Swaran Singh Committee

Background and evolution

In early 1976, with the Emergency in force and the opposition largely in jail, the Congress party set up a committee under Sardar Swaran Singh, a senior leader who had served as Minister of External Affairs and Defence, to study what changes were needed in the Constitution "in the light of experience". The committee's report, submitted within months, formed the basis of the 42nd Amendment, the most sweeping amendment in India's history.

Because the committee was a party body working during the Emergency, its recommendations have been viewed with suspicion. Some proposals, such as adding Fundamental Duties, survived and are widely accepted today; others, such as curbing judicial review, were reversed by the 43rd and 44th Amendments after 1977 or struck down by the Supreme Court.

Key features and provisions

• Fundamental Duties: recommended a new chapter of duties for citizens; it proposed eight, and the government added ten in Article 51A.
• Directive Principles: suggested giving them primacy over Fundamental Rights, which the 42nd Amendment did by extending Article 31C; Minerva Mills struck this down in 1980.
• Judicial review: proposed limits on courts' powers to strike down laws, including special majorities of judges for invalidating laws, and restrictions on High Courts' writ jurisdiction.
• Tribunals: suggested administrative and other tribunals to reduce court backlogs, leading to Articles 323A and 323B.
• Preamble: the 42nd Amendment added "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" alongside these changes.
• Parliament's powers: proposed that constitutional amendments should not be open to challenge in court.