Previous Year Question

The Ninth Schedule was added to the Constitution by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951. Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of India at that time. The same amendment also inserted Articles 31A and 31B.

The immediate principal objective of the Ninth Schedule was to protect laws relating to the abolition of zamindari and land reforms from being invalidated on the ground that they violated Fundamental Rights. Initially, 13 laws were placed in the Schedule.

Under Article 31B, laws specified in the Ninth Schedule cannot be treated as void merely because they are inconsistent with or abridge the Fundamental Rights contained in Part III. Subsequently, several laws relating to subjects other than land reform were also added to the Schedule.

Protection under the Ninth Schedule is no longer completely immune from judicial review. In I. R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu (2007), the Supreme Court held that laws placed in the Ninth Schedule after 24 April 1973 may be reviewed. If such a law damages the basic structure of the Constitution through its impact on Fundamental Rights, the Court may declare it unconstitutional.

Therefore, the Ninth Schedule was introduced through the First Constitutional Amendment of 1951 during the Prime Ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru.