{"id":258614,"date":"2023-09-04T20:40:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T15:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=258614"},"modified":"2023-09-04T20:40:21","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T15:10:21","slug":"one-nation-one-election-plan-how-the-constitution-is-amended-when-do-states-get-a-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/one-nation-one-election-plan-how-the-constitution-is-amended-when-do-states-get-a-say\/","title":{"rendered":"One nation, one election plan: How the Constitution is amended, when do states get a say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cOne nation, one election plan: How the Constitution is amended, when do states get a say\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d <\/strong>on 4th September 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Indian Polity \u2013 Significant provisions of Indian constitution<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– The Centre has set up a committee to examine various aspects, both legal and logistical, for implementing the \u201cone nation, one election\u201d idea.<\/p>\n

What is the process for amending the constitution?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Informally, changes to the Constitution occur through judicial interpretation<\/strong> and established customs<\/strong> derived from practice.<\/p>\n

For instance<\/strong>, the procedure for appointing judges<\/strong> to the higher judiciary. The Constitution mentions a “consultation” <\/strong>between the President and the Chief Justice of India. The Supreme Court has construed this to imply “concurrence.” <\/strong><\/p>\n

Article 368 of the Constitution contains procedure for amending the Constitution –<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Simple Majority:<\/strong> Several clauses of the Constitution can be modified through legislative process <\/strong>applied in passing regular legislation in Parliament. This entails garnering a majority vote from those present and voting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Article 368 doesn’t explicitly enumerate these “less significant” clauses<\/strong>. Such clauses are expressly exempted from the scope of Article 368..<\/p>\n

Article 4 empowers <\/strong>Parliament to make alterations related to the organization of states. It requires a simple majority<\/strong> for amendment.<\/p>\n

Actions such as changing state names, admitting new states to the Union, and revising state boundaries <\/strong>fall into this category.<\/p>\n

2) Special Majority:<\/strong> Article 368 stipulates that the constitution amendment Bill must be passed by both Houses of Parliament with a majority vote <\/strong>of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting. <\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Rule 158 of the Lok Sabha Rules,<\/strong> the term ‘total membership’ r<\/strong>efers to the complete number of House members, irrespective of any vacancies or absentees <\/strong>at that moment.<\/p>\n

3) Ratification by States: <\/strong>It necessitates not only a special majority<\/strong> for amendment but also requires approval from the legislatures of at least half of the states<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The provisions mandating ratification <\/strong>are explicitly outlined. These pertain to aspects related to the federal nature<\/strong> of the Constitution and are commonly referred to as “entrenched provisions.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

For instance, the Constitution (Ninety-ninth Amendment) Act<\/strong> established the National Judicial Appointments Commission.<\/strong> This Act was passed by both Houses of Parliament and ratified by 16 state legislatures.<\/p>\n

In the 1992 Supreme Court case of Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachillu, <\/strong>the issue of ratification <\/strong>emerged as a crucial consideration. One of the challenges to the constitutionality of the Tenth Schedule<\/strong>, was that the amendment was not ratified by the states.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The amendment aimed to exclude the jurisdiction of courts<\/strong> in matters related to the disqualification process<\/strong>. The Supreme Court invalidated this aspect of the amendment while upholding the validity of the Tenth Schedule.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What are entrenched provisions in Article 368?<\/strong>
\nArticle 368 lists six parts of the Constitution that have an additional safeguard <\/strong>for amending them. These are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Article 54 and 55<\/strong>, dealing with the election of the President <\/strong>of India.<\/li>\n
  2. Article 73 and 162<\/strong>, dealing with the extent of executive power<\/em> of the Union and states.<\/li>\n
  3. Articles 124\u2013147 and 214\u2013231,<\/strong> which deal with powers of the Supreme Court and the High Courts<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Article 245 to 255<\/strong>, dealing with the scheme of distribution of legislative, taxing, and administrative powers<\/strong> between the Union and the states.<\/li>\n
  5. Article 82-82,<\/strong> dealing with the representation of states in Parliament.<\/li>\n
  6. Article 368<\/strong> itself.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Source– The post is based on the article \u201cOne nation, one election plan: How the Constitution is amended, when do states get a say\u201d published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d on 4th September 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Indian Polity \u2013 Significant provisions of Indian constitution News– The Centre has set up a committee to examine various aspects,… Continue reading One nation, one election plan: How the Constitution is amended, when do states get a say<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500,225],"class_list":["post-258614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","tag-polity","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":5,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1698473943},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}