CONSTITUTION AMENDMENTS DURING
LAST THREE YEARS
The Constitution
of India has been amended seven times during the last three years
of the Government. All the amendments effected are intended to
improve social and economic status of the people.
By the Constitution
(Seventy-ninth Amendment) Act, 1999, reservations of seats for
Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Anglo Indians in the House
of the People and the Legislative Assemblies of the States have
been extended for another ten years.
The Constitution
(Eightieth Amendment) Act, 2000 provides for an alternative scheme
for sharing taxes between the Union and the States. Under the
new scheme of devolution of revenues between the Union and the
States, 26 per cent out of gross proceeds of Union taxes and duties
is to be assigned to the States in lieu of their existing share
in the income tax, excise duties, special excise duties and grants
in lieu of tax on railway passenger fares.
By the Constitution
(Eifhty-first Amendment) Act, 2000, unfilled vacancies of a year
which were reserved for the SCs and STs for being filled up in
that year in accordance with any provision for reservation made
under Article 16 of the Constitution, shall be considered as a
separate class of vacancies to be filled up in any succeeding
year or years, and such class of vacancies shall not be considered
together with the vacancies of the year in which they were filled
up for determining the ceiling of 50 per cent reservations against
total number of vacancies of that year.
The Constitution
(Eighty-second Amendment) Act, 2000 provides that nothing in Article
335 of the Constitution shall prevent the State from making any
provision in favour the members of the SCs and STs for relaxation
in qualifying marks in any examination or lowering the standards
of evaluation for reservation in matters of promotion to any class
or classes or services or posts in connection with affairs of
the Union or of a State.
The Constitution
(Eighty-third Amendment) Act, 2000, which amends Article 243M
of the Constitution, provides that no reservation in Panchayats
need be made in favour of SCs in Arunachal Pradesh inhabited wholly
by tribal population.
The Constitution
( Eighty-fourth Amendment) Act, 2001, amends provisos of Article
82 and 170(3) of the Constitution and seeks to readjust and rationalize
the territorial constituencies in the States without altering
the number of seats allotted to each State in the House of the
People and Legislative Assemblies of the States, including SCs
and STs constituencies on the basis of population ascertained
in the census for the year 1991 to remove the imbalance caused
due to uneven growth of population or electorate in different
constituencies. It also seeks to refix the number of seats reserved
for SCs and STs in the House of the People and the Legislative
Assemblies of the States on the basis of the population as per
the census of 1991.
The Constitution
(Eighty-fifth Amendment) Act, 2001, seeks to amend Article 16
(4A) of the Constitution to provide for consequential seniority
in promotion by virtue of rule of reservation for the Government
servants belonging to SCs and STs. It also provides implementation
of this with retrospective effect from June 17, 1995
