Special Provisions & Amendments

Option (3) is correct.

According to the Constitution, the 91^st Amendment Act, the number of Ministers cannot be more than 15% of the House of People at the Union level and the concerned Vidhan Sabha at the State level.

The 96th Amendment Act, which substituted ‘Odiya’ for ‘Oriya’, came into effect on 23 September 2011 by amending schedule 8 of the constitution of India.

According to Article 312a, Parliament may by law- vary or revoke, whether prospectively or retrospectively, the conditions of services as respects remuneration, leave and pension and the rights as respects disciplinary matters of persons who, having been appointed by the Secretary of State or Secretary of State in Council to a civil service of the Crown in India before the commencement of this Constitution, continue on and after the commencement of the Constitution (Twenty-eighth Amendment) Act, 1972, to serve under the Government of India or of a State in any service or post.

The Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as The Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 1966, Parliament may by law
(a) form a new State by separation of territory from any State or by uniting two or more States or parts of States or by uniting any territory to a part of any State;
(b) increase the area of any State;
(c) diminish the area of any State;
(d) alter the boundaries of any State;
(e) alter the name of any State:
Hence, this amendment reorganised Punjab into Punjab, Haryana and UT of Chandigarh.

The Constitution (55th Amendment) Act, 1986 and the State of Arunachal Pradesh Bill, 1986—The Bill vests special powers in the Government besides stipulating that the new State Assembly shall consist of not less than 30 members. The second provides for the establishment of the new State of Arunachal Pradesh. The Bill has already become an Act. Thus, Arunachal Pradesh became the 24th state of the Indian Union.

The Constitution (31st Amendment) Act, 1973: increased the elective strength of the Lok Sabha from 525 to 545. Under the Act, the upper limit of representatives of the States went up from 500 to 525 and that of the Union Territories decreased from 25 to 20.

The objectives of the Constitution First Amendment Act were - To fully secure the constitutional validity of zamindari abolition laws and to place reasonable restriction on freedom of speech. A new constitutional device, called Schedule 9 was introduced by the same amendment.

Rules 155-158 of LokSabha Rules of Procedure specify that special majority is required at each stage of passing a Constitution Amendment Bill. The details of the rules are as under.
Rule 155: Bill seeking to amend the Constitution shall be put to the vote of the House separately and shall form part of the Bill if it is passed by a majority of the total membership of the House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting.
Rule 156: Amendments to clauses or schedules shall be decided by a majority of members present and voting in the same manner as in the case of any other Bill.
Rule 157: If the motion in respect of such Bill is that
(i) the Bill be taken into consideration; or
(ii) the Bill as reported by the Select Committee of the House or the Joint Committee of the Houses, as the case may be, be taken into consideration; or
(iii) the Bill, or the Bill as amended, as the case may be, be passed; then the motion shall be deemed to have been carried if it is passed.

Part XX of the constitution of India covered by article 368 mentions amendments of the constitution. It states that an amendment of this Constitution may be initiated only by the introduction of a Bill for the purpose in either House of Parliament, and when the Bill is passed in each House by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting, it shall be presented to the President who shall give his assent to the Bill and thereupon, the Constitution shall stand amended in accordance with the terms of the Bill.

The 42^nd Amendment Act introduced clause (4) and (5) in the Indian Constitution. These clauses say that (a) there are no limitations, expressed or implied, upon the amending power of the Parliament, and that (b) a Constitution Amendment Act would not, therefore, be subject to judicial review on any ground.

Golaknath v. State Of Punjab (1967 AIR 1643, 1967 SCR (2) 762), or simply the Golaknath case, was a 1967 Indian Supreme Court case, in which the Court ruled that Parliament could not curtail any of the fundamental rights in the Constitution. In this case, the Supreme Court first strikes down a constitutional amendment.

On the question whether the amending power under article 368 was absolute and unlimited, seven judges constituting a majority held that the amending power under article 368 was subject to an implied limitation. By a majority of 7 to 6, the court ruled that “Article 368 does not enable the Parliament to alter the basic structure or framework of the Constitution” without specifying what the basic structure of the Constitution was.

An entrenched clause or entrenchment clause of a basic law or constitution is a provision which makes certain amendments either more difficult or impossible, i.e. inadmissible. It may require a form of supermajority, a referendum submitted to the people, or the consent of another party. Hence, correct answer is option 2.

The Constitution (73^rd Amendment) Act granted constitutional recognition to the pre-existing institution of Panchayati Raj. It was passed in the year 1992, along with Constitution (74^th Amendment) Act, which granted constitutional recognition to municipalities.