Purpose of the Eighteenth Amendment Act, 1966
There were several useful purposes of this act given below.
- Establishment of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) for appointing judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts.
- Increment of transparency and accountability in the appointment process of constitutional officers, like judges, the Comptroller and Auditor General(CAG), and the Chief Election Commissioner.
- Making some changes in the way of appointing the Comptroller Auditor General and Chief Election Commissioner.
- Providing constitutional recognition to eminent persons and the Leader of the Opposition party in the Lok Sabha.
- Ensuring that the appointment process for key constitutional officers was more independent, impartial, and transparent.
Eighteenth Amendment Act, 1966 in Indian Constitution
In the year of 1966, Indian Government amended “Article 3” of the Indian constitution, which is officially known as The Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 1966. The proposal is made to clarify the “State” in the clauses section from (a) to (e) present in “article 3” in the constitution, which basically includes “Union territories.” This amendment act also gave a brief explanation regarding the power to form a completely new State or Union territory by taking a part of any State or Union territory to any other State or Union territory by uniting. There is a special power conferred on Parliament by clause section(a). This act was an amendment to the Constitution of India that made some important changes in the way that a certain number of constitutional offices were appointed.