Co-operative Societies: What the 97th Amendment Actually Survived

The Constitution (Ninety-seventh Amendment) Act, 2011 made three changes at once for co-operative societies, and the chapter's real exam value is that a 2021 Supreme Court judgment let only two of the three survive, and for a reason that is itself precisely testable: which chamber of Parliament's own power the third change actually touched.

What the 97th Amendment changed

The Amendment inserted the word "co-operatives" into Article 19(1)(c), so that every citizen's fundamental right to form associations or unions now expressly extends to forming co-operative societies. It added Article 43B, a new Directive Principle in Part IV, directing the State to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control, and professional management of co-operative societies. And it inserted an entirely new Part IXB (Articles 243ZH to 243ZT), laying down detailed constitutional rules for the composition, elections, tenure, and audit of co-operative societies, the same style of detailed constitutional machinery Parts IX and IXA already provide for Panchayats and Municipalities.

Union of India v Rajendra N. Shah (2021): why Part IXB partly fell

In Union of India v Rajendra N. Shah, decided on 20 July 2021, the Supreme Court struck down Part IXB, but only insofar as it applies to co-operative societies within a single state. The reasoning turns on the Constitution's own amendment procedure: "co-operative societies" is Entry 32 of the State List, a subject exclusively within state legislative competence, and Article 368(2)'s own proviso requires that any constitutional amendment affecting matters listed in the proviso (which includes provisions touching the states' own legislative powers in this way) must additionally be ratified by at least half the state legislatures before Presidential assent. Part IXB, as it applied to purely state-level co-operative societies, was passed by Parliament without that state ratification, and the Court held this made it unconstitutional to that extent.

Article 19(1)(c)'s amendment and Article 43B were not struck down: neither operates on state legislative competence in the way Part IXB's detailed machinery did, so neither required the same ratification, and both remain valid, current constitutional text today.

Quick revision points

• 97th Amendment, 2011, made three changes: added "co-operatives" to Article 19(1)(c); added Article 43B (a new Directive Principle); inserted Part IXB (Articles 243ZH-243ZT).
• Union of India v Rajendra N. Shah (20 July 2021): struck down Part IXB, but only as it applies to state-level co-operative societies, since "co-operative societies" is Entry 32 of the State List and the amendment lacked the state-legislature ratification Article 368(2)'s proviso requires for a change touching state legislative competence in this way.
• Article 19(1)(c) and Article 43B were not struck down and remain valid today.
• The precise takeaway: two of the three 97th Amendment changes survive intact; the third survives only for co-operative societies that are not confined to a single state.

A question asserting that the 97th Amendment "was struck down" without this qualification is testing exactly this precision: only Part IXB's single-state application fell, not the whole Amendment.