of a berth in the council of ministers was used to cause a split in opposition parties
and to secure the support of splintered groups.
82
The 92 nd Amendment to the Constitution included four more languages (Bodo,
Dogri, Mathilli and Santhali) in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution, thus
taking the number of total official languages to twenty-two. It should be noted here
that although Hindi has been declared the official language of the central govern-
ment and the government is directed to promote the spread of Hindi,^83 in practice
English is used (in conjunction with Hindi or otherwise) for official purposes at the
central level, something that is permitted by the Constitution as well as the Official
Languages Act 1963.^84 As far as states are concerned, Article 345 allows them to
adopt Hindi or any other language(s) in use there as official language(s). In other
words, learning quickly from the protests witnessed in the mid- 1960 s against the
uniform imposition of Hindi throughout the country, India has since adopted
diversity of languages as a tool to maintain unity.
After the Supreme Court decision inKesavananda Bharativ.State of Kerala,
85an amendment to the Constitution can be declared unconstitutional by the court
on the ground that it violated the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution.
86
This was a
unique pronouncement virtually amending the Constitution, because Article 368
of the Constitution does not contemplate any limitation on the constituent power
of the parliament to amend the Constitution.
87
Although the validity of some
constitutional amendments has been challenged on this ground over the last
decade, no such attempt has proved successful so far.
Other legislative reforms
India established the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) under the
Protection of the Human Rights Act in 1993.^88 Section 12 of the Act confers wide
powers on the NHRC to protect and promote human rights (i) guaranteed by the
Indian Constitution or (ii) embodied in the ‘international covenants’ and enforce-
able by courts in India. This Act was amended in 2006 to expand the definition of
‘international covenants’: in addition to the International Covenant on Civil and
(^82) See ‘Constitution ( 91 st Amendment) Act 2003 : statement of objects and reasons’,http://
indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend 91 .pdf,p. 4.
(^83) The Constitution of India, Arts. 343 and 351.
(^84) Article 348 further states unless otherwise provided by the parliament, all proceedings in
the Supreme Court and the High Court shall be conducted in English. It is, however,
possible to adopt a language other than English for the high courts.
(^85) AIR 1973 SC 1461. (^86) Singh,Shukla’s Constitution of India, 1002 – 11.
(^87) The judiciary is the sole and final judge of what constitutes the basic structure of the
Constitution. Over a period of time, various provisions have been recognised as a basic
structure of the Constitution, e.g. independence of judiciary, judicial review, the rule of
law, secularism, democracy, free and fair elections, harmony between FRs and DPs, the
right to equality, and the right to life and personal liberty.
(^88) Act No 10 of 1994.