💡 In Simple Words

Property used to be a Fundamental Right in the original 1950 Constitution - Article 31 guaranteed that the government could only compulsorily acquire your property if it paid compensation, and this could be enforced directly in the Supreme Court. The 44th Amendment (1978), passed after the Emergency era, removed the right to property from the Fundamental Rights chapter entirely and downgraded it to an ordinary legal right under a new Article 300A in a different part of the Constitution. This was done to give governments a freer hand to carry out land reform and welfare redistribution without every acquisition being challenged as a Fundamental Rights violation.