(Sample Material) IAS PRE GS Online Coaching
Polity - "Constitution Amendment"
Constitution reflects the aspirations and needs of the people of the country. It has to be a dynamic document giving shape to the popular aspirations as they evolve from time to time. It has to facilitate socio-economic change and national security. Therefore, all constitutions provide for built-in procedures for amendment. Such procedures can be rigid or flexible. Rigid procedure is elaborate, difficult and special. It is a characteristic of federal Constitutions where the Constitution involves distribution of powers to the two levels of government and so can be amended only when both the tiers of government accept the same. Rigidity, thus, usually involves ratification by state legislatures. However, only federal provisions are covered by the rigid procedure and not the non-federal parts of the Constitution.
Flexibility means passing an amendment Bill in the same manner as an ordinary Bill. Indian Constitution has a combination of both.
Constitutions undergo amendments informally (imperceptibly) and formally (perceptibly). In the former method, there are two ways
- Judicial pronouncements
- Conventions
Supreme Court of India has contributed to the evolution of constitutional amendment in a significant way verdicts. Some important rulings are-
- Introduction of the doctrine of Basic features of the Constitution and the ruling that they can not be amended by the Parliament (Keshavananda Bharati case verdict of the Supreme Court 1973).
- FRs and DPSPs are complementary and such balance between the two Parts of the Constitution can not be disturbed (Minerva Mills case verdict 1980).
- Territory can not be ceded except by an amendment Act (Berubari case 1960)
- Even though Art.361 gives Governor of a state immunity from judicial review, judiciary has the right to invalidate any wrong and malafide actions that a Governor may take (Bihar assembly dissolution case 2006).