Seventy-ninth Amendment of the Constitution of India

The Constitution (Seventy-ninth Amendment) Act, 1999
The Constitution (Seventy-ninth Amendment) Act, 1999
Parliament of India
	Long title An Act further to amend the Constitution of India.;
Citation	79th Amendment
Territorial extent	India
Passed by	Lok Sabha
Passed	27 October 1999
Passed by	Rajya Sabha
Passed	28 October 1999
Assented to	21 January 2000
Signed by	K. R. Narayanan
Commenced	25 January 2000
Date of expiry	26 January 2010
Legislative history
First chamber:Lok Sabha
Billtitle	Constitution (Eighty-fourth Amendment) Bill, 1999
Introduced by	Ram Jethmalani
Introduced	26 October 1999
Related legislation
	8th,23rd,45th,62ndand95thAmendments
Summary
	Extended the period of reservation of seats for theScheduled Castes and Scheduled TribesandAnglo-Indiansin the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies till 2010.
	Status:Spent

TheSeventy-ninth Amendmentof theConstitution of India,officially known asThe Constitution (Seventy-ninth Amendment) Act, 1999,extended the period of reservation of seats for theScheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribesand representation of theAnglo-Indiansin the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies for another ten years, i.e. up to 26 January 2010.

Article 334 of the Constitution had originally required the reservation of seats to cease in 1960, but this was extended to 1970 by the8th Amendment.The period of reservation was extended to 1980, 1990,^[1]and 2000 by the23rd,45thand62ndAmendments respectively. The 79th Amendment extended this period to 2010. The period of reservation was further extended to 2020 and 2030 by the95thand104thAmendments.

Text

BE it enacted by Parliament in the Fiftieth Year of the Republic of India as follows:---
1.Short title and commencement(1) This Act may be called the Constitution (Seventy-ninth Amendment) Act, 1999.

(2) It shall come into force on the 25th day of January, 2000.

2.Amendment of article 334In article 334 of the Constitution, for the words "fifty years", the words "sixty years" shall be substituted.^[2]

The full text of Article 334 of the Constitution, after the 79th Amendment, is given below:

334.Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this Part [Part XVI], the provisions of this Constitution relating to—

(a)the reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in the House of the People and in the Legislative Assemblies of the States; and

(b)the representation of the Anglo Indian community in the House of the People and in the Legislative Assemblies of the States by nomination,

shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of~~fifty years~~sixty yearsfrom the commencement of this Constitution: Provided that nothing in this article shall affect any representation in the House of the People or in the legislative Assembly of a State until the dissolution of the then existing House or Assembly, as the case may be.^[3]

Proposal and enactment

The bill ofThe Constitution (Seventy-ninth Amendment) Act, 1999was introduced in theLok Sabhaon 26 October 1999, as theConstitution (Eighty-fourth Amendment) Bill, 1999(Bill No. 67 of 1999). It was introduced byRam Jethmalani,then Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, and sought to amend article 334 of the Constitution relating to reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and special representation of the Anglo-Indian community in the House of the People and in the Legislative Assemblies of the States.^[4]The full text of the Statement of Objects and Reasons appended to the bill is given below:

Article 334 of the Constitution lays down that the provisions of the Constitution relating to the reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and the representation of Anglo-Indian community by nomination in the Lok Sabha and in the Legislative Assemblies of the States shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of fifty years from the commencement of the Constitution. Although the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes have made considerable progress in the last fifty years, the reasons which weighed with the Constituent Assembly in making provisions with regard to the aforesaid reservation of seats and nomination of members, have not ceased to exist. It is, therefore, proposed to continue the reservation for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and the representation of the Anglo-Indians by nomination for a further period of ten years.
The Bill seeks to achieve the above object.

— Ram Jethmalani,"The Constitution (Eighty-fourth Amendment) Bill, 1999".This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.

The Bill was considered by the Lok Sabha on 27 October 1999, and was passed on the same day with a formal amendment changing the short title from "Eighty-fourth" to "Seventy-ninth". The Bill, as passed by the Lok Sabha, was debated and passed by theRajya Sabhaon 28 October 1999. The bill, after ratification by the States, received assent from then PresidentK. R. Narayananon 21 January 2000, and was notified inThe Gazette of Indiaon the same date. The 79th Amendment came into force on 25 January 2000.^[4]

Ratification

The Act was passed in accordance with the provisions of Article 368 of the Constitution, and was ratified by more than half of the State Legislatures, as required under Clause (2) of the said article. State Legislatures that ratified the amendment are listed below:^[4]

Did not ratify:

References

^C.L. Anand.Equality Justice and Reverse Discrimination.Mittal Publications. p. 17.Retrieved26 November2013.
^"Seventy-ninth Amendment".This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
^"The Constitution of India (1949)"(PDF).Lok Sabha Secretariat.p. 1091. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 3 December 2013.Retrieved30 November2013.This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
^^a ^b ^c"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 3 December 2013.Retrieved5 December2013.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.

[1] C.L. Anand.Equality Justice and Reverse Discrimination.Mittal Publications. p. 17.Retrieved26 November2013.

[2] "Seventy-ninth Amendment".This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.

[Constitution1949-3] "The Constitution of India (1949)"(PDF).Lok Sabha Secretariat.p. 1091. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 3 December 2013.Retrieved30 November2013.This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.

[164.100.47.134-4] "Archived copy"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 3 December 2013.Retrieved5 December2013.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.

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Text

Proposal and enactment

Ratification

See also

References