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One of the salient features of the Indian constitution is its written and descriptive nature. It is the lengthiest living document and longer than any other constitution in the world. It has a preamble and twenty five parts which were originally twenty two and in these parts it further contains approximately 465 articles and twelve schedules to provide more information regarding certain articles. Schedules are tables or lists that supplement some of the articles but hold little to no meaning themselves on their own. Further schedules can be added by constitutional amendment acts which has been done four times since the inception of the Indian constitution.
Schedules in the original constitution
Originally when the constitution came into being on the 26th day of January of the year 1950 which we celebrate as republic day, the constitution had eight articles. They are:
Schedule 1
The first article of the Indian constitution itself specifies schedule 1 as the list containing the names of all the states under the union of states and also about their territorial jurisdiction.
Schedule 2
The various constitutional bodies are The President of India( Article 59), the vice president of India(Article 65), the governors of states(Article 75), the speaker and deputy speaker of Lok Sabha(Article 97), the chairman and deputy chairman of Rajya sabha(Article 125), the speaker and deputy speaker of the legislative assemblies of the states(Article 148), the chairman and deputy chairman of the legislative councils in the states(Article 158), the judges of the supreme court(Article 164) and also of high courts(Article 186), the comptroller and Auditor General of India(Article 221). The second schedule contains the provisions related to all these constitutional bodies/posts about their respective emoluments, privileges, allowances and other provisions.
Schedule 3
The oaths for the union ministers, candidates for election to the presidency, members of the parliament, judges of supreme court and judges of high courts, the comptroller and auditor general of India, the state ministers, the candidates for election to the state legislature and the members of the state legislature are provided in the schedule 3 of Indian constitution.
Schedule 4
The states and their territories under the union of states of India are mentioned in schedule 1 but the share of seats of each state in the Rajya Sabha is given in the fourth schedule.
Schedule 5 and 6
India has a diverse tribal population and the responsibility to protect and enrich the tribal culture. The administration of the controlled scheduled areas and scheduled tribes have different provisions relating to which schedule the state falls into.
Schedule 5 states contain the rest of the states apart from the ones mentioned in the next schedule.
Schedule 6 contains four states namely: Meghalaya, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura.
Schedule 7
India is a federation with a strong centre. The subjects are divided among the central and state governments. These subjects are provided in three lists: Union List, State list and Concurrent list. These lists are also called List 1, List 2 and List 3. The Union list contains 100 subjects on which the centre is empowered to make laws, the state list contains 61 subjects on which the states are empowered to make laws and the concurrent list contains 52 subjects on which both centre and states can make laws but in the case of a clash, the law made by the centre holds.
These three lists are contained in the seventh schedule of the constitution.
Schedule 8
The diversity of India extends to the languages spoken in this country. Schedule eight consists of a list of 22 languages that are recognized by the constitution. Originally schedule 8 consisted of 14 languages and the rest were added by subsequent acts. The languages are: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri or Dongri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
Further additions of Schedules by constitutional amendments
The constitution of India is considered a living document meaning it can be changed and updated to the needs of the current times and situations. The original constitution had eight schedules but with further constitutional amendments, four more were added since then. These are:
Schedule 9
The ninth schedule was added with the first Constitutional amendment act of 1951. This ninth schedule contains the list of laws and regulations made by the state legislatures in regards to abolishing the Zamindari system in India and other land reforms as well. Originally the ninth schedule contained thirteen laws but presently it has 282.
Schedule 10
The 52nd constitutional amendment act which was passed in 1985 came to be known as the Anti-defection law. Under this law, members of parliament and state legislatures can be disqualified from their positions on certain grounds. The provisions related to these disqualifications are held under schedule 10 of the Indian constitution.
Schedule 11
The 73rd amendment of 1992 gave powers to panchayats and empowered these local governing bodies with certain subjects. There are a total of 29 areas on which panchayats can make laws and govern and these subjects are given in the eleventh schedule.
Schedule 12
A sister to the 73rd amendment came the 74th Amendment act of 1992 which empowered the Municipalities with 18 subjects to make laws over in the urban areas. These eighteen subjects are contained in the last and schedule 12th of the Indian constitution.
Conclusion
Schedules are brief lists but supplement the articles with important information. These act as efficient tools to oversee better governance and also to highlight matters of higher importance to the Indian political society. Originally eight in number in 1950 and with the addition of four schedules over time since 1950, the schedules are now 12 in number.
