- The Constitution (Fifty-first Amendment) Act, 1984---Article 330 has been amended by this Act for providing reservation
of seats for Scheduled Tribes in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram
in Parliament and Article 332 has been amended to provide similar reservation in
the Legislative Assemblies of Nagaland and Meghalaya to meet the aspirations of
local tribal population.
- The Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985---It
amends the Constitution to provide that a Member of Parliament or a State Legislature
who defects or is expelled from the party which set him up as a candidate in the
election or if an independent member of the House joins a political party after
expiry of six months from the date on which he takes seat in the House shall be
disqualified to remain a member of the House. The Act also makes suitable provisions
with respect to splits in and merger of political parties.
- The Constitution
(Fifty-third Amendment) Act, 1986---This has been enacted to give effect to the
Memorandum of Settlement of Mizoram which was signed by Government of India and
Mizoram Government with Mizoram National Front on 30 June 1986. For this purpose,
a new Article 371G has been inserted in the Constitution inter alia preventing application
of any Act of Parliament in Mizoram in respect of religious or social practices
of Mizos, Mizos' customary law and procedure, administration of civil and criminal
practice involving decisions according to Mizos' customary law and ownership and
transfer of land unless a resolution is passed in the Legislative Assembly to that
effect. This, however, will not apply to any Central Act already in force in Mizoram
before the commencement of this amendment. The new Article also provides that the
Legislative Assembly of Mizoram shall consist of not less than 40 members.
- The
Constitution (Fifty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1986---This Act increases the salaries
of Supreme Court and High Court judges as follows: Chief Justice of India Rs 10,000
per month Judges of Supreme Court Rs 9,000 per month Chief Justice of High Court
Rs 9,000 per month Judges of High Court Rs 8,000 per month This Act amended Part
`D' of the Second Schedule to the Constitution to give effect to the above increases
in the salaries of judges and to make an enabling provision in Articles 125 and
221 to provide for changes in the salaries of judges in future by Parliament by
law.
- The Constitution (Fifty-fifth Amendment) Act, 1986---This Act seeks to
give effects to the proposal of Government of India to confer statehood on the Union
Territory of Arunachal Pradesh and for this purpose, a new Article 371H has been
inserted which, inter alia, confers, having regard to the sensitive location of
Arunachal Pradesh to vest special responsibility on Governor of the new State of
Arunachal Pradesh with respect to law and order in the State and in the discharge
of his functions, the Governor shall after consulting the Council of Ministers,
exercise his individual judgement, as to the action to be taken and this responsibility
shall cease when President so directs. The new Article also provides that the new
Legislative Assembly of the new State of Arunachal Pradesh, shall consist of not
less than thirty members.
- The Constitution (Fifty-sixth Amendment) Act, 1987---Government
of India has proposed to constitute the territories comprised in Goa District of
the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu as the State of Goa and the territories
comprised in Daman and Diu districts of that Union Territory as a new Union Territory
of Daman and Diu. In this context, it was proposed that the Legislative Assembly
of the new State of Goa shall consist of 40 members. The existing Legislative Assembly
of the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu has 30 elected members and three nominated
members. It was intended to make this Assembly with the exclusion of two members
representing Daman and Diu districts the provisional Legislative Assembly for the
new State of Goa until elections are held on the expiry of the five year terms of
the existing Assembly. It was, therefore, decided to provide that the Legislative
Assembly of the new State of Goa shall consist of not less than 30 members. The
special provision required to be made to give effect to this proposal is carried
out by this amendment.
- The Constitution (Fifty-seventh amendment) Act, 1987---The
Constitution (Fifty-first Amendment) Act, 1984 was enacted to provide for reservation
of seats in the house of the people for scheduled tribes in Nagaland, Meghalaya,
Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh and also for reservation of seats for scheduled tribes
in the legislative assemblies of Nagaland and Meghalaya by suitably amending articles
330 and 332. Even though these states are predominantly tribal, the underlying objective
the aforesaid act was to ensure that the members of scheduled tribes in these areas
do not fail to secure a minimal representation because of their inability to compete
with the advanced section sections of the people. The Constitution (fifty-first
amendment) act, though formally enforced, could not be fully implemented unless
parallel action is taken to determine the seats which are to be reserved for Scheduled
tribes in these areas. The number of seats reserved for Schedule Castes and Schedule
Tribes in the Legislative Assembly of any State under article 332 of the constitution
will have to be determined having regard to the provisions of article 332 (3) of
the Constitution. However, in view of the historical background with respect to
the areas comprised in north-eastern states, the circumstances obtaining in these
areas in the State of development of Scheduled Tribes and other relevant considerations,
it was considered necessary to provide for special arrangements with regard to the
reservation for Scheduled Tribes in these areas for a temporary period so as to
facilitate easy transition of these areas to the normal arrangements as envisaged
in the Constitution. Article 332 of the Constitution was further amended for making
a temporary provision, until the re-adjustment of seats on the basis of first census
after the year 2000 under article 170 of the Constitution for these states, for
the determination of the number of seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes. This amendment
seeks to provide that if all the seats in the Legislative Assembly of such States
a existence on the date of coming into force of this constitution amendment act
are held by the members of Scheduled Tribes, all the seats except one shall be reserved
for scheduled tribes and in any other case such number of seats as bears to the
total number of seats a proportion not less than the number of members belonging
to Scheduled Tribes in the existing assembly bears to the total number of seats
in the existing assembly. The act achieves these objectives.
- The Constitution
(Fifty-eighth Amendment) Act, 1987---There has been general demand for the publication
of authoritative text of the Constitution in Hindi. It is imperative to have an
authoritative text of the Constitution for facilitating its use in the legal process.
Any Hindi version of the Constitution should not only conform to the Hindi translation
published by the Constituent Assembly, but should be in conformity, with the language
style and terminology adopted in the authoritative texts of Central Acts in Hindi.
The Constitution has been amended to empower President of India to publish under
his authority the translation of the Constitution in Hindi signed by the Members
of the Constituent Assembly with such modification as may be necessary to bring
it in conformity with the language, style and terminology adopted in the authoritative
texts of Central Acts in Hindi language. President has also been authorised to publish
the translation Hindi of every amendment of the Constitution made in English.
- The Constitution (Fifty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1988---The Act amends Article 365
(5) of the Constitution so as to facilitate the extension of a Presidential Proclamation
issued under clause (1) of Article 356 beyond a period of one year, if necessary
upto a period of three years, as permissible under clause (4) of Article 356 with
respect to the State of Punjab because of the continued disturbed situation there.
The Act also amends Article 352 of the Constitution pertaining to the Proclamation
of emergency in its application to the State of Punjab and includes internal disturbance
as one of the grounds for making a Proclamation in respect of the State of Punjab
only. As a consequence of amendment in Article 352, Articles 358 and 359 in relation
to the State of Punjab will be operative only for a period of two years from 30
March 1988, which is the date of commencement of the amendment.
- The Constitution
(Sixtieth Amendment) Act, 1988---The Act amends clause (2) of Article 276 of the
Constitution so as to increase the ceiling of taxes on professions, trades, callings
and employment from Rs 250 per annum to Rs 2,500 per annum. The upward revision
of this tax will help state governments in raising additional resources. The proviso
to clause (2) has been omitted.
- The Constitution (Sixty-first Amendment) Act, 1989---The Act provides for reducing voting age from 21 to 18 years by amending Article 326 of the Constitution to provide to the unrepresented youth of the country
an opportunity to give vent to their feelings and help them become a part of political
process.
- The Constitution (Sixty-second Amendment) Act, 1989---Article 334 of
the Constitution lays down that the provisions of the Constitution relating to the
reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and the representation
of the Anglo-Indian community by nomination in the Lok Sabha and in
the Legislative Assemblies of the States
shall cease to have effect on the expiry of a period of
40 years from the commencement of the Constitution. Although the Scheduled Castes
and the Scheduled Tribes have made considerable progress in the last 40 years, the
reasons which weighed with the Constituent Assembly in making provisions with regard
to
the aforesaid reservation of seats and nomination of members, have not ceased
to exist. The Act amends Article 334 of the Constitution to continue the reservation
for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and the representation of the
Anglo-Indians by nomination for a further period of 10 years.
- The Constitution
(Sixty-third Amendment) Act, 1989---The Constitution (Fifty-ninth Amendment) Act,
1988 was enacted in March 1988 making certain changes in regard to making a Proclamation
of Emergency in Punjab and to the duration of President's rule in State. On reconsideration,
the Government decided that the special powers in regard to the Proclamation of
Emergency in Punjab as envisaged
in the said amendment is no longer required. Accordingly
the provision to clause (5) of Article 356 and Article 359A of the Constitution
have been omitted.
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