Ninth Schedule of Constitution

• The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister has wrote to the Prime Minister requesting the inclusion of two amendment bills, which would increase the amount of reservation in the Constitution's Ninth Schedule for employment and educational institutions.

About bills

• The two amendment proposals in Chhattisgarh were unanimously accepted by the State Assembly, establishing a 76% quota for people who belong to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes.
• The bills are still awaiting the governor's approval.
• There is a list of Central and State laws that cannot be challenged in court in the Constitution's Ninth Schedule. The two amendment Bills would be shielded from legal challenges if they were included in the Ninth Schedule.
• According to the Chhattisgarh government, it is essential for granting justice to the State's underprivileged and backward classes to include the modified clauses in the Ninth Schedule.
• A previous government ruling authorising a 58% quota had been overturned by the Chhattisgarh High Court, which ruled that such a reservation cannot exceed 50% and was therefore illegal.

About 9 schedule

• There is a list of federal and state legislation that cannot be legally challenged in court under the Ninth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. 284 of these laws are now exempt from judicial review. The first constitutional amendment Act of 1951 added the Ninth Schedule to the Constitution.

Intentions behind the Ninth Schedule

• after independence, to put into effect a variety of land reforms.
• The Zamindari system must be abolished in order to end feudalism and make way for socialism.
• to repeal some restrictions that hinder reform and might infringe fundamental rights.
• to protect the interests of society's most marginalised people by bringing them up to speed.
• In order to carry out the constitutional requirement of establishing an equitable society, it is necessary to lessen the concentration of land in a small number of hands and share the land among farmers.

Challenges to the 9th Schedule of the Indian Constitution

• The Ninth Schedule gives the statute a "safe harbour" from judicial review, although the defence is not complete.
• The Supreme Court ruled in the I.R. Coelho case (2007) that laws included on the Ninth Schedule may be challenged on the grounds that they violate the Constitution's fundamental principles.
• If laws put under the Ninth Schedule after April 24, 1973 infringed Fundamental Rights protected by Articles 14, 19, and 21, they may be challenged in court.

Various cases

• In Keshavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973), the Supreme Court upheld the Golaknath ruling and introduced the idea of the "Basic Structure of the Indian Constitution," stating that "all provisions of the constitution may be amended, but amendments which will abrogate or remove the essence or basic structure of the constitution, which included Fundamental Rights, are fit to be struck down by the court."
• Union of India v. Waman Rao, 1981: The Supreme Court ruled in this significant decision that "those constitutional amendments made before 24 April 1973 [the date Keshavananda Bharati was delivered] are valid and constitutional, but those made after the stated date are open to being challenged on the basis of constitutionality.
• State of Tamil Nadu v. I R Coelho, 2007: It was decided that if a law entered into force after April 24, 1973, it must pass test under Articles 14, 19, and 21.
• In addition, the court reaffirmed its earlier decisions and stated that any act that does not adhere to the fundamental principles of the constitution is subject to challenge and judicial review.
• Additionally, it was decided that once the constitutionality of a statute listed in the ninth schedule has been upheld, it cannot be contested in the future.