Day after the Union cabinet gave its nod for tabling a constitutional amendment bill to provide 10 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions to the “economically weaker sections”, The 124th Constitutional Amendment passed in Loksabha with majority and support from opposition parties with AYES 323 and Noes 3 votes as per Article 368 of the Constitution of India

The criteria for determining which families would qualify for the “economically weaker” tag are as follows: an annual income below Rs 8 lakh; farmland less than 5 acres; residential house below 1,000sqft; residential plot below 100 square yards in a notified municipality; residential plot below 200 square yards in a non-notified municipality area.

The 124th Constitutional Amendment made amendment to Article 15 & 16 as follows:

In article 15 of the Constitution, after clause (5), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—
‘(6) Nothing in this article or sub-clause (g) of clause (1) of article 19 or clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the State from making,—
(a) any special provision for the advancement of any economically weaker sections of citizens other than the classes mentioned in clauses (4) and (5); and (b) any special provision for the advancement of any economically weaker sections of citizens other than the classes mentioned in clauses (4) and (5) in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of article 30, which in the case of reservation would be in addition to the existing reservations and subject to a maximum of ten per cent. of the total seats in each category.

Explanation.—For the purposes of this article and article 16, “economically weaker sections” shall be such as may be notified by the State from time to time on the basis of family income and other indicators of economic
disadvantage.’.

In article 16 of the Constitution, after clause (5), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—
“(6) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any economically weaker sections of citizens other than the classes mentioned in clause (4), in addition to the existing reservation and subject to a maximum of ten per cent. of the posts in each
category.”.

Read Amendment here:

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