The Ninth Schedule was introduced in the Constitution of India during the prime ministership of
[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2019 Prelims]
(a) Jawaharlal Nehru
(b) Lal Bahadur Shastri
(c) Indira Gandhi
(d) Morarji Desai
A: Option a
- The Ninth Schedule contains a list of central and state laws which cannot be challenged in courts and was added by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951.
- It was created by the new Article 31B, which along with Article 31A was brought in by the government to protect laws related to agrarian reform and for abolishing the Zamindari system.
- While Article 31Aextended protection to ‘classes’ of laws, Article 31B shielded specific laws or enactments.
- While most of the laws protected under the Scheduleconcern agriculture/land issues, the list includes other subjects
- It was inserted duringthe tenure of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
- The first amendment added 13 lawsto the Ninth Schedule.
- Subsequent amendments in various years have taken the number of protected laws to 284 currently.
- Although Article 31B excludes judicial review, the apex court has said in the past that even laws under the Ninth Schedule would be open to scrutiny if they violated fundamental rights or the basic structure of the Constitution.
