Which of the following amendments to the Indian Constitution made the Right to Property a Legal Right in place of a Fundamental Right?

The correct answer is 44^th.Key Points

• The Right to Property was removed as a Fundamental Right from the Indian Constitution by the 44th Amendment in 1978. It was changed into a legal right under Article 300A in Part XII of the Constitution.
• The Right to Property underwent numerous changes throughout history in the Indian Constitution before it was eventually downgraded to a legal right. It started as a Fundamental Right:
• Post-independence - The original Constitution of India, when it came into effect in 1950, recognized the Right to Property as a Fundamental Right under Articles 19(1)(f) and 31. Article 19(1)(f) allowed citizens to acquire, hold, and dispose of property, while Article 31 provided that "no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law."
• First Amendment, 1951 - In response to significant land reform initiatives and intended to prevent the judiciary from undermining those policies, the First Amendment was introduced, which placed restrictions on the Right to Property.
• Fourth Amendment, 1955 - This amendment further reduced the right to property in response to a series of court decisions that favored landowners' rights to fair compensation over the state's rights to carry out land and tenancy reforms.
• Over time, several other amendments were made affecting the Right to Property: the Seventeenth Amendment of 1964, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment of 1971, the Thirty-Ninth Amendment of 1975, among others.
• Forty-Fourth Amendment, 1978 - Eventually, the Right to Property was removed as a Fundamental Right. The 44^th Amendment, enacted by the Janata Party which came into power in 1977, downgraded the right to a constitutional/legal right. The amendment also introduced a new article, Article 300A, which provided: "No person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law." This means that the government can deprive a citizen of private property, but it has to be as per a valid law.
• This change made it possible for the government to implement land reform and redistribution policies without fear of them being declared unconstitutional by the courts. The Right to Property is now protected under the Indian Constitution as a legal right, not as a Fundamental Right. This means that while an individual still has the right to property, it is not an absolute right and can be regulated by the government.