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{{Use Indian English|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox legislation
|short_title = The Constitution (Forty-third Amendment) Act, 1977
|legislature = [[Parliament of India]]
|imagesize = 150
|imagealt =
|caption =
|long_title = An Act further to amend the Constitution of India.
|citation =
|territorial_extent = India
|enacted_by = [[Lok Sabha]]
|date_passed = 20{{nbsp}}December 1977
|enacted_by2 = [[Rajya Sabha]]
|date_passed2 = 23{{nbsp}}December 1977
|date_assented = 13{{nbsp}}April 1978
|date_repealed =
|administered_by =
|bill = The Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Bill, 1977
|bill_citation =
|bill_date = 16{{nbsp}}December 1977
|introduced_by = [[Shanti Bhushan]], [[Minister of Law and Justice|Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs]]
|1st_reading =
|2nd_reading =
|3rd_reading =
|conf_committee_passed =
|date_conf_committee =
|white_paper =
|committee_report =
|amendments =
|repeals =
|related_legislation =
|summary =
|keywords =
|status = spent
|amends=[[Constitution of India]]|date_effective=13{{nbsp}}April 1978}}
{{Constitution of India}}
The '''Forty-third Amendment of the Constitution of India''', officially known as the '''Constitution (Forty-third Amendment) Act, 1977''', repealed six{{Nbsp}}articles that had been inserted into the Constitution by the [[Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India|42nd]]{{Nbsp}}[[Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India|Amendment]] which had been enacted by the [[Indira Gandhi]]-led [[Indian National Congress]] during [[The Emergency (India)|the Emergency]]. The 43rd{{Nbsp}}Amendment was enacted by the newly elected [[Janata Party]] which had won the [[1977 Indian general election|1977{{Nbsp}}general elections]] campaigning on a promise to "restore the Constitution to the condition it was in before the Emergency".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/issue-too-academic-so-pil-on-socialism-in/645665/ |title='Issue too academic', so PIL on socialism in statute withdrawn |newspaper=[[The Indian Express]] |date=2010-07-13 |access-date=2018-12-07}}</ref>

==Proposal and enactment==
The bill of Constitution (Forty-third Amendment) Act, 1977 was introduced in the [[Lok Sabha]] on 16{{Nbsp}}December 1977 as the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Bill, 1977. It was introduced by [[Shanti Bhushan]], [[Minister of Law and Justice|Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs]]. The bill sought to amend Articles 145, 228 and 366, and omit Articles 31D, 32A, 131A, 144A, 226A and 228A of the Constitution.

The bill was debated by the Lok Sabha on 19 and 20 December, and was passed on 20{{Nbsp}}December, after adopting a formal amendment to replace the word "Forty-fourth" with "Forty-third" in Clause 1 of the Bill. Subsequently, Clauses 7 to 10 of the Bill were renumbered as 8 to 11 respectively. It was then passed by the [[Rajya Sabha]] on 23{{Nbsp}}December 1977. The bill, after ratification by the states, received assent from [[President of India|President]] [[Neelam Sanjiva Reddy]] on 13{{Nbsp}}April 1978. It was notified in ''[[The Gazette of India]]'' and came into force on the same date.<ref name = "Bhardwaj">{{cite book|title=Constitution Amendment in India|date=1 January 1995|publisher=Northern Book Centre|location=New Delhi|page=196|isbn=9788172110659|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4yp0yhzdKWIC|edition=Sixth|editor=R.C. Bhardwaj|access-date=21 December 2018}}</ref><ref name="Amendment">{{cite web|url=http://164.100.47.134/intranet/CAI/2.pdf |title=The Constitution Amendment Acts (First to Ninety-fourth) ''Objects and Reasons, Legislative History and Synopsis'' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203013122/http://164.100.47.134/intranet/CAI/2.pdf |archive-date=3 December 2013 |pages=180–183}}</ref>

===Ratification===
The Act was passed in accordance with the provisions of Article 368 of the Constitution, and was [[Ratification|ratified]] by more than half of the State Legislatures, as required under Clause (2) of the said article. State Legislatures that ratified the amendment are listed below:<ref name="Amendment"/>

{{div col}}
#[[Andhra Pradesh]]
#[[Assam]]
#[[Bihar]]
#[[Gujarat]]
#[[Haryana]]
#[[Himachal Pradesh]]
#[[Madhya Pradesh]]
#[[Maharashtra]]
#[[Manipur]]
#[[Meghalaya]]
#[[Nagaland]]
#[[Odisha|Orissa]]
#[[Punjab, India|Punjab]]
#[[Rajasthan]]
#[[Sikkim]]
#[[Tamil Nadu]]
#[[Tripura]]
#[[West Bengal]]
Did not ratify:
# [[Karnataka]]
# [[Jammu and Kashmir (state)|Jammu and Kashmir]]
# [[Kerala]]
#[[Uttar Pradesh]]
{{Div col end}}

==Constitutional changes==
The 43rd Amendment repealed six{{Nbsp}}articles{{Snd}}31D, 32A, 131A, 144A, 226A and 228A{{Snd}}that had been inserted into the Constitution by the 42nd{{Nbsp}}Amendment. Articles 145, 228 and 366 were amended to facilitate the omission of these six articles.

Article 31D had enabled Parliament to legislate on matters concerning "anti-national activities" and "anti-national associations". Article 32A prohibited the [[Supreme Court of India|Supreme Court]] from considering the constitutional validity of State laws in writ proceedings for the enforcement of Fundamental Rights. Article 226A placed a similar prohibition on [[List of high courts in India|High Courts]] from considering the constitutional validity of Central laws. Article 131A barred High Courts making judgements on the constitutional validity of Central legislation, giving exclusive jurisdiction for such laws to the Supreme Court.

Article 144A required that the Supreme Court could only declare a Central or State law as unconstitutional if the decision was made by a bench with at least 7 judges, and backed by a special majority of two-thirds of the bench. Article 228A required that a High Court could only declare a State law as unconstitutional if the decision was made by a bench with at least 5 judges, and backed by a special majority of two-thirds of the bench.<ref name = "Bhardwaj"/><ref name="Amendment"/>

==References==
<references />

[[Category:Amendments of the Constitution of India|43]]
[[Category:1977 in India]]
[[Category:1977 in law]]
[[Category:Desai administration]]

Forty-third Amendment of the Constitution of India - Revision history

>Monkbot at 23:46, 29 January 2021