Reservation in Services — Amendments

Amendment	Year	Description	Impact
77th Amendment Act	1995	Inserted Article 16(4A) into the Constitution, enabling the State to make provisions for reservation in matters of promotion for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, if they are not adequately represented in the services under the State.	Overcame the Supreme Court's ruling in Indra Sawhney (1992) that reservation in promotions was impermissible, thereby restoring the provision for promotional quotas for SC/ST.
81st Amendment Act	2000	Inserted Article 16(4B), which allows the State to treat any unfilled reserved vacancies of a year as a separate class of vacancies to be filled in succeeding years. These backlog vacancies are not to be considered together with the vacancies of the current year for determining the 50% reservation ceiling.	Addressed the issue of lapsed reserved vacancies and ensured that the 50% ceiling on reservation would not apply to 'carry forward' vacancies, thus protecting the quota for SC/ST and OBCs.
82nd Amendment Act	2000	Added a proviso to Article 335, allowing the State to relax qualifying marks or standards of evaluation in any examination or lower the standards of evaluation for reservation in matters of promotion to any class or classes of services or posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of a State for SCs and STs.	Enabled the government to provide concessions in qualifying marks/standards for SC/ST candidates in promotions, addressing concerns that strict adherence to general standards might impede their representation at higher levels, while balancing with administrative efficiency.
85th Amendment Act	2001	Amended Article 16(4A) to provide for 'consequential seniority' in matters of promotion for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. This means that if an SC/ST employee is promoted earlier due to reservation, they will retain their seniority over general category employees who are promoted later.	Ensured that SC/ST employees who benefit from promotion reservation do not lose their seniority to general category employees who might be promoted later, thereby providing a more robust and meaningful benefit of promotion reservation.
103rd Amendment Act	2019	Inserted Article 16(6) into the Constitution, providing for 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in appointments and posts under the State, in addition to existing reservations.	Introduced a new category for reservation based purely on economic criteria, distinct from social and educational backwardness. This expanded the scope of affirmative action and was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2022.