The procedure of Amending the Constitution

The Constitution of India is the basic as well as the supreme law of the land which is the amalgamation of different laws and their execution process. The Indian Constitution maintains all the principles and implements actions by its authority to manage peace and security. The Constitution of India is democratic as well as secular and sovereign. Although it can bring any change in any documents if required, to explain the procedures of amending the Indian Constitution, it is essential to inaugurate the constitution carefully. It is the Constitution’s responsibility to pay attention to the demand of changing the documents as well as make any change in the will respectively.

The procedure to amend the Indian Constitution

To explain the procedures of amending the Indian Constitution, the methods of India’s Constitution amendment is believed to be neither easy nor difficult. Hence, it is both rigid compared to the Constitution of the USA and flexible as compared to the British Parliament. In Part- XX, Article- 368 of the Constitution gives authority to the parliament for amending the Constitution with its procedure. Two types of methods are introduced for amendment are mentioned below:

Rigid Method

In order to explain this method, you can say that the amendment of the constitution cannot be done easily. The Bill can only be passed with the special process of legislation. In order to achieve that, the Bill passed by the parliament must be sent to the State Legislature in which ½ of its members signed it. Only then the amendment of the Indian Constitution can be done appropriately.

Flexible Method

On the other hand, a Flexible method means the procedure for amending the Indian Constitution can be done easily. The Bill can be passed in parliament with the ordinary process of legislation with half of the members of the State legislature and enacted in the various terms such as the selection of president and distribution of Powers and functions and to maintain good relations between State and State the Centre. 

Various ways to Amend the Indian Constitution

While explaining the process of amending the Indian Constitution, we can see that the Constitution includes a democratic parliament that can make any laws. To convert any bills into law, the parliament needs a majority to pass the bills to execute laws. The Constitution of India has distributed powers equally to the State and the Centre legislation to maintain relationships between them. There are three ways to amend the Indian Constitution, which are mentioned below:

Simple majority for Amendment under Article-368

Simple majority means the member of the house present as well as vote to amend the Constitution before the president’s permission. In the time of disagreement, there will be no joint sitting for the discussion. More than 50% of its member’s vote is required in various changing situations, such as changing the name of any state and recognising new states. Based on this Article- 368, the parliament can establish or dissolve the State’s Legislative Council and the salaries of the president as well as Vice-President. Moreover, the Judges from both the courts pass an ordinary bill and distribute powers as well as authority between the states.

Special Majority for Amending under Article 368

Special majority means 2/3rd majority of both houses present as well as vote to modify the Constitution. Any bills, including ministers as well as private bills, must be introduced in the Constitution. The bills are passed without affecting the structure of federalism of the Constitution in various provisions such as in case of impeachment of any judges of both the courts and Chief Election Commissioner. It’s main motto is to prevent easy amendment of Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy.

The Approval of State Legislature by special majority

The amendment of the Constitutional powers and procedure relies on the hands of the House of Parliament. The House of Parliament must pass the Bill by a majority of 2/3rd of its members and by half of the total memberships. It is also mandatory to have the approval from the State Legislature with one-half of its members by simple majority. The Circumstances in which the State Legislature amend the Constitution is through using a Rigid Method such as giving consent in the election for president and giving provision to both the Courts including Supreme Court and High Court and introducing any State in the parliament. 

The Constitution empowered the parliament to amend the Constitution of India

It has been observed that without the power of the parliament, an amendment of the Constitutional powers and procedure cannot be undertaken. The parliament implemented its power to make a change by adding, enacting and forming any change to amend the Constitution by following Article 368. 

Conclusion

In short, we observed that the parliament implements the amendment procedure of India’s Constitution in accordance with Article 368 of Part XX of the Constitution. In order to explain the procedures of amending the Indian Constitution, we can say that an amendment can only be done by introducing bills in both the House of the Parliaments and must be signed by both the houses with 2/3rd of its majority as well as half of the members of the other house and also the majority of the State legislature with one-half of its members. The Constitution only supports the parliament for the  amendment under the Indian Constitution in Articles 54 and Article 55 and Article 162 and Article 241 and can make a change in any list of the seventh Schedule. The consent of the president is required when the approved Bill converts to laws.