Supreme Court strikes down 97th Constitutional Amendment

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In news- Recently, the Supreme Court has struck down certain provisions of the Constitution (97th Amendment) Act, 2011.

The Supreme Court’s verdict-

• The Court has struck down parts of a Constitutional Amendment which shrank the exclusive authority of States over its co-operative societies.
• It has upheld a 2013 judgment of the Gujarat High Court which struck down the provisions of the Constitution (97th Amendment) Act 2011.
• The three 3-judge bench unanimously held that the 97th Constitutional Amendment required ratification by at least one-half of the state legislatures as per Article 368(2) of the Constitution, since it dealt with an entry which was an exclusive state subject (co-operative societies). 
• Since such ratification was not done in the case of the 97th Constitutional amendment, it was liable to be struck down.
• The court pointed out how Article 243ZI makes it clear that a State may only make law on the incorporation, regulation and winding up of a society subject to the provisions of Part IXB of the 97th Constitutional Amendment.
• The majority of the bench upheld those provisions of Part IX B which deal with multi-state co-operative societies by applying the doctrine of severability.
• It is declared that Part IXB of the Constitution is operative only insofar as it concerns multi-State cooperative societies both within the various States and in the Union Territories.

   As per Article 368(2), ratification of one-half of state legislatures is required for an amendment which makes changes to an entry in the state list. Since co-operative societies was a state subject as per Entry 32 in List II of the Seventh Schedule, the amendment introducing Part IX B required ratification as per Article 368(2).

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