Important Provisions of the 14th Amendment Act, 1962
- Amendment to Article 81- The maximum number of Lok Sabha seats available for legislators from Union territories must be increased from twenty to twenty-five members, as stated in Article 81’s clause (1) of the Indian Constitution.
- As of August 16, 1962, the first schedule of the Indian Constitution was modified to include the “Pondicherry” areas as the ninth Indian Union Territory.
- Article 239A: Article 239A has been added after Article 239.
- On August 16, 1962, Pondicherry, Mahé, Yanam, and Karaikal were French possessions that became part of the Indian Union.
- This came after the Treaty of Cession was approved by both India and France. The Treaty of Cession gave legal force to the colonies’ incorporation into the Indian Union.
- According to section 4 of the amendment, any law passed for this purpose would not be considered to modify Article 368 of the Constitution.
- Clause (1) of Article 240 was altered to include Pondicherry as a Union territory, giving the President the power to “establish regulations for the peace, progress, and good governance” of the territory.
- With effect from the date fixed for the first sitting of any legislature created under the new article 239A to serve the union territories of Goa, Daman, and Diu, or Pondicherry, the President, however, shall no longer publish rules or take other acts.
- Through an alteration to the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution, the Union Territory of Pondicherry got a seat in the Rajya Sabha.
Fourteenth Amendment Act, 1962 in Indian Constitution
The Constitution of India’s Fourteenth Amendment, officially known as the Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Act, 1962, established Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, Daman and Diu, and Puducherry as the country’s ninth union territory and granted Parliament the authority to enact laws establishing legislatures and councils of ministers for each. On August 30, the Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Bill, 1962 was first heard in the Lok Sabha. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the minister of home affairs at the time, suggested making this adjustment. Generally speaking, the proposed Fourteenth Amendment Act would establish legislative bodies and ministerial councils in the union territories of Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Goa, Pondicherry, Daman, and Diu on the model of the program that was in place in some of the Part C States before the reorganization of the States. The Bill intends to create a new article 239A that generally follows the wording of article 240 as it existed before the reorganization of the States to grant Parliament the necessary legislative authority to pass legislation for this purpose.