Sixty-first Amendment of the Constitution of India


The Sixty-first Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as The Constitution Act, 1988, lowered the voting age of elections to the Lok Sabha and to the Legislative Assemblies of States from 21 years to 18 years. This was done by amending Article 326 of the Constitution, which concerns elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies.

Text

The full text of Article 326 of the Constitution, after the 61st Amendment, is given below:

Proposal and enactment

The bill of The Constitution Act, 1988 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 13 December 1988, as the Constitution Bill, 1988. It was introduced by B. Shankaranand, then Minister of Water Resources. The bill sought to amend Article 326 of the Constitution, relating to elections to the Lok Sabha and to the Legislative Assemblies of States based on adult suffrage. The full text of the Statement of Objects and Reasons appended to the bill is given below:
The bill was debated by the Lok Sabha on 14 and 15 December 1988, and was passed on 15 December, after adopting a formal amendment to replace the word "Sixty-second" with "Sixty-first" in Clause 1 of the bill. The Rajya Sabha debated the bill on 16, 19 and 20 December 1988 and passed it on 20 December 1988, after adopting the amendment made by the Lok Sabha. The bill, after ratification by the States, received assent from then President Ramaswamy Venkataraman on 28 March 1989. It was notified in The Gazette of India, and also came into force on the same date.

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 of the said article. State Legislatures that ratified the amendment are listed below:
  1. Maharashtra
  2. Kerala
  3. Haryana
  4. Orissa
  5. Sikkim
  6. Andhra Pradesh
  7. Meghalaya
  8. Madhya Pradesh
  9. Manipur
  10. Uttar Pradesh
  11. West Bengal
  12. Karnataka
  13. Rajasthan
  14. Himachal Pradesh
  15. Arunachal Pradesh
  16. Bihar
  17. Gujarat
  18. Mizoram
  19. Goa
  20. Assam
Did not ratify:
  1. Jammu and Kashmir
  2. Nagaland
  3. Punjab
  4. Tamil Nadu
  5. Tripura