India 2018

General Information 711
under the provisions of Article 239A and of the proposed Legislative Assembly of the National
Capital Territory of Delhi under Article 239AA to be included in the electoral college.
71. The Constitution (Seventy-first Amendment) Act, 1992—There have been demands for inclusion
of certain languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. This Act amends the Eighth Schedule
to the Constitution to include Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali languages in the Eighth Schedule to
the Constitution.
72. The Constitution (Seventy-second Amendment) Act, 1992—For restoring peace and harmony in
the areas of the State of Tripura where disturbed conditions prevailed, a Memorandum of Settlement
was signed by the Government of India with Tripura National Volunteers on 12 August 1988.
In order to implement the said Memorandum, Article 332 of the Constitution has been
amended by the Constitution (Seventy-second Amendment) Act, 1992 for making a temporary
provision for the determination of the number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in the
State Assembly of Tripura, until the re-adjustment of seats is made on the basis of the first Census
after the year 2000 under Article 170 of the Constitution.
73. The Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1993—Article 40 of the Constitution which
enshrines one of the Directive Principles of State Policy lays down that the State shall take steps to
organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary
to enable them to function as units of self-government.
In the light of the above, a new Part IX relating to the Panchayats has been inserted in the
Constitution to provide for among other things, Gram Sabha in a village or group of villages;
constitution of Panchayats at village and other level or levels; direct elections to all seats in Panchayats
at the village and intermediate level, if any and to the offices of Chairpersons of Panchayats at
such levels; reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to
their population for membership of Panchayats and office of Chairpersons in Panchayats at each
level; reservation of not less than one-third of the seats for women; fixing tenure of five years for
Panchayats and holding elections within a period of six months in the event of supersession of
any Panchayat.
74. The Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1993—In many states local bodies have
become weak and ineffective on account of a variety of reasons, including the failure to hold
regular elections, prolonged supersession and inadequate devolutions of powers and functions.
As a result, Urban Local Bodies are not able to perform effectively as vibrant democratic units of
self-government.
Having regard to these inadequacies a new part IX-A relating to the Municipalities has
been incorporated in the Constitution to provide for among other things, constitution of three
types of Municipalities, i.e., Nagar Panchayats for areas in transition from a rural area to urban
area, Municipal Councils for smaller urban areas and Municipal Corporations for larger urban
areas.
75. The Constitution (Seventy-fifth Amendment) Act, 1994—The operation of the Rent Control
Legislations, as are today in various states, suffers from major weaknesses and has led to various
unintended consequences. Some of the deleterious legal consequences include mounting and
mending litigation, inability of the courts to provide timely justice, evolution of practices and
systems to bypass the operations of rent legislations and steady shrinkage of rental housing market.
The Supreme Court taking note of the precarious state of rent litigation in the country in
case of Prabhakaran Nair and others vs. State of Tamilnadu (Civil Writ Petition 506 of 1986) and
other writs observed that the Supreme Court and the High Courts should be relieved of the heavy
burden of rent litigation. Tiers of appeals should be curtailed. Laws should be simple, rational and
clear, litigations must come to end quickly.
Therefore, this Act amends Article 323B in Part XIVA of the Constitution so as to give timely
relief to the rent litigants by providing for setting up of state-level Rent Tribunals in order to
reduce the tiers of appeals and to exclude the jurisdiction of all courts, except that of the Supreme
Court, under Article 136 of the Constitution.