Protection of Weaker Sections — Amendments

Amendment	Year	Description	Impact
1st Amendment Act	1951	Added Article 15(4), enabling the State to make special provisions for the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes or for SCs and STs. This was a direct response to the State of Madras v. Champakam Dorairajan case.	Provided the constitutional basis for reservation in educational institutions and other special provisions for backward classes, SCs, and STs, overriding the strict interpretation of equality in Article 15(1).
77th Amendment Act	1995	Added Article 16(4A), enabling the State to make provisions for reservation in matters of promotion to any class or classes of posts in the services under the State in favour of SCs and STs, if they are not adequately represented.	Overcame the Indra Sawhney judgment's ruling against reservation in promotions, allowing for its reintroduction for SCs and STs.
81st Amendment Act	2000	Added Article 16(4B), allowing the State to treat unfilled reserved vacancies of a year as a separate class of vacancies to be filled in any succeeding year, without being subject to the 50% ceiling limit of total vacancies of that year.	Addressed the issue of backlog vacancies for SCs/STs, ensuring that the 50% ceiling does not hinder the filling of carried-forward reserved posts.
82nd Amendment Act	2000	Inserted a proviso to Article 335, allowing the State to make any provision in favour of SCs and STs for relaxation in qualifying marks or standards of evaluation for reservation in matters of promotion.	Enabled the relaxation of promotion standards for SCs/STs, aiming to ensure their adequate representation in higher posts.
85th Amendment Act	2001	Provided for 'consequential seniority' in case of promotion by virtue of rule of reservation for the government servants belonging to the SCs and STs with retrospective effect from June 1995.	Ensured that SC/ST employees promoted through reservation retain their seniority, addressing concerns raised by earlier judicial interpretations.
93rd Amendment Act	2005	Added Article 15(5), enabling the State to make special provisions for the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes or for SCs and STs in relation to their admission to educational institutions, including private unaided ones (except minority institutions).	Extended reservation to private unaided educational institutions, significantly broadening the scope of affirmative action in education.
102nd Amendment Act	2018	Granted constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) and inserted Articles 338B and 342A.	Elevated the NCBC to a constitutional body, strengthening its powers and role in safeguarding the interests of OBCs, and defined the process for identifying OBCs.
103rd Amendment Act	2019	Inserted Article 15(6) and Article 16(6), providing for 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in educational institutions and public employment, respectively.	Introduced reservation based purely on economic criteria, expanding the scope of affirmative action beyond social and educational backwardness.