APPENDIX
THE CONSTITUTION (FIRST AMENDMENT)
ACT, 1951
An Act to Amend the Constitution of India
[18th June, 1951.]
BE it enacted by Parliament as follows:—
Short title.
1. This Act may be called the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951.
Amendment of
article 15.
2. To Article 15 of the Constitution, the following clause shall be added:— (4) Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes."
Amendment of
article 19 and
validation of cer-
tain laws.
3. (1) In Article 19 of the Constitution,–
- (a) for clause (2), the following clause shall be substituted and the said clause shall be deemed always to have been enacted in the following form, namely:—
“(2) Nothing in sub-clause (a) of clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.”
- (b) in clause (6), for the words beginning with the words "nothing in the said sub-clause" and ending with the words "occupation, trade or business", the following shall be substituted, namely:—
- "nothing in the said sub-clause shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it relates to, or prevent the State from making any law relating to,—
- (i) the professional or technical qualifications necessary for practising any profession or carrying on any occupation, trade or business, or
- (ii) the carrying on by the State, or by a corporation owned or controlled by the State, of any trade, business, industry or service, whether to the exclusion, complete or partial, of citizens or otherwise."
(2) No law in force in the territory of India immediately before the commencement of the Constitution which is consistent with the provisions of article 19 of the Constitution as amended by sub-section (1) of this section shall be deemed to be void, or ever to have become void, on the ground only that, being a law which takes away or abridges the right conferred by sub-clause (a) of clause (I) of the said article, its operation was not saved by clause (2) of that article as originally enacted.
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