Polity

Article 368

Also: amending power, constituent power of Parliament

Definition

The article in Part XX that gives Parliament the constituent power to amend the Constitution and sets out the procedure, including when state ratification is required; its reach is limited by the basic structure doctrine.

Deep-dive lesson: Amendment of the Constitution (Article 368) and Landmark Amendments. This page is a quick reference that connects the term across subjects; read the lesson for the full treatment.

Summary card: Article 368. Title changed by the 24th Amendment, 1971. Clauses (4) and (5) struck down in Minerva Mills, 1980. Proviso lists provisions needing ratification by half the states. Clause (3): Article 13 does not apply to amendments — Summary card © UPSCPrep.in

Background and evolution

This page looks at the text of Article 368 and the legal struggle over its meaning; for the history and list of individual amendments, see the separate entry on constitutional amendments.

As originally enacted, Article 368 was titled "Procedure for amendment of the Constitution" and did not say in so many words where the power to amend came from. That silence became the centre of a long dispute. In Golaknath (1967), a majority of eleven judges held that the article only laid down procedure, that the power itself came from Parliament's general law-making power, and that an amendment was therefore "law" under Article 13 and could not abridge Fundamental Rights.

Parliament replied with the 24th Amendment (1971). It renamed the article "Power of Parliament to amend the Constitution and procedure therefor", declared in clause (1) that Parliament acts "in exercise of its constituent power", and added clause (3) stating that Article 13 does not apply to amendments. In Kesavananda Bharati (1973), the Supreme Court upheld the 24th Amendment but, by a seven-to-six majority, held that the word "amend" itself carries a limit: the power cannot be used to destroy the basic structure.

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Last reviewed: 23 October 2026 · Original UPSCPrep.in content.