Which Constitutional Amendment has added Fundamental Right to Free and Compulsory Education of Children between the age of 6 to 14 years ?
- (a)By 68th Amendment
- (b)By 85th Amendment
- (c)By 86th Amendment
- (d)By 87th Amendment
Correct — C, the 86th Amendment. The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21A, which makes free and compulsory education for all children aged 6 to 14 years a Fundamental Right. The same amendment did three things at once: it added Article 21A to Part III, rewrote Article 45 (the Directive Principle now speaks of early childhood care and education for children below six years), and added Article 51A(k), a Fundamental Duty on a parent or guardian to provide education opportunities to a child between 6 and 14. The right became enforceable only when the enabling law — the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 — came into force on 1 April 2010.
- (a)By 68th Amendment — Not an education amendment. The 68th Amendment belongs to the 1991 batch dealing with the extension of President's Rule in Punjab — a wholly different subject, and eleven years before Article 21A existed.
- (b)By 85th Amendment — The 85th Amendment (2001) amended Article 16(4A) to give SC/ST government servants 'consequential seniority' on promotion, with retrospective effect from 1995. It is a reservation-in-promotion amendment, not an education one.
- (d)By 87th Amendment — The 87th Amendment (2003) changed the census basis for readjusting parliamentary and assembly constituencies from the 1991 census to the 2001 census. It sits immediately next to the 86th in number, which is exactly why it is offered here.
Article 21A is the only Fundamental Right that was added to Part III by a constitutional amendment rather than being written into the Constitution in 1950. Before it, the Supreme Court had already read a right to education into Article 21 (Unni Krishnan, 1993), and education for children up to 14 sat only in Article 45 as a non-justiciable Directive Principle. The 86th Amendment converted that promise into an enforceable right for the 6–14 age band and pushed the under-six commitment back into Part IV.
The commonest way to lose this question is to reach for the Bill number instead of the Act number: the measure was introduced in Parliament as the 93rd Constitution Amendment Bill but was enacted as the 86th Amendment Act, 2002. The second trap is the date — the amendment is of 2002, but the right only started operating from 1 April 2010 with the RTE Act, 2009.
- 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002 — inserted Article 21A: free and compulsory education for children aged 6 to 14 as a Fundamental Right.
- The same Act rewrote Article 45 (early childhood care and education for children below 6) and added Fundamental Duty 51A(k).
- It was introduced as the 93rd Constitution Amendment Bill — Bill number and Act number differ.
- Article 21A was operationalised by the RTE Act, 2009, in force from 1 April 2010.
Only the 86th touches education; 85th and 87th are its numeric neighbours and are placed here as bait.
- Answering '93rd' — that is the Bill number; the Act is the 86th Amendment, 2002.
- Assuming Article 21A covers children below six — under-six care sits in Article 45, a Directive Principle, not a Fundamental Right.
- Treating 2002 as the year the right began operating; it became enforceable on 1 April 2010 through the RTE Act.
Both MPPSC and UPSC ask this as straight number-matching ('which amendment did X'), or by planting a wrong amendment number inside a statement set and asking which statements are correct.
The 93rd Constitutional Amendment Bill deals with the
- (a) continuation of reservation for backward classes in government employment
- (b) free and compulsory education for all children between the age of 6 and 14 years
- (c) reservation of 30 per cent posts for women in government recruitments
- (d) allocation of a greater number of parliamentary seats for recently created States
Answer(b) free and compulsory education for all children between the age of 6 and 14 years
The very same measure, asked at Bill stage — the 93rd Constitution Amendment Bill was enacted as the 86th Amendment Act, 2002.
Consider the following statements: 1. Free and compulsory education to the children of 6-14 years age group by the State was made a Fundamental Right by the 76th Amendment to the Constitution of India. 2. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan seeks to provide computer education even in rural areas. 3. Education was included in the Concurrent List by the 42nd Amendment, 1976 to the Constitution of India. Which of the statements given above are correct?
- (a) 1, 2 and 3
- (b) 1 and 2, only
- (c) 2 and 3, only
- (d) 1 and 3, only
Answer(c) 2 and 3, only
UPSC tested the identical fact from the negative side — statement 1 is false precisely because it credits the 76th Amendment instead of the 86th.
Which Constitutional Amendment included the Right to Education in the Fundamental Rights?
- (a) First Constitutional Amendment
- (b) Forty-second Constitutional Amendment
- (c) Forty-fourth Constitutional Amendment
- (d) Eighty-sixth Constitutional Amendment
Answer(d) Eighty-sixth Constitutional Amendment
MPPSC asked the identical fact two years earlier — a near-verbatim repeat of this 2025 question.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted which Article into the Constitution of India?
- (a)Article 19A
- (b)Article 21A
- (c)Article 23A
- (d)Article 31A
Answer(b) Article 21A — free and compulsory education for children aged 6 to 14 as a Fundamental Right.
- practice — not a real PYQ
After the 86th Amendment, Article 45 of the Constitution directs the State to endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for children:
- (a)below the age of six years
- (b)between 6 and 14 years
- (c)between 14 and 18 years
- (d)of all ages up to 18 years
Answer(a) below the age of six years — the 6–14 band moved to Article 21A, and Article 45 was recast for the under-sixes.