The History Behind Article 31A

“Article 31A” of the Constitution of India was added by the Fourth Amendment Act, 1955. The aim was to provide the protection of laws related to the acquisition of estates and the payment of compensation for such corresponding acquisitions. The history behind Article 31A was had a direct relation to the Zamindari Abolition Act of 1950. This act was enacted by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to abolish the zamindari system and acquire the estates of the zamindars.

Now, this Zamindari Abolition Act was challenged in the courts on the grounds that this act had violated the fundamental rights to property guaranteed by the Constitution of India. The Supreme Court of India, in its judgment in the case of State of Bihar vs Kameshwar Singh, held that the rights to property was a fundamental right and so that the state could not acquire any property without paying adequate compensation to the owner. This judgmental order of Supreme Court of India posed a challenge to the government, which was keen to implement land reforms and redistribute land to the landless peasants. Now to bypass this order the government of India understood that there was a immediate need of amending an act to the Constitution for the acquisition of property without  paying the running market value compensations to the land owners.

So, the India Government passed the Fourth Amendment Act in 1955 for addressing this challenge. “Article 31A” was added to the Constitution of India which was explicitly provided for the protection of laws related to the acquisition of estates and the payment of compensation for such corresponding acquisitions. By adding this article the government is now able to acquire properties at a lower rate of compensation than the running market value and also to provide for the payment of compensation in the forms of bonds or annuities.

In the year of 1955, an amendment was made to Indian constitution to modify several provisions of the constitution. Basically in the original text of proposal there were a presence of some inconsistencies and ambiguities which were being eliminated by this Fourth Amendment Act, 1955. So, this amendment act introduced some various number of proposals to modify some of the provisions of the Constitution of India. So this was a significant amendment to the Indian Constitution that was passed by the Indian Parliament to address certain challenges faced by the government of India and corresponding State governments in implementing land reformations and acquiring estates of the zamindars.

This amendment added several provisions to the Constitution of India, including “Article 31A” and “Article 31B”, which were provided for the protection of laws related to the acquisition of estates and the payment of compensation for such acquisitions. It also weakened the protection of property rights in India and increased the role and power of the executives in the appointment process of judges and other judicial officials, which has been subject to various criticisms. Despite these criticisms, the Fourth Amendment Act had a significant impact on the implementation of land reformation policies and the redistribution of land to the landless peasants and its legacy continues to be debated in India today also.