• President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the bill providing for 10% reservation in education and government jobs for economically weak from upper castes.
• The Constitution (103rd) Amendment Act was cleared by both Houses of Parliament.
• The 10 per cent quota covers nearly 190 million people from the general.

Important provisions of this amendment:

• The amendment changed two fundamental rights, Article 15 and 16. The amendments provide for the advancement of the “economically weaker sections” of the society.
• The amendment aims to fulfil the commitments of the directive principles of state policy under Article 46, to promote the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the society.
• Criterion for Reservation: People who have an annual income of less than Rs.8 lakhs, or People who own less than five acres of farm land, or People who have a house lesser than 1,000 sq feet in a town (or 100 sq yard in a notified municipal area).
• The constitutional amendment is yet to pass the judicial scrutiny since the Supreme Court had set the cap of 50% on reservations.

Amendment of Constitution

• Part XX of the Constitution deals with its amendment. Under Article 368(2), Parliament can amend the Constitution by passing a Bill in “each House by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting”. Thereafter, the Bill “shall be presented to the President who shall give his assent and thereupon the Constitution shall stand amended”.
• However, if the amendment seeks to make a change in certain specific provisions, including Articles 54, 55, 73, “Chapter IV of Part V, Chapter V of Part VI, or Chapter I of Part XI, or any of the Lists in the Seventh Schedule, or the representation of States in Parliament,” etc., “the amendment shall also require to be ratified by the Legislatures of not less than one-half of the State”.
• According to the Supreme Court ruling in the landmark 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case, Parliament cannot amend those provisions which form the “basic structure of the Constitution.