Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of India

The Constitution (Thirty-eighth Amendment) Act, 1975
Parliament of India
  • An Act further to amend the Constitution of India.
Citation38th Amendment
Territorial extentIndia
Passed byLok Sabha
Passed23 July 1975
Passed byRajya Sabha
Passed24 July 1975
Assented to1 August 1975
Commenced1 August 1975
Legislative history
First chamber: Lok Sabha
Bill titleThe Constitution (Thirty-ninth Amendment) Bill, 1975
Bill citationBill No. 54 of 1975
Introduced byH.R. Gokhale
First reading22 July 1975

The Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as The Constitution (Thirty-eighth Amendment) Act, 1975, made the declaration of "The Emergency" final and conclusive. In particular it codified and enlarged the State's power to remove fundamental rights from its citizens during states of emergency.[1]

Introduced on 22 July 1975, the bill received presidential assent in ten days. The Amendment barred judicial review of proclamations of emergency whether made to meet external, internal, or financial threats (Article 360 for the latter). It also barred judicial review of overlapping emergency proclamations, or ordinances promulgated by the President or by governors, and of laws enacted during emergencies that contravened Fundamental Rights.[2]

  1. ^ Henderson, Michael (October 1979). "Setting India's Democratic House in Order: Constitutional Amendments" (PDF). Asian Survey. 19 (10). University of California Press: 946–956. doi:10.2307/2643847. JSTOR 2643847. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  2. ^ Austin, Granville (1999). Working a Democratic Constitution - A History of the Indian Experience. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 319. ISBN 019565610-5.