Parts and Schedules of the Constitution: the Prelims map

The Constitution's Parts and Schedules are the map of the whole document, and in Prelims they are a goldmine of direct, factual questions. Twenty-five Parts tell you what the Constitution does, and twelve Schedules carry the details too bulky for the articles themselves. This article walks both lists end to end, with the memory hooks that make them stick.

How to read the Parts

Think of the Parts as the Constitution's table of contents in Roman numerals. The original document had 22 parts. Two were deleted by the 7th Amendment of 1956 after the States Reorganisation Act: Part VII, which dealt with Part B states, and the original Part IX, which dealt with Part D territories. Five were added later: Part IVA (Fundamental Duties, 1976), Part IX (Panchayats, 1992), Part IXA (Municipalities, 1992), Part IXB (Co-operative Societies, 2011) and Part XIVA (Tribunals, 1976). That leaves 25 parts in force today.

The order is logical: the document opens with territory and people (Parts I and II), then the rights and goals of the Republic (Parts III, IV and IVA), then builds the Union and the states (Parts V and VI), then the machinery between and below them.

Parts I to IV: territory, people, rights and goals

Part I (Articles 1 to 4) describes the Union and its territory: India is a Union of States, Parliament can admit new states and reorganise existing ones by simple majority, and the famous line is that states have no right to secede. Part II (Articles 5 to 11) covers citizenship at the commencement of the Constitution and empowers Parliament to regulate it further, which it did through the Citizenship Act, 1955.

Part III (Articles 12 to 35) contains the Fundamental Rights, called the Magna Carta of India, enforceable by the Supreme Court under Article 32 and the High Courts under Article 226. Part IV (Articles 36 to 51) holds the Directive Principles of State Policy, borrowed from Ireland, non-justiciable but fundamental in governance. Part IVA (Article 51A) adds the eleven Fundamental Duties, ten inserted in 1976 and the eleventh in 2002. These three parts are the philosophical core of the Constitution and the subject of their own article in this series.

Parts V and VI: the Union and the states

Part V (Articles 52 to 151) is the longest part and describes the Union: the President and Vice-President, the Council of Ministers, Parliament, the Union judiciary, the Comptroller and Auditor-General, and the emergency provisions that follow later. Part VI (Articles 152 to 237) mirrors it for the states: the Governor, the state Council of Ministers, the state legislatures, the High Courts and the subordinate courts.

The mirroring is examinable: Articles 74 and 75 at the Centre correspond to Articles 163 and 164 in the states, and the President's pardoning power under Article 72 to the Governor's under Article 161.

The missing Parts VII and IX, and the special parts

Part VII once dealt with Part B states, a classification from the original Constitution. The 7th Amendment (1956) reorganised states on linguistic lines and deleted Part VII entirely, which is why the numbering jumps from Part VI to Part VIII. The same amendment deleted the original Part IX, which covered the Part D territories, so the Part IX of today, the panchayat part (Articles 243 to 243O), is a new 1992 insertion that merely reuses the freed number. Part VIII (Articles 239 to 242) covers the Union Territories, and Part X (Articles 244 and 244A) covers the Scheduled and Tribal Areas, the constitutional home of the Fifth and Sixth Schedules.

Part IX (Articles 243 to 243O) establishes the Panchayats and Part IXA (Articles 243P to 243ZG) the Municipalities, both added in 1992, and Part IXB (Articles 243ZH to 243ZT) the Co-operative Societies, added in 2011. Part XIVA (Articles 323A and 323B) provides for administrative and other tribunals, added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976. These late additions show the Constitution growing downward, toward local self-government, and sideways, toward specialised adjudication.

Parts XI to XXII: the machinery chapters

Part XI (Articles 245 to 263) governs relations between the Union and the states, legislative and administrative, and includes the famous Articles 256, 257 and 261. Part XII (Articles 264 to 300A) covers finance, property, contracts and suits, including the Finance Commission under Article 280 and the right to property as a mere legal right under Article 300A. Part XIII (Articles 301 to 307) guarantees freedom of trade, commerce and intercourse throughout India.

Part XIV (Articles 308 to 323) deals with services under the Union and the states, including the Public Service Commissions. Part XV (Articles 324 to 329A) creates the Election Commission. Part XVI (Articles 330 to 342A) holds special provisions for SCs, STs and backward classes. Part XVII (Articles 343 to 351) declares Hindi in Devanagari script the official language of the Union while protecting linguistic diversity. Part XVIII (Articles 352 to 360) contains the emergency provisions. Part XIX (Articles 361 to 367) is the miscellaneous drawer. Part XX has just one article, Article 368, the amendment procedure. Part XXI (Articles 369 to 392) holds temporary, transitional and special provisions, including the now-abrogated Article 370, and Part XXII (Articles 393 to 395) closes the book with the short title and commencement.

The twelve Schedules: details that would not fit in the articles

The Schedules carry lists, forms and allocations that would clutter the articles. There were 8 originally and there are 12 now, and every Prelims paper touches at least one of them. The First Schedule names the 28 states and 8 Union Territories and their territories. The Second lists emoluments of the President, Governors, judges and the CAG. The Third contains oaths and affirmations. The Fourth allocates Rajya Sabha seats. The Fifth governs Scheduled Areas and Tribes outside the northeast, while the Sixth provides autonomous district councils for tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

The Seventh Schedule divides legislative subjects into the Union List, State List and Concurrent List. The Eighth Schedule lists the 22 official languages, from the original 14 to today's 22: Sindhi came through the 21st Amendment (1967), Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali through the 71st (1992), and Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali through the 92nd (2003). The Ninth Schedule protects specified laws from judicial review. The Tenth Schedule contains the anti-defection law. The Eleventh Schedule lists 29 subjects for Panchayats. The Twelfth Schedule lists 18 subjects for Municipalities.

The four added Schedules and their amendments

The Ninth Schedule was added by the 1st Amendment in 1951 to protect land-reform laws from being struck down. The Tenth Schedule was added by the 52nd Amendment in 1985 to disqualify legislators who defect. The Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules were added by the 73rd and 74th Amendments in 1992 to list the subjects devolved to Panchayats and Municipalities. A common exam trap is to ask which amendment added which schedule; the years 1951, 1985 and 1992 are the anchors.

The Seventh and Ninth Schedules: federalism's map and review's shield

The Seventh Schedule is the working map of Indian federalism. The Union List has about a hundred subjects for Parliament alone: defence, foreign affairs, atomic energy, railways, banking, currency. The State List has about sixty for the states: police, public health, agriculture, land, liquor. The Concurrent List has about fifty for both, with Parliament prevailing in a conflict: education, forests, marriage, bankruptcy. Residuary subjects go to the Union under Article 248. The lists have been edited over time: education and forests moved from the State List to the Concurrent List through the 42nd Amendment in 1976, and the 101st Amendment in 2016 reworked the tax entries for GST.

The Ninth Schedule began as a narrow device: the 1st Amendment parked land-reform laws there and declared them immune from judicial review under Article 31B. Over the decades Parliament parked over 280 laws there, many unrelated to agrarian reform. In I.R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu (2007), a nine-judge bench held that laws inserted after 24 April 1973 remain open to judicial review if they violate the basic structure. The shield still works for older laws, but for anything added after 1973 it is transparent to a basic-structure challenge.

The Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules

The Tenth Schedule, the anti-defection law of 1985, disqualifies an MP or MLA who voluntarily gives up party membership or votes against the party whip, with the Presiding Officer deciding subject to judicial review after Kihoto Hollohan (1992). The Eleventh Schedule's 29 subjects define what Panchayats do under Article 243G; the Twelfth Schedule's 18 subjects do the same for Municipalities under Article 243W. The exam pattern is neat: the Eleventh belongs to the 73rd Amendment and the Twelfth to the 74th, both 1992.

Memory hooks for the whole map

• Parts: remember the sequence I (territory), II (citizenship), III (rights), IV (directives), V (Union), VI (states); VII is missing by design (deleted 1956), and the original IX went with it, so today's Part IX is the 1992 panchayat insertion reusing the number; IX/IXA/IXB are the three local-government additions; XVIII is emergency; XX is amendment; XXI is temporary (where Article 370 lived).
• Schedules 1 to 6: states, salaries, oaths, Rajya Sabha seats, Scheduled Areas, tribal areas of the northeast.
• Schedules 7 to 9: the three lists, the 22 languages, the judicial-review shield.
• Schedules 10 to 12: defection, panchayat subjects (29), municipal subjects (18).
• Added-schedule amendments: 1st (1951), 52nd (1985), 73rd and 74th (1992).
• Eighth Schedule language additions: 1967 (Sindhi), 1992 (Konkani, Manipuri, Nepali), 2003 (Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Santhali).
• Post-1973 Ninth Schedule laws are open to basic-structure review (I.R. Coelho, 2007).

Key Terms

• Fifth and Sixth Schedules: The Fifth and Sixth Schedules operationalise Article 244's special governance for tribal regions. The Fifth covers Scheduled Areas in ten states through gubernatorial regulation and Tribes Advisory Councils, while the Sixth creates Autonomous District Councils in four north-eastern states with powers over land, forests, and customary law. For UPSC they anchor answers on constitutional safeguards for Scheduled Tribes. The Constitution (125th Amendment) Bill seeks to strengthen Sixth Schedule councils financially and functionally.
• 73rd and 74th Amendments: The twin 1992 constitutional amendments that gave local government constitutional status. The 73rd added Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule for Panchayati Raj institutions (Articles 243 to 243O); the 74th added Part IXA and the Twelfth Schedule for urban local bodies (Articles 243P to 243ZG). For UPSC, they are the foundation of democratic decentralisation, reservations for SCs, STs and women, and the State Finance Commission. Mandatory panchayat elections every five years with one-third of seats reserved for women under Article 243D.
• Autonomous District Councils: Autonomous District Councils are tribal self-governing bodies under the Sixth Schedule (Article 244(2)) for the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram. They can legislate on land, forests (other than reserved forests), village administration, inheritance, and marriage, run their own courts for tribal disputes, and receive grants under Article 275(1). For UPSC, they embody asymmetric federalism and frequently clash with state governments over mining, land, and jurisdiction. The Bodoland Territorial Council in Assam exercises Sixth Schedule powers over the Bodoland Territorial Region, including land and forest management.
• Public Service Commissions: Public service commissions are constitutional bodies that recruit civil servants through merit-based competitive examinations: the Union Public Service Commission (Articles 315-323) for All-India and central services, and State Public Service Commissions for state services. They safeguard merit and insulate recruitment from politics. UPSC significance: GS-2, constitutional bodies. the UPSC, first created in 1926 under the Government of India Act, 1919
• States Reorganisation Act: A States Reorganisation Act is a law of Parliament, passed under Articles 3 and 4, that redraws the boundaries of states and union territories. It may create new states, merge or split existing ones, and alter names and areas with only a simple parliamentary majority and the President's recommendation. For UPSC, it is central to prelims questions on Article 3 and mains answers on federalism and state formation. The States Reorganisation Act, 1956, the first comprehensive linguistic reorganisation of states
• Citizenship Act, 1955: The Citizenship Act, 1955 is the law detailing how Indian citizenship is acquired and lost: by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation, and incorporation of territory, and how it can be renounced or terminated. Parliament has amended it repeatedly, in 1986, 2003, 2005, 2015, and most controversially in 2019. It operationalises the bare framework of Articles 5 to 11 of the Constitution. The 2003 amendment introduced the Overseas Citizen of India category.
• Amendment Act, 1951: The Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951 was the first change to the Constitution, responding to early judicial setbacks to land reform. It added Article 15(4) permitting special provisions for socially and educationally backward classes, widened the permissible restrictions on free speech in Article 19(2), and inserted Articles 31A and 31B with the Ninth Schedule to shield zamindari-abolition laws from judicial review. It opened the long Parliament versus judiciary tussle over the right to property. Example: the Bihar Land Reforms Act's protection under the Ninth Schedule illustrates the amendment's purpose.
• right to property: The right to property is the legal claim to own, use and dispose of property. Originally a fundamental right under Articles 19(1)(f) and 31 of the Indian Constitution, it was removed by the 44th Amendment Act of 1978 and now survives only as a constitutional right under Article 300A, which bars deprivation of property except by authority of law. It is core to GS-2 polity questions on fundamental rights and land acquisition. 44th Amendment Act, 1978
• Union of States: Union of States is the description of India in Article 1 of the Constitution: India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States. B. R. Ambedkar explained that the Indian federation is a Union because it was not created by an agreement among states and no state has a right to secede. For UPSC, the phrase is the classic mains distinction between the Indian Union and the American federation. Article 1
• Directive Principles: The Directive Principles of State Policy are the non-justiciable guidelines in Part IV (Articles 36 to 51) of the Indian Constitution that direct the state toward social and economic justice. Borrowed from the Irish Constitution, they are fundamental to governance but unenforceable in courts. For UPSC, the tension and harmony between them and Fundamental Rights is a recurring mains theme. In Minerva Mills v. Union of India (1980), the Supreme Court held that the Constitution balances Fundamental Rights with Directive Principles.
• emergency provisions: Emergency provisions are the Constitution's extraordinary powers in Articles 352 (national emergency), 356 (President's rule in states) and 360 (financial emergency). They centralise authority during crises but carry abuse potential, which is why the 44th Amendment tightened Article 352 after the 1975 Emergency. They matter for UPSC because the tension between national security and federal-democratic safeguards makes emergencies one of the most examined topics in polity, for both prelims and mains. the National Emergency proclaimed on 25 June 1975
• Election Commission: The Election Commission is the constitutional body under Article 324 that superintends, directs and controls elections to Parliament, state legislatures and the offices of President and Vice-President. It can function as a multi-member body and enjoys powers to ensure free and fair polls. For UPSC, its independence, powers and the model code of conduct are staple polity topics. T. N. Seshan's assertive tenure as Chief Election Commissioner (1990-96) strengthened the Commission's authority.

Practice questions

Names changed and land swapped: Article 3 in action

Article 3 lets Parliament change the name of any state by ordinary law, and every renaming below was carried out under it. Renaming is routine legislation; ceding territory is not.

Exchange or cession of territory to a foreign state is different: it needs a constitutional amendment under Article 368. The Berubari transfer to Pakistan went through the 9th Amendment (1960), and the India-Bangladesh enclave exchange through the 100th Amendment (2015). Settling a mere boundary dispute, by contrast, needs no amendment and can be done by executive action.

The Ninth Schedule's judicial cut-off: I.R. Coelho (2007)

Article 31B shields laws placed in the Ninth Schedule from challenge on fundamental-rights grounds. Parliament used this parking lot generously, and the question reached the Court in I.R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu (2007). The ruling drew a dated line: laws added to the Ninth Schedule after 24 April 1973, the date of the Kesavananda Bharati judgment, can be challenged if they violate fundamental rights or the Constitution's basic structure. Immunity is not absolute; the basic structure doctrine polices the Schedule's later entries.

For revision, pair this with Waman Rao (1981), which set the same cut-off for the basic structure's application to Ninth Schedule laws, and with Article 31A, which protects five categories of agrarian-reform and industry laws from Articles 14 and 19 challenges, and Article 31C, which after Minerva Mills (1980) protects only laws genuinely implementing Articles 39(b) and 39(c).