Saving of Certain Laws — Article 31, 33, 34, 35

A soldier cannot form a trade union. A police constable cannot hold a public meeting in uniform to air a grievance. A zamindar’s land was taken by the State in the 1950s and the courts could not undo it. Fundamental rights are supposed to beat any law, so how do these laws survive? The answer is a group of Articles at the tail of Part III that save certain laws from attack, and the Ninth Schedule that has sat at the centre of a fifty-year argument.

In two minutes

After the guarantees of Part III, the Constitution saves certain laws from the charge that they violate fundamental rights: Art. 31A, 31B and 31C protect agrarian, scheduled and directive-principle laws, Art. 33 lets Parliament restrict rights of armed and similar forces, Art. 34 protects acts done under martial law, and Art. 35 fixes who makes laws under these heads.

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