What did the 73rd Amendment make every state do?

The Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act came into force on 24 April 1993, the day now marked as National Panchayati Raj Day. It added Part IX to the Constitution, articles 243 to 243-O, and the Eleventh Schedule. Read article by article, it does two different things, and the words tell you which is which: some clauses say a state shall, others that it may.

Why do two words matter?

Because they divide what the Constitution decided from what it handed back. Where Part IX uses shall, every state must comply. Where it says a state's legislature may, by law, do something, the choice is the state's. The structure of panchayats is mostly shall. Their powers are mostly may.

What must every state do?

Set up panchayats on one pattern, and elect them on a fixed clock. Article 243B requires panchayats at the village, intermediate and district levels, with one exception: “Panchayats at the intermediate level may not be constituted in a State having a population not exceeding twenty lakhs.”

Under article 243E every panchayat “shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer”, and a new one must be elected before that term ends or, after an early dissolution, “before the expiration of a period of six months from the date of its dissolution.” Article 243D reserves seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population, and not less than one-third of the directly elected seats, and of the offices of chairpersons at each level, for women.

Two institutions are compulsory. Article 243K gives a State Election Commission the superintendence, direction and control of panchayat elections, and its Commissioner can be removed only in the manner and on the grounds of a High Court judge. Article 243I requires a State Finance Commission within one year of the amendment's commencement, and again at the end of every fifth year, to review panchayats' finances.

What is left to the states?

What panchayats actually do. Article 243G is the centre of it: “the Legislature of a State may, by law, endow the Panchayats with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as institutions of self-government”, including for the matters in the Eleventh Schedule. Those 29 matters, from agriculture to the public distribution system, are a list to consider; the Ministry of Panchayati Raj calls them illustrative.

The same holds for money and for the village assembly. Under article 243H the legislature “may, by law” authorise a panchayat to levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls and fees. Under article 243A, “A Gram Sabha may exercise such powers and perform such functions at the village level as the Legislature of a State may, by law, provide.”

A state may also go further than the floor. Karnataka's Panchayat Raj Act of 1993 reserves half of the seats and offices in all three tiers for women.

Where does Part IX not apply?

In the Scheduled Areas and tribal areas of article 244, and in Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram, by article 243M, unless extended by law. Parliament extended it to the Fifth Schedule areas, with changes, through the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, which came into force on 24 December 1996.

What has happened since?

On the compulsory side, one number stands out. By the Ministry of Panchayati Raj's count in April 2026, there are more than 2.5 lakh panchayats and 24.04 lakh elected representatives, 49.75% of them women: well above the one-third the Constitution requires. On money, an expert committee on panchayats' own revenue found that, despite the many taxes and fees open to them, panchayats in most states “have not been able to tap them”, and a study of devolution for the Ministry found it highly uneven across states.

The unevenness follows from the design: the amendment guaranteed elected panchayats everywhere and left what they govern to each state. Whether that was the right balance is the question the exam asks you to judge.