Constitutional Amendments — The Ones That Changed India, and All Twelve Schedules

Why Amendments Carry So Many Marks

A constitution that could never change would break; one that changed with every government would not be a constitution at all. India's answer is Article 368, which lets Parliament amend the Constitution — but by three different routes, depending on how deep the change cuts.

That design is exactly why examiners like this chapter. It is finite: a fixed list of amendment Acts and a fixed list of twelve Schedules. It is factual, so the same items rotate year after year with the numbers shuffled.

Three words to fix before anything else:

• ›Amendment Act — numbered in order of enactment, from the 1st (1951) onwards. The most recent one papers have begun asking about is the 106th (2023), which reserved one-third of Lok Sabha and State Assembly seats for women.
• ›Schedule — a list attached to the end of the Constitution. It began with 8; there are now 12.
• ›Basic structure — the judge-made limit on how far Article 368 can reach.

1. Which amendment to the Constitution of India is popularly called the "mini-Constitution"?

2. The Tenth Schedule, containing the anti-defection provisions, was inserted by which amendment?

3. By which amendment did the right to property cease to be a Fundamental Right?

4. The recognised languages of India are listed in which Schedule of the Constitution?

5. Which Article of the Constitution lays down the procedure for its own amendment?

6. The voting age in India was lowered from 21 years to 18 years by which amendment?

7. The doctrine of the "basic structure" of the Constitution was laid down in which case?

8. The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 added which Schedule to the Constitution?