Constitution of India Search

About the Constitution of India Search

Look up any provision of the Constitution of India — the Preamble, every article from 1 to 395 including the lettered ones (21A, 243ZH, 371J), the 25 Parts and the 12 Schedules. Type “21”, “Article 370”, “Part III”, “Tenth Schedule” or “List II entry 5” to open it directly, or words such as “freedom of speech”, “money bill” or “basic structure” to search titles, summaries and the full text.

Each article shows the official text of the Legislative Department’s edition with its numbered amendment notes — which Constitution (Amendment) Act inserted, substituted or omitted the words — and, kept clearly apart, a plain-language summary written for this page, which also flags provisions the Supreme Court has struck down, such as the National Judicial Appointments Commission. Copy an article, download it as text or print it. Everything runs in your browser.

Common uses

• Checking the exact words of an article before citing it in a petition, notice, judgment, essay or exam answer.
• Finding which amendment changed a provision, and what it replaced.
• Revising for UPSC, judiciary, CLAT or university exams with the article and a plain summary side by side.
• Finding which list of the Seventh Schedule a subject falls in before deciding whether Parliament or a State can legislate.
• Reading the Preamble, the Fundamental Rights or the Fundamental Duties for a class, a speech or a debate.

Official text, amendment notes and summaries

• Official text — as printed in the Legislative Department’s edition of the Constitution, which incorporates the amendments up to the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023. Square brackets and asterisks are the edition’s own: brackets mark words inserted or substituted by an amendment, and * * * marks words omitted.
• Amendment notes — the edition’s footnotes, numbered for each article: “Ins.” (inserted), “Subs.” (substituted), “Omitted”, with the amending Act and its section. The dates of effect printed in some footnotes are left out here; the Act and section stay.
• Plain-language summary — written for this page to give the gist and, where it matters, how the Supreme Court has read the provision. It is not the text of the Constitution and not legal advice.

Text that is printed but does not apply

The official edition prints some amended words that courts have struck down, with a footnote saying so. The summaries point these out:

• National Judicial Appointments Commission (articles 124A–124C and the words added to 124, 127, 128, 217, 222, 224, 224A and 231): the Ninety-ninth Amendment was struck down, and judges are appointed through the collegium of senior judges under the earlier text.
• Article 31C: its extension to all the Directive Principles (Minerva Mills) and the words barring courts from checking whether a law serves those principles (Kesavananda Bharati).
• Article 368(4) and (5), which tried to put amendments beyond judicial review (Minerva Mills).
• Part IXB (co-operative societies) applies only to multi-State co-operative societies (Union of India v. Rajendra N. Shah).
• Article 370: all its clauses ceased to operate under presidential orders C.O. 272 and C.O. 273 except the one applying the whole Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir; the State is now two Union territories.

Reading the Seventh Schedule

Article 246 divides law-making between Parliament and the State Legislatures through the three lists of the Seventh Schedule: List I — Union List (Parliament only), List II — State List (State Legislatures only) and List III — Concurrent List (both, with Parliament’s law prevailing in a conflict under article 254). Matters on no list belong to Parliament (article 248 and Union List entry 97). Type “List II entry 6” or “State List 6” to jump to an entry; entries marked * * * were omitted, often by moving the subject to another list (education and forests moved to the Concurrent List by the Forty-second Amendment).

Sources

• The Constitution of India — Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice: the English edition reproduced here and the diglot (Hindi–English) edition used to check it and to fill the few footnotes missing from the English file’s text layer.
• The text of a Constitution and of Acts of Parliament may be reproduced: section 52(1)(q) of the Copyright Act, 1957 allows the reproduction or publication of any Act of a Legislature.

Limitations

• A reference aid, not legal advice. The official text governs over the summaries, and later amendments or judgments may change the position; check the Legislative Department’s current edition for formal use.
• English text only. The authoritative Hindi text (article 394A) and the Appendices of the official edition (presidential orders on Jammu and Kashmir and the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Orders) are not included.
• The summaries mention only the leading Supreme Court decisions; they are not a commentary.

Privacy

Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.