The Ninth Schedule was introduced in the Constitution of India during the prime ministership of

The correct answer is A) Jawaharlal Nehru. The Ninth Schedule was inserted by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951, when Nehru was Prime Minister. Article 31B, introduced by the same amendment, shielded listed laws from challenge on the ground of violating Fundamental Rights, mainly to protect zamindari abolition and other land reform laws.

• B) Lal Bahadur Shastri (1964-66): Wrong. No Ninth Schedule amendment is linked to his tenure.
• C) Indira Gandhi: Wrong. She expanded the Schedule in the 1970s, but she did not create it.
• D) Morarji Desai (1977-79): Wrong. His tenure came decades after the Schedule was introduced.

The core concept is the tension between property rights and land reform, and between Parliament's power to amend and judicial review. For Mains, the Ninth Schedule is a good example of how the 'basic structure' doctrine limited it. In I.R. Coelho (2007), the Supreme Court held that laws placed in the Schedule after 24 April 1973 can be reviewed if they violate fundamental rights or the basic structure. That is the current position, and it has changed from the older view.

Trap: Aspirants often link the Schedule with the Emergency-era amendments under Indira Gandhi, because that is when it was most heavily used. Creation and expansion are different events.