Land Rights and Displacement — Legal Reforms

Entry	Year	Description	Impact
First Amendment Act	1951	Introduced Article 31A and 31B, and the Ninth Schedule, to protect land reform laws from judicial review on grounds of violating fundamental rights. This was crucial for implementing agrarian reforms post-independence.	Shielded land reform legislation from challenges under Articles 14, 19, and 31, facilitating the abolition of zamindari and redistribution of land, albeit with significant implications for property rights.
Fourth Amendment Act	1955	Further restricted the scope of judicial review over compensation for acquired property, stating that the adequacy of compensation could not be questioned in court. This strengthened the state's hand in land acquisition.	Reduced the power of the judiciary to scrutinize compensation amounts, leading to concerns about fair compensation for landowners and contributing to the demand for a more just land acquisition law.
Seventeenth Amendment Act	1964	Expanded the definition of 'estate' in Article 31A and added 44 more state enactments to the Ninth Schedule, further insulating land reform laws from judicial challenge.	Continued the trend of prioritizing land reforms over individual property rights, ensuring that a wider range of state laws related to land could not be challenged in courts.
Twenty-Fifth Amendment Act	1971	Replaced 'compensation' with 'amount' in Article 31, implying that the amount paid for acquired property need not be market value, and inserted Article 31C, giving primacy to Directive Principles over fundamental rights in certain cases.	Significantly diluted the right to property and the concept of fair compensation, leading to judicial challenges and ultimately the Basic Structure Doctrine in Kesavananda Bharati case.
Forty-Fourth Amendment Act	1978	Repealed Article 19(1)(f) and Article 31, removing the right to property from the list of Fundamental Rights. It inserted Article 300A, making it a constitutional right that 'no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law'.	Transformed the right to property, making it a legal right enforceable by ordinary law rather than a fundamental right. This aimed to remove obstacles to socio-economic reforms but retained a constitutional safeguard against arbitrary executive action.