be tested against the basic structure. The date is asked directly, and it is worth attaching to the case rather than trying to remember it in isolation.

What is inside the doctrine

The basic structure

The Supreme Court has never given an exhaustive list, and has said deliberately that it will not. What exists is an accumulation of elements identified case by case.

Elements identified so far
Supremacy of the Constitution; the sovereign, democratic and republican character of the polity; the secular character of the Constitution; separation of powers between the legislature, executive and judiciary; the federal character of the Constitution; the unity and integrity of the nation; the welfare state and the social and economic justice it implies; judicial review; freedom and dignity of the individual; the parliamentary system; the rule of law; harmony and balance between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles; equality; independence of the judiciary; free and fair elections; the limited amending power itself; effective access to justice; and Articles 32 and 226.
It is deliberately open-ended
The court in Kesavananda declined to define the basic structure exhaustively, and later benches have said the content is to be determined case by case. Critics call this indeterminate; defenders say a closed list would be a target for circumvention.
What the doctrine does not do
It does not prevent amendment of the Fundamental Rights — Kesavananda expressly overruled Golaknath on that point. It restrains only amendments that damage or destroy an essential feature. Nor does it apply to ordinary legislation, which is tested against the Constitution itself rather than against the doctrine — though I. R. Coelho brought Ninth Schedule laws within its reach.
Its influence beyond India
The doctrine has been cited and adopted by courts in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Uganda, Kenya and elsewhere, which is why it is described as India's principal export in constitutional law. That fact appears in UPSC mains answers more often than in prelims.
The criticism
That it gives an unelected court a veto over an elected Parliament exercising a power the Constitution expressly grants; that its content is uncertain and expands with each bench; and that it has no textual foundation. The defence is that an unlimited amending power would allow the Constitution to be replaced under the guise of being amended, which is what the framers cannot have intended.

The formative period

Amendments 1 to 44

The early amendments settled land reform and state reorganisation; the 42nd and 44th are the pair that every paper asks about, because one expanded executive power drastically and the other reversed much of it.

The early amendments worth knowing
AmendmentYearWhat it did
First1951Added the Ninth Schedule to protect land reform laws; added Article 15(4) after the Champakam Dorairajan case; added three grounds of restriction on free speech.
Seventh1956Gave effect to the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines, abolishing the Part A, B, C and D classification and repealing Part VII.
Twenty-fourth1971Made the President's assent to an amendment bill obligatory and inserted Article 13(4), reversing Golaknath.
Twenty-fifth1971Inserted Article 31C, protecting laws implementing Articles 39(b) and (c) from challenge under Articles 14 and 19.
Twenty-sixth1971Abolished the privy purses and the special privileges of the former rulers of princely states.
Thirty-sixth1975Made Sikkim a full state of the Indian Union.
Forty-second1976The "mini-Constitution". Added Socialist, Secular and Integrity to the Preamble; added Fundamental Duties as Part IVA; added Articles 39A, 43A and 48A; moved five subjects from the State List to the Concurrent List; extended the Lok Sabha term from five to six years; and curtailed judicial review. Based on the Swaran Singh Committee.
Forty-fourth1978Undid much of the 42nd. Restored the Lok Sabha term to five years; removed the right to property from Part III and re-enacted it as Article 300A; replaced "internal disturbance" with "armed rebellion" in Article 352; required a written Cabinet recommendation for an emergency; and made Articles 20 and 21 non-suspendable.

Defection to devolution

Amendments 52 to 100

This stretch contains the amendments that reshaped Indian democracy from below — anti-defection, the voting age, and the two local government amendments of 1992.

The middle period
AmendmentYearWhat it did
Fifty-second1985Introduced the anti-defection law and added the Tenth Schedule.
Sixty-first1989Reduced the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen by amending Article 326.
Sixty-ninth1991Gave Delhi the status of the National Capital Territory with a legislative assembly, through Article 239AA.
Seventy-first1992Added Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali to the Eighth Schedule.
Seventy-third1992Gave constitutional status to panchayats, adding Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule. In force 24 April 1993.
Seventy-fourth1992Gave constitutional status to municipalities, adding Part IX-A and the Twelfth Schedule. In force 1 June 1993.
Eighty-sixth2002Made education a fundamental right through Article 21A, recast Article 45, and added the eleventh Fundamental Duty.
Ninety-first2003Capped the Council of Ministers at fifteen per cent of the House, and tightened the anti-defection law by removing the split exception.
Ninety-second2003Added Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali to the Eighth Schedule, taking the total to twenty-two.
Ninety-third2005Added Article 15(5), enabling reservation for backward classes in private educational institutions, aided or unaided, except minority institutions.
Ninety-seventh2011Gave constitutional status to cooperative societies — adding them to Article 19(1)(c), inserting Article 43B and Part IX-B.
Ninety-ninth2014Created the National Judicial Appointments Commission — struck down by the Supreme Court in 2015.
Hundredth2015Gave effect to the land boundary agreement with Bangladesh, exchanging enclaves and amending the First Schedule.

GST, EWS and after

Amendments 101 onward

The most recent block, and the one most likely to be asked in a current-affairs-flavoured question. The running total moves, so treat the last entry as a floor rather than a ceiling.

Recent amendments
AmendmentYearWhat it did
101st2016Introduced the Goods and Services Tax, inserting Article 246A on concurrent taxing power, Article 269A on inter-state supply, and Article 279A creating the GST Council.
102nd2018Gave constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes, inserting Articles 338B, 342A and 366(26C).
103rd2019Provided up to ten per cent reservation for economically weaker sections in education and public employment, through Articles 15(6) and 16(6). Upheld by the Supreme Court in 2022.
104th2020Extended the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for a further ten years, and discontinued the nomination of Anglo-Indian members.
105th2021Restored the power of states to identify socially and educationally backward classes for their own purposes, after the Supreme Court had read the 102nd Amendment as removing it.
106th2023The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, providing for reservation of one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, state legislative assemblies and the Delhi assembly. Its commencement is tied to a delimitation exercise following a census.

The running total is a moving figure

The Constitution has been amended 106 times as of the most recent amendment listed above. That number grows, and general awareness papers usually take it from the position on the date the paper is set. Learn the numbered amendments that matter and what each did; check the current total before quoting it, and never treat a total printed in any set of notes as permanent.

Evaluation and criticism

How rigid is it really

The framers wanted a document that could be changed without a revolution and could not be changed on a whim. Whether they succeeded is a standard mains question and an occasional prelims one.

Compared with the United States
The American Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times in more than two centuries, and requires a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress plus ratification by three-quarters of the states. India has amended its Constitution more than a hundred times in seventy-five years. The Indian procedure is markedly easier, chiefly because most amendments need no state ratification at all.
Compared with the United Kingdom
Britain has no written constitution and therefore no special procedure — any Act of Parliament can change what would elsewhere be constitutional law. India's procedure is far more demanding, so on this comparison it is rigid rather than flexible.
Why India amends so often
Partly because the Constitution is long and includes a great deal of ordinary administrative detail that in other countries would sit in statute — so routine changes require an amendment. Partly because Article 3 places state reorganisation inside the constitutional text. And partly because governments with large majorities have used the power freely, most notably in the 1970s.
Criticisms of Article 368
That the states have no power to initiate an amendment and only a narrow role in ratifying one, which weakens the federal claim. That there is no provision for a referendum or a constitutional convention. That the special majority is calculated in a way that a determined government with a large majority can meet routinely. And that no time limit or procedure governs state ratification.
The counterweight
The basic structure doctrine is the practical limit on the amending power, and it is judicial rather than textual. Whatever one thinks of its legitimacy, it is what has actually prevented amendments from being used to dismantle judicial review, free elections and the federal structure.

Solved examples

Worked line by line

Read the steps rather than the answer. The method is what transfers to the next question.

A bill seeks to change the distribution of powers in the Seventh Schedule. What majority does it need?

  1. Changes to the Seventh Schedule affect the balance between the Union and the states.
  2. Article 368(2) lists such provisions in its proviso, requiring the third route.
  3. That means a special majority in each House separately, plus ratification by the legislatures of at least half the states.

Answer: Special majority plus ratification by half the states.

Parliament passes an Act creating a new state by dividing an existing one. Is this a constitutional amendment?

  1. Creating a new state alters the First Schedule, which is part of the Constitution.
  2. But Article 4 provides that a law made under Article 2 or Article 3 making such a change is not deemed to be an amendment for the purposes of Article 368.
  3. It therefore needs only a simple majority, after the President has referred the bill to the affected state legislature for its views.

Answer: No — it takes effect by simple majority under Articles 3 and 4.

What did Kesavananda Bharati actually decide?

  1. It overruled Golaknath, holding that Parliament can amend any part of the Constitution including the Fundamental Rights.
  2. But it held that the amending power under Article 368 is not unlimited: an amendment may not damage or destroy the basic structure of the Constitution.
  3. It was decided by a thirteen-judge bench, the largest ever constituted, by a majority of seven to six, on 24 April 1973.

Answer: That Fundamental Rights can be amended, but the basic structure cannot be destroyed.

Which amendment is called the mini-Constitution, and name three things it did?

  1. The 42nd Amendment of 1976, enacted during the Emergency on the Swaran Singh Committee's recommendation.
  2. It added Socialist, Secular and Integrity to the Preamble, and added the Fundamental Duties as Part IVA.
  3. It also moved education, forests, weights and measures, protection of wild animals and birds, and administration of justice from the State List to the Concurrent List, and extended the Lok Sabha term to six years.

Answer: The 42nd Amendment — Preamble words, Fundamental Duties, and the transfer of five subjects to the Concurrent List.

A law is placed in the Ninth Schedule in 1995. Can it be challenged?

  1. The Ninth Schedule was created by the First Amendment to protect laws from challenge on fundamental rights grounds.
  2. Waman Rao in 1981 and I. R. Coelho in 2007 held that laws added after 24 April 1973 — the date of Kesavananda Bharati — are not absolutely protected.
  3. Such a law can therefore be tested against the basic structure of the Constitution.

Answer: Yes — a post-1973 insertion can be tested against the basic structure.

Can a constitutional amendment bill be sent to a joint sitting if one House rejects it?

  1. Article 108 provides for a joint sitting on ordinary bills.
  2. It expressly excludes money bills, and constitutional amendment bills are governed by Article 368, which requires a special majority in each House separately.
  3. There is therefore no deadlock-resolving mechanism at all: if one House refuses, the bill simply fails.

Answer: No — no joint sitting is available, and the bill fails.

What is the significance of the 101st Amendment?

  1. It introduced the Goods and Services Tax by restructuring indirect taxation.
  2. Article 246A gave both the Union and the states concurrent power to tax the supply of goods and services, which the Seventh Schedule had not allowed.
  3. Article 269A dealt with inter-state supply and Article 279A created the GST Council, the principal institution of cooperative federalism today.

Answer: It created GST, with Articles 246A, 269A and 279A — the last establishing the GST Council.

Which amendment reduced the voting age, and to what?

  1. Article 326 provides for elections on the basis of adult suffrage and originally set the age at twenty-one.
  2. The 61st Amendment of 1989 amended that article.
  3. It reduced the qualifying age to eighteen years, expanding the electorate substantially at the 1989 general election.

Answer: The 61st Amendment, 1989 — from twenty-one to eighteen.

Practice

16 questions on Amendments & Basic Structure

Work each one out before you reveal the answer — the explanation is where the marks are.

  1. Q1A constitutional amendment bill can be introduced:

    • AIn the Lok Sabha only
    • BOnly by a minister
    • COnly with the President's prior recommendation
    • DIn either House

  2. Q2The basic structure doctrine was propounded in:

    • AGolaknath
    • BShankari Prasad
    • CMinerva Mills
    • DKesavananda Bharati

  3. Q3Which amendment is known as the "mini-Constitution"?

    • A24th
    • B42nd
    • C44th
    • D52nd

  4. Q4Ratification by at least half the state legislatures is required to amend:

    • AFundamental Rights
    • BDirective Principles
    • CThe Seventh Schedule
    • DThe Preamble

  5. Q5The anti-defection law was introduced by the:

    • A52nd Amendment
    • B61st Amendment
    • C73rd Amendment
    • D91st Amendment

  6. Q6The 44th Amendment removed which right from Part III?

    • AThe right to freedom of movement
    • BThe right to constitutional remedies
    • CThe right to freedom of association
    • DThe right to property

  7. Q7The cut-off date after which laws in the Ninth Schedule can be challenged is:

    • A26 January 1950
    • B24 April 1973
    • C25 June 1975
    • D1 January 1980

  8. Q8Which amendment created the GST Council?

    • A99th
    • B100th
    • C101st
    • D102nd

  9. Q9The 99th Amendment, which created the National Judicial Appointments Commission, was:

    • AUpheld by the Supreme Court
    • BStruck down by the Supreme Court
    • CNever brought into force
    • DRepealed by Parliament

  10. Q10Reservation for economically weaker sections was introduced by the:

    • A102nd Amendment
    • B103rd Amendment
    • C104th Amendment
    • D105th Amendment

  11. Q11The Ninth Schedule was added by the:

    • A1st Amendment
    • B4th Amendment
    • C17th Amendment
    • D25th Amendment

  12. Q12The President's assent to a constitutional amendment bill became obligatory after the:

    • A24th Amendment
    • B42nd Amendment
    • C44th Amendment
    • D52nd Amendment

  13. Q13Which case first used the basic structure doctrine to strike down a constitutional amendment?

    • AKesavananda Bharati
    • BIndira Nehru Gandhi v. Raj Narain
    • CMinerva Mills
    • DWaman Rao

  14. Q14Constitutional status was given to cooperative societies by the:

    • A93rd Amendment
    • B97th Amendment
    • C100th Amendment
    • D102nd Amendment

  15. Q15The 106th Amendment provides for reservation of seats for:

    • AEconomically weaker sections
    • BAnglo-Indians
    • CWomen
    • DOther backward classes

  16. Q16Creating or abolishing a state Legislative Council under Article 169 requires:

    • AA special majority in Parliament plus state ratification
    • BA special majority in Parliament only
    • CA simple majority in Parliament, after an assembly resolution
    • DA referendum in the state

Questions

Amendments & Basic Structure — FAQs

How many times has the Constitution been amended?

One hundred and six times as of the 106th Amendment of 2023. The figure grows, and papers usually take it from the position when they are set, so verify the current total before quoting it. What matters more for the exam is knowing which numbered amendment did what.

What exactly is the basic structure?

A set of essential features that Parliament cannot destroy while amending the Constitution. It is judge-made, appears nowhere in the text, and has never been exhaustively defined. Elements identified so far include supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law, judicial review, free and fair elections, secularism, federalism, separation of powers, independence of the judiciary, and the balance between Parts III and IV.

Can Parliament amend the Fundamental Rights?

Yes. Golaknath held in 1967 that it could not, but Kesavananda Bharati overruled that in 1973. Parliament may amend any part of the Constitution, including Part III, provided the amendment does not damage or destroy the basic structure. Several fundamental rights have in fact been amended, most notably the removal of the right to property in 1978.

Why is the Indian Constitution amended so much more often than the American one?

Three reasons. It is far longer and contains administrative detail that elsewhere would sit in ordinary statute, so routine changes need an amendment. State reorganisation happens inside the constitutional text under Article 3. And most amendments need no state ratification at all, whereas the American procedure requires three-quarters of the states.

Do states have any real role in amending the Constitution?

A narrow one. They cannot initiate an amendment at all, and their consent is required only for the specific class of provisions listed in the proviso to Article 368(2) — and then only from half of them, by simple majority, with no time limit. This is one of the strongest arguments that Indian federalism has a unitary bias.

Is the basic structure doctrine undemocratic?

That is the central criticism: an unelected court sets limits on an elected Parliament exercising a power the Constitution expressly grants, and the content of those limits is not written down. The defence is that an unlimited amending power would allow a temporary majority to replace the Constitution while formally amending it, and that in practice the doctrine has protected judicial review, free elections and federalism.

What is the difference between the 42nd and the 44th Amendments?

They are a pair, and the second largely undoes the first. The 42nd, enacted during the Emergency, expanded central and executive power, curtailed judicial review, extended the Lok Sabha term to six years and added the Preamble words and Fundamental Duties. The 44th, enacted afterwards, restored the five-year term, removed the right to property from Part III, narrowed the grounds for emergency and made Articles 20 and 21 non-suspendable.

Which parts of this topic change between exam cycles?

The running total of amendments, and any new amendment. The commencement date of the 106th Amendment on women's reservation is still open, since it is tied to a delimitation exercise following a census. Everything else — the three routes, the case sequence, the content of past amendments — is fixed.

How should I revise the amendment list?

By theme rather than by number. Group the reservation amendments together — 1st, 77th, 81st, 93rd, 103rd, 105th; the anti-defection pair — 52nd and 91st; the local government pair — 73rd and 74th; the Emergency pair — 42nd and 44th; and the taxation and institution amendments — 101st, 102nd. Grouped that way, the numbers stick to a story instead of floating free.

How many questions come from this topic?

Three to five in UPSC Prelims, three to four in SSC CGL Tier 1 where the "which amendment did what" format is near-universal, three to five in state PSC prelims, and three to four in CLAT and AILET, usually as passage-based questions on Kesavananda Bharati and its successors.

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