Article 31D

Article 31D was inserted by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, during the Emergency period. It empowered Parliament to make laws restricting or abolishing certain Fundamental Rights (like those under Articles 14, 19, and 31) if the law was said to deal with 'anti-national activities' or 'anti-national associations.' Such laws could not be challenged in court on the ground that they violated those rights. After the Emergency ended and a new government came to power, the Forty-third Amendment Act, 1977 removed several Emergency-era provisions seen as excessive concentrations of power, including Article 31D, to restore the earlier balance of fundamental rights protection.

Because Article 31D was repealed before any law was enacted or seriously tested under it, there is no significant body of case law interpreting its operative content. Courts have referred to it mainly in historical discussions of the 42nd and 43rd Amendments and the broader debate on the basic structure doctrine, particularly in cases like Minerva Mills v. Union of India (1980), which examined the validity of related 42nd Amendment changes.

• Myth: Article 31D is still part of the Constitution and can be used today.
  Fact: It was completely removed (repealed) by the 43rd Amendment in 1977, effective 13 April 1978, so it has no legal effect now.
• Myth: Article 31D was a permanent, carefully debated peacetime provision.
  Fact: It was inserted during the Emergency (1976) under the 42nd Amendment and was one of several Emergency-era changes later reversed once democratic processes resumed.