Parts of Indian Constitution: All 25 Parts with Articles and Subjects

The Parts of Indian Constitution organise the document’s articles into thematic groupings. The original Constitution adopted on 26 November 1949 had 22 Parts containing 395 articles. Today the Constitution has grown to 25 Parts with several hundred articles after numerous amendments inserted new chapters covering municipalities, panchayats, cooperative societies, tribunals, and the official language for the Union. Mastering the Parts of Indian Constitution is a foundational task in Polity preparation because every article one studies sits inside a Part and inherits the thematic context of that Part. For example, knowing that Article 21 lies in Part III tells you immediately that it is a Fundamental Right and that the remedies under Article 32 apply.

This reference guide lists all 25 Parts of Indian Constitution with their article ranges, subjects, and the constitutional amendments that added the newer parts. It also flags the Parts that were repealed, the Parts that contain the most-quoted provisions, and the way the Parts map to standard UPSC topics like Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles, Centre-State Relations, and Local Government.

What Are the Parts of Indian Constitution

A Part of the Constitution is a numbered division that contains a sequence of articles bearing on a common subject. Parts are listed by Roman numerals — Part I, Part II, Part III, and so on through Part XXII originally. Subsequent amendments inserted new Parts with letter suffixes (Part IX-A, Part IX-B, Part XIV-A) rather than renumbering all subsequent Parts. This is why the Parts of Indian Constitution numbering does not run as a simple 1-25.

Each Part of Indian Constitution may also contain Chapters within it. For instance, Part V on the Union has chapters on the Executive, Parliament, Legislative Procedure, the Comptroller and Auditor-General, and the Union Judiciary.

Original Parts of Indian Constitution at Adoption (1949)

When the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949, it contained 22 Parts. Three of these have since been repealed and three additional Parts have been inserted by amendment. The original layout was as follows.

Parts Added by Amendment

Three new Parts have been added to the Constitution through amendments to keep up with new institutional needs. These are among the most testable items in Polity.

Part IX-A: The Municipalities (Article 243-P to 243-ZG)

Inserted by the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992, Part IX-A provides for three tiers of urban local government — Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils, and Nagar Panchayats. It mandates regular elections, fixed five-year terms, reservation for SC/ST/women, the constitution of State Election Commissions and State Finance Commissions, and a Twelfth Schedule listing 18 functional subjects that may be devolved to municipalities. The 74th Amendment is the urban counterpart to the 73rd, which dealt with rural local government.

Part IX-B: The Cooperative Societies (Article 243-ZH to 243-ZT)

Inserted by the 97th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2011, Part IX-B gave constitutional status to cooperative societies. It guarantees the right to form cooperative societies as part of Article 19(1)(c), prescribes maximum board strength, fixed terms, reservations, and audit timelines. The Supreme Court in Union of India v. Rajendra N. Shah (2021) struck down the portions of Part IX-B that applied to cooperative societies confined to a single state, holding that cooperative societies are a State List subject and Parliament could not legislate on them. The provisions on multi-state cooperative societies survived.

Part XIV-A: Tribunals (Articles 323-A and 323-B)

Inserted by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976, Part XIV-A authorises Parliament and state legislatures to establish administrative tribunals (Article 323-A) and tribunals for other matters (Article 323-B). It was the legal basis for the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, the National Green Tribunal, and dozens of other specialised forums. The Supreme Court in L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India (1997) held that the power of judicial review under Articles 32 and 226 is part of the basic structure and that tribunal decisions are subject to High Court review.

Complete Parts of Indian Constitution List (2026)

The table below shows the current layout including the inserted Parts, in the order they appear in the Constitution.

Important Parts in Detail

Part III: Fundamental Rights (Articles 12-35)

Part III is the most litigated section of the Constitution. It contains six categories of Fundamental Rights: Right to Equality (14-18), Right to Freedom (19-22), Right against Exploitation (23-24), Right to Freedom of Religion (25-28), Cultural and Educational Rights (29-30), and Right to Constitutional Remedies (32). The Right to Property was removed from Part III by the 44th Amendment in 1978 and shifted to Article 300A in Part XII. Article 21 has been judicially expanded to cover the right to privacy, the right to a clean environment, the right to dignity, and the right to die with dignity.

For deeper article-level treatment, see our explainers on Article 14, Article 16, Article 19, Article 20, and Article 21.

Part IV and IV-A: Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties

Part IV (Articles 36-51) lists the Directive Principles of State Policy, which are non-justiciable but “fundamental in the governance of the country” under Article 37. They include socio-economic objectives like a uniform civil code (Article 44), separation of judiciary from executive (Article 50), and protection of historical monuments (Article 49). Part IV-A was inserted by the 42nd Amendment in 1976 on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee. It contains a single article — Article 51A — listing eleven Fundamental Duties (originally ten; the eleventh on education was added by the 86th Amendment in 2002).

Part V and VI: Union and States

Part V (Articles 52-151) deals with the Union — the office of the President, the Vice-President, the Council of Ministers, Parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Comptroller and Auditor-General. Part VI (Articles 152-237) mirrors this structure for the States — the Governor, the State Executive, State Legislature (including Legislative Councils), and the High Courts. Together these two Parts contain the bulk of the institutional architecture of Indian government.

Part XI: Centre-State Relations

Part XI (Articles 245-263) governs the relations between the Union and the States. It is divided into two chapters — legislative relations (245-255) and administrative relations (256-263). The legislative chapter draws on the Seventh Schedule’s Union, State, and Concurrent Lists. The administrative chapter culminates in Article 263, which empowers the President to establish the Inter-State Council and is the constitutional foundation for cooperative federalism.

Part XVIII: Emergency Provisions

Part XVIII (Articles 352-360) contains the three types of emergency provisions — National Emergency (Article 352), State Emergency or President’s Rule (Article 356), and Financial Emergency (Article 360). National Emergency has been proclaimed three times in independent India: 1962 (China war), 1971 (Bangladesh war), and 1975-77 (internal disturbance, later changed by the 44th Amendment to require “armed rebellion”). Financial Emergency has never been invoked.

Part XXI: Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions

Part XXI (Articles 369-392) housed Article 370, the provision granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir, until it was effectively abrogated by Presidential Order C.O. 273 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act on 5 August 2019. Other provisions in Part XXI grant special status to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, and Karnataka under Articles 371 to 371J.

Repealed Parts

Part VII originally dealt with the States in Part B — the former princely states reorganised at independence. It was repealed by the Seventh Constitutional Amendment Act, 1956 when the States Reorganisation Act abolished the A/B/C/D categorisation of states. The original Part IX, which contained Article 243, was substituted in 1992 by the new Part IX on the Panchayats. The original text of Article 243 dealing with statutory provisions on village panchayats was replaced by the constitutional architecture of the 73rd Amendment.

How Parts of Indian Constitution Connect to UPSC Syllabus

The Parts of Indian Constitution map almost one-to-one onto the GS Paper II syllabus. Fundamental Rights and Duties (Parts III and IV-A) and Directive Principles (Part IV) are explicit syllabus items. Centre-State relations (Part XI) is named in the syllabus. The Emergency provisions (Part XVIII), elections (Part XV), and the amendment procedure (Part XX) are all standard topics. Parts IX, IX-A, and IX-B — Panchayats, Municipalities, and Cooperative Societies — feed into the Panchayati Raj and local government syllabus. Even Part XIII on trade and commerce within India is testable through GST and inter-state trade disputes.

Frequently Asked Questions

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