Latest Constitutional Amendment Bills

Latest Constitutional Amendment Bills


Almost all books available in the market, we find the information up to The Constitution (Ninety-fourth Amendment) Act; 2006.This act has came into force on 12-06-2006. However we don't find any crisp info regarding the current situation of further amendment acts/ bills. So we have tried to solve this problem.

95th Amendment Bill:

The Constitution 95th amendment bill was passed and came into effect as Constitution (88th Amendment Act 2003 to place "Service Tax " formally under Union List.
In the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution, under Article 246, the item relating to "taxes on services" was not specifically mentioned in any entry either in the Union List or in the State List. At the same time Entry 97 of the Union List empowers the Union Government to Make laws in respect of any other law which is not enumerated in list II (State List ) and List III (Concurrent list), including any tax which has not been mentioned in Union List or the State List. Since "Taxes on Services" is not there in either of the lists, the central government kept levying the service tax exercising the powers under Entry 97 of the union List. ''

To place the Service Tax formally, The Constitution 95th Amendment Bill was passed in Lok Sabha on May 7, 2003. (link) . After coming into effect as Constitution (88th Amendment Act 2003, this amendment act has inserted article 268A and amended article 270. It inserted in the Union List Item 92 C 'taxes on services"

96th Amendment Bill:

Constitution (96th amendment )Bill was passed by Lok Sabha on May 6, 2003 & Rajya Sabha on August 5, 2003. This act updates delimitation against the very latest count of the population.

Background: The 42nd amendment of the Constitution had imposed a freeze on the delimitation of the constituencies. 42nd amendment also provided that until the relevant figures for the first census taken after the year 2000 have been published, it shall not be necessary to readjust the allocation of seats in the House of the People to the States and the division of each State into territorial constituencies under this article.".

In this context, Constitution 84th amendment act 2001 (It came into force on 21-02-2002 ) lifted the freeze on delimitation of the constituencies imposed by the 42nd amendment act and allowed delimitation within the states on the basis of 1991 census. However, readjustment of seats on Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha was frozen up to 2026.

Pursuant to Constitution 84th amendment act 2001, the delimitation act 2002 was also passed. This paved the way for constitution of Delimitation Commission on July 12, 2002. Justice Kuldip Singh, a retired Judge of Supreme court was appointed its chairman and one member of election commission and state election commissioners as its ex-officio members.

In June 2003, Parliament Passed the Constitution (87th amendment act) 2003. This amendment provided that the delimitation of the assembly and parliamentary seats should be done on the basis of 2001 census figures. This decision made the Delimitation Commission to start work afresh.

Meanwhile in March 2004, the Lok Sabha got dissolved and fresh elections were held for 14th Lok Sabha. During the same period Guwahati High Court stated the delimitation exercise in respect with Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. The court took this decision on the basis of dispute in census figures.

Thus we can understand that the main task of the Delimitation Commission set up, under the Delimitation Bill 2002, pursuant to the 84th Amendment, is to re-adjust the territorial constituencies in the House of the People with regard to the seats allocated to each state and the re-adjustment of the territorial constituencies of the Legislative Assembly of each state.

In other words, the rationalization of the constituencies, including re-fixing of the number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, was earlier to be done on the basis of the 1991 Census and after 84th amendment on the basis of 2001 Census. But within the overall number of seats allocated to each state for Parliament and within the state for its Assembly as frozen at the 1971 levels. The 96th Constitutional Amendment is a progressive step that updates delimitation against the very latest count of the population.

97th Amendment Bill:

The Constitution (97th Amendment) is also known as an amendment to Anti-Defection Law.

Background: Defection which literally means (withdrawing support or help despite allegiance or responsibility) leads to political instability. The Constitution (52nd Amendment) Act 1985 was passed to curb the menace of defection and clip the wings of “Aya Ram, Gaya Ram” (political word for describing the practice of floor-crossing by members).

This amendment added the Tenth Schedule to the constitution which contained the provisions regarding the disqualification of members of the parliament or state legislatures in the event of defection. In other words Tenth Schedule, also known as the Anti-Defection Act was included in the Constitution in 1985 by the Rajiv Gandhi ministry and sets the provisions for disqualification of elected members on the grounds of defection to another political party.

Further Constitution (Ninety First Amendment) act of 2003 brought certain changes in the 1985 Anti-defection Law. This amendment deleted paragraph 3 of the Tenth Schedule. Deleting this paragraph allowed one-third of the legislature party to split without attracting provisions of the existing ant defection law. The Constitution (Ninety First Amendment) debarred the defectors from holding any public office as a minister or any other remunerative post till the end of the current term or till fresh elections are hold.

At the same time, the Constitution (Ninety First Amendment) 2003 also sought to check defection by restricting the size of Council of Ministers 15% of the Lok Sabha & Assembly members.

Due the these developments, it is not possible for handful members to split and create new parties. If any member splits, he disqualifies the membership and seek fresh election.

Further, there was one more amendment to Anti Defection Law in the form of Constitution (97th Amendment) Act. The 97th amendment bill sought to reduce the size of the ministerial council to 10% of the members. In other words, after this amendment, the size of the Council of Ministers cannot be more than 10 per cent of respective strengths of Parliament and State legislatures.

This amendment was carried out during NDA Government's regime and based upon recommendations made by Dinesh Goswami Committee, Law Commission of India and the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC).

98th Amendment Bill:

The Constitution 98th amendment Bill sought to constitute a National Judicial Commission. The bill propsed to include a Chapter IV-A in Part V of the Constitution which shall be in charge of appointing judges to the higher judiciary and for transferring High Court Judges. The bill also sought to empower the National Judicial Commission to draw up a code of ethics for judges, inquire into the cases of misconduct or deviant actions of a judge other than those that are punishable with his or her removal, and advise the chief justice of India or chief justice of High Courts appropriately after such enquiry.


99th Amendment Bill:

The constitution (99th amendment) Bill sought to protect the rights of the non-tribals in the newly elected Bodo Territorial Council (BTC) by keeping intact the existing representation of the scheduled tribes and nonscheduled tribes in the Assam legislative assembly from the Bodoland territorial Council Areas district. This amendment bill came in effect as constitution 90th Amendment act 2003.

100th Amendment Bill:

The Constitution (100th) amendment Bill sought to insert Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali in the 8th schedule of the constitution. This act was passed and came into force as Constitution (92nd Amendment) Act 2003. This act took the number of official languages in India to 22.

103rd Amendment Bill:

The Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Bill, 2004 along with National Commission for Minorities (Repeal) Bill, 2004 was introduced in Lok Sabha on 23.12.2004. Bills were referred to the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment. Chairperson of this committee was Smt Sumitra Mahajan and the committee submitted its report on February 21, 2006.

Background:
In 6 states& UTs viz. Jammu & Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Punjab, the Hindus are a minority in contrast with the rest of the country.
The minority standard of Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsees who are designated as minority in India should not be applicable to these states. For example, in Punjab Sikhs are in majority, in J& K Muslims are in majority.
"On August 8, 2005, a Supreme Court judgment decreed that Jains should not be treated as a minority at the national level and no more communities should be declared as a minority at the national level. Only the state government may declare communities as minorities. ."


Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Bill, 2004 along with National Commission for Minorities (Repeal) Bill, 2004 was to bring an end to these anomalies. Bill proposed states as the basic unit to judge which community is a minority in which state.

Some features:

The National Commission for Minorities (Repeal) Bill, 2004 repeals the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. It proposed to dissolve the National Commission for Minorities.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Bill, 2004 proposed to establish a new National Commission for Minorities, with a constitutional status, in order to inspire greater confidence towards the effectiveness of the Commission.
The states would be asked for their view on the basis of data available as to who is a minority. They will be consulted by the President of India, would then notify the minorities in that state. While the President is to consult the states, he would not be bound to act on their advice.
Current Status: The Bill got lapsed.
Note: On May 3, 2007, the Union Cabinet approved for moving the official amendments to the Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Bill & National Commission for Minorities (Repeal) Bill, 2004.

104th Amendment Bill:

Constitution (One Hundred and Fourth Amendment) Bill was pased 22nd December, 2005. President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam signed it on January 20, 2006 and the 104th Constitution Amendment Bill became the the Constitution 93rd amendment Act, 2005.

This bill has been quite famous as "Quota Bill". It adds a new clause to Article 15 of the Constitution. This act amends the article 15 and adds clause 15(5) after Clause 15(4).
Clause(5) says:
"Nothing in this article or in sub-clause (g) of clause (1) of article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision,by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of article 30.".

Short Background:

In August 12, 2005 Supreme Court had delivered a judgement by 7 judges uninamously in case of P.A. Inamdar & Ors. vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors..
Supreme court declared that State can't impose its reservation policy on minority and non-minority unaided private colleges, including professional colleges.
The 93rd Constitutional amendment was brought (in a hurry) for ensuring reservations to other backward classes and Scheduled castes and Tribes in Private Educational institutions.
The move was to reverse the Supreme Court Judgement.
In April 2008, the Supreme Court of India upheld the Government's move for initiating 27% OBC quotas in Government funded institutions.
The Court has reiterated its prior stand that "Creamy Layer" should be excluded from the ambit of reservation policy. The Supreme Court avoided answering the question whether reservations can be made in private institutions, stating that the question will be decided only as and when a law is made making reservations in private institutions.
In conclusion, this amendment enables the constitution to provide for reservations for OBCs in all "educational institutions" including private, whether aided or unaided, excepting minority educational institutions. It brought all private institutions, whether aided or unaided, under the purview of the Government's policies on reservation and fee structure, it has also quietly achieved much more than that by widening the scope of the Amendment Act to specifically include the term "admission to educational institutions". Article 15 of the constitution, as it was originally framed in 1950, stated the following and did not include the term "admission to educational institutions".

105th Amendment Bill:

The Constitution (One Hundred Fifth) Amendment Bill, 2006 sought to exclude Bihar from purview of article 164 (1) and to extend the provision of this article to Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. This bill was passed and got assent of the President on June 12, 2006. The bill came in effect as Constitution (94th Amendment) Act 2006.
Note: Article 164 (1) provides for a minister in charge of the tribal welfare, who may in addition be in charge of the welfare of the scheduled castes and backward classes of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh & Orissa.

106th Amendment Bill:

Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Bill, 2006 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on May 22, 2006. It was referred to the Department Related Standing Committee on Agriculture which submitted its report on August 20, 2007. Chairperson of this committee was Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav.

Background:
The Constitution (106th Amendment) Bill proposed to to insert a new part IX B in the Constitution and adding Articles 243ZH through 243ZT providing for incorporation, regulation and winding up of co-operative societies.
The bill specified maximum number of Board members and the tenure of the members.
The bill also specified for elections to be held before the expiry of the term of the Board.
The bill specified that the Board of a co-operative society that has government shareholding or loans can be superseded for the maximum period of six months.
State governments can co-opt upto two nominees on the Board of a co-operative society.
The Bill specified certain offences related to co-operative societies. State legislatures can define the penalties related to co-operative societies.
Note: Government of India had constituted a high powered committee in 2005 in the chairmanship of Shri Shivajirao G. Patil to review the achievements of the cooperatives during the last one hundred years, identify the challenges faced by the sector and suggest measures to address them to enable the movement to keep pace with the changing socio-economic environment. The committee was also asked to recommend appropriate lagislation for the Co-operatives.

The committee reviewed the Constitution Amendment Bill (106th Amendment Bill 2006) and recommended some more changes including that introducing new part IXB after part IXA along with the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) and Municipalities would imply that cooperatives are a part of governance. The committee recommended at any other place in the constitution. Committee also suggested that no supersession of the Board of Directors should be allowed in any case where government share holding is less than 51%..

In August 2008 Union Cabinet gave approval for moving certain official amendments in the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Bill, 2006. This decision included benefits like empowerment of cooperatives by inserting article 43B in Part-IV of the Constitution providing for

Voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management.
Audit by independent auditors or Auditing firms out of the panel approved by State Government or an authority authorized by the Government in this behalf.
Free and fair elections to be conducted by an independent body.
Directors in the Cooperative Societies will also include two women and one Scheduled Caste representatives.

107th Amendment Bill:

The Constitution (One Hundred and Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2007 had been introduced in Lok Sabha on November 30, 2007. The Sixth Schedule to the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2007 was also introduced with the same bill.

Current Position: This bill got lapsed.

Background: These bills sought to amend the Constitution to include Gorkha Hill Council, Darjeeling in the Sixth Schedule

What is Sixth Schedule? Sixth Schedule Articles 244 and 275 provides for the creation of autonomous District Councils in certain tribal areas of the North-Eastern states viz. Assam,meghalaya,tripura,mizoram. The Bill sought to form a District Council for the hill areas of Darjeeling in West Bengal called the Gorkha Hill Council, Darjeeling (GHC). All District Councils have the power to make laws on a range of subjects such as the allotment of land, use of water course, and inheritance of property. The GHC has the power to make laws on 45 additional subjects such as agriculture, education and transport.

The Bills were referred to the Standing Committee on Home Affairs which submitted its report on Feb 28, 2008. Chairperson of this committee was Sushma Swaraj. Standing Committee was unable to verify facts on the ground. Therefore, it accepted the views of the central and state governments and recommended that the Bills be passed with some amendments.

108th Amendment Bill:

Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill or Women’s Reservation Bill has been the most highlighted amendment bills of recent times. This bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha on May 6, 2008 and passed in Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2010.
Background:
Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill 2008 seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies. The allocation of the reserve seats to be determined by an authority or as prescribed by the parliament. Seats may be allotted by rotation.
The bill also seeks to reserve one-third of SC & ST seats for women of those classes.
The bill further says that the reservation shall cease to exist in 15 years from the commencement of the act.

109th Amendment Bill:

Constitution (109th Amendment Act) 2009 was passed by Rajya Sabha on the 3rd August, 2009 & Lok Sabha on the 4th August, 2009 and ratified by the legislatures of not less than one-half of the states, and assented to on 18 Jan., 2010.

Background: Through this amendment article 334 of the Constitution, for the words "sixty years", the words "seventy years" shall be substituted.
This article has sought to extend the reservation of seats for SCs and STs in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies by another 10 years. The time period of 60 years under article 334 of the constitution was to lapse on January 25, 2010 and this bill extends the reservation beyond January 25, 2010.
Current status : Passed and this is the Latest Passed Amendment Act

110th Amendment Bill:

The Constitution (One Hundred and Tenth Amendment) Bill, 2009 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on November 26, 2009 by the Minister of Panchayati Raj, Shri C.P. Joshi.

Background:
Article 243D of the Constitution provides that a minimum of one-third of the total number of seats filled by direct elections in the Panchayats shall be reserved for women. The seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Panchayat.

Offices of Chairpersons in Panchayats shall be reserved for SC/STs and women in a manner to be prescribed the state legislatures. The reservation shall be in proportion to the population of SC/STs in the state. Also, a minimum of one-third seats shall be reserved for women among the total number of offices of Chairpersons in the Panchayats.

The Bill seeks to amend the article 243D to enhance the quantum of reservation for women from one-third to one-half of the total seats in the Panchayats. Similar reservation shall be provided among the total number of offices of Chairpersons.
Current Status:
The bill is pending . The Bill was referred to the Department related Standing Committee on Rural Development (Chairperson: Smt Sumitra Mahajan), which has to submit its report.

111th Amendment Bill:

The Constitution (One Hundred and Eleventh Amendment) Bill, 2009 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on November 30, 2009 by Sh. Sharad Pawar , Minister of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution System.

Background:
The Bill adds a new Directive Principles of State Policy stating that the “State shall endeavour to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management of co-operative societies.”
It further inserts a new part IX B in the Constitution (adding Articles 243ZH through 243ZT), which outlines certain guidelines for running co-operative societies.

112th Amendment Bill:

The Constitution (112 th Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on November 24, 2009 and this bill seeks to seeks to amend many clauses of Article 243T of the Constitution, providing for reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and also for the women in Urban local Bodies.

Current Status (Till: March 2010) :This Bill has been approved and now has been referred to the Departmentally-related Parliamentary Standing committee on Urban Development for examination and report in March 2010.
Parliamentary Standing committee on Urban Development now invites suggestions the same bill. The committee is headed by Mr. Sharad Yadav. The memoranda containing views of the individuals/organizations interested in the subject matter of the Bill, and also to hear oral evidence on the subject are invited.

Background: The Constitution (112th Amendment) Bill 2009 to provide for 50% reservation of women in Urban Local Bodies. Through this Bill the Government of India seeks to increase the representation of women in Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) from the present level of one-third to 50 percent which would also include enhancement of reservation for women upto 50 percent in seats reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and 50 percent reservations for women in the posts of Chairpersons. This would result in
increased representation of women in ULBs and is likely to yield significant benefits in terms of higher priority to women’s issues in critical areas of urban Governance and service delivery such as water supply, sanitation, solid waste management, education and health, etc.

Article 243T:

Article 243T of the Constitution provides that a minimum of one-third of the total number of seats filled by direct elections in every Municipality shall be reserved for women.
The seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Municipality.
Also, a minimum of one-third seats shall be reserved for SC/ST women within the seats reserved for SC/STs in a Municipality.
Offices of Chairpersons in Municipality shall be reserved for SC/STs and women in a manner to be prescribed the state legislatures.
The reservation of SC/STs shall be in proportion to the population of SC/STs in the state.

113th Amendment Bill:

The latest amendment bill is Constitution (One Hundred and Thirteenth Amendment) Bill, 2010 which was introduced on March 15, 2010. The Current Status of this bill is : pending
Background: The Government of Orissa had forwarded to the Central Government in December 2008, the Resolution passed by the Legislative Assembly of Orissa on 28th August, 2008 that, inter alia, the name of the language specified as "Oriya", in the Eighth Schedule of Constitution be changed as "Odia" and translation of the word "Odia" in Hindi language should be revised as " ओडिया " accordingly and authorised the Government of Orissa to place the matter before Government of India for change of name of the State and change of language of the State and change of their Hindi translations. The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirteenth Amendment) Bill, 2010 seeks to change of name of the language mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, from 'Oriya' to 'Odia'.