Originally, the right to property was one of the seven fundamental rights and provided that no person shall be deprived of his property except by authority of law.
However, being one the most controversial rights, the 44th Amendment Act, 1978 abolished the right to property as a Fundamental Right and made it a legal right (constitutional right) under Article 300A in Part XII of the Constitution.
Article 31 led to a number of Constitutional amendments; 1st, 4th, 7th, 25th, 39th, 40th and 42nd Amendments.
The First Amendment Act, 1951 inserted Articles 31A and 31B to the Constitution.
Article 31C was inserted in the Constitution by 25th Amendment Act, 1971.
Article 31A: It saves five categories of laws from being challenged and invalidated on the ground of contravention of the fundamental rights conferred by Article 14 and Article 19.
It includes:
Acquisition of estates and related rights by the State;
Taking over the management of properties by the State;
Amalgamation of corporations;
Extinguishment or modification of rights of directors or shareholders of corporations
Extinguishment or modification of mining leases.
It also provides the guaranteed right to compensation in case of acquisition or requisition of the private property by the state.
Article 31B: It protects the acts and regulations included in the 9th Schedule from being challenged and invalidated on the ground of contravention of any of the fundamental rights.
The scope of Article 31B is wider than Article 31A as it immunises any law included in the Ninth Schedule from the Fundamental Rights (unlike article 31A that protects only five categories).
However, the Supreme Court in its judgement in the I.R. Coelho case (2007) ruled that even laws under the Ninth Schedule would be open to scrutiny if they violated Fundamental Rights or the basic structure of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court first propounded the doctrine of ‘basic structure’ of the constitution in the Kesavananda Bharati on April 24, 1973.
Article 31C: It contained two provisions:
It says that no law that seeks to implement socialistic directive principles specified in Articles 39 (b) and (c), shall be declared void on the grounds of contravention of the fundamental rights conferred by Article 14 or Article 19.
Moreover, no law containing a declaration that it is for giving effect to such policy shall be questioned in any court on the ground that it does not give effect to such a policy.
