101st Constitutional Amendment Act is related with:
- (a)Reservation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS)
- (b)Delimitation of Constituencies
- (c)Anti-defection Law
- (d)Nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Correct — D, Nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016 rewrote India's indirect-tax powers to make room for a Nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST). It received the President's assent on 8 September 2016, and the tax itself was rolled out on 1 July 2017.
Its central move is Article 246A, which lets Parliament and the State legislatures make laws on the same supply of goods and services, with inter-State supply reserved to Parliament. Article 269A covers inter-State GST; Article 279A sets up the GST Council.
Carry away that an amendment supplies the power, not the tax. The 101st made GST constitutionally possible; the CGST, SGST, UTGST and IGST Acts of 2017 are what actually levy it.
- (a)Reservation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) — EWS reservation came from a later and separate amendment. The Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019 inserted Articles 15(6) and 16(6), enabling up to ten per cent reservation in education and public employment for people not covered by the SC, ST or OBC quotas.
So this is the right answer to which amendment introduced EWS reservation — the 103rd. A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court upheld it in November 2022.
- (b)Delimitation of Constituencies — Delimitation has its own line of amendments. The 84th Amendment Act, 2001 extended the freeze on the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats to the first census after 2026 while allowing constituency boundaries to be redrawn on 1991 census figures.
The 87th Amendment Act, 2003 then shifted that boundary exercise to the 2001 census. This option is the right answer to which amendments govern the readjustment of constituencies, whereas the 101st works on the taxation Articles and the Seventh Schedule.
- (c)Anti-defection Law — The anti-defection law is much older. The 52nd Amendment Act, 1985 added the Tenth Schedule, which sets out when a legislator who defects is disqualified; the 91st Amendment Act, 2003 tightened it by removing the one-third 'split' exemption.
This option is the right answer to which amendment brought in the Tenth Schedule. Its subject is legislative membership; the 101st Amendment is about how the Union and the States share the power to tax supply.
A Constitution Amendment Act is identified by its Act number, and that number is the handle on its subject matter. The 101st Amendment Act, 2016 is the GST amendment: it added a new head of taxing power rather than a new right or a new representative institution.
What makes it structurally unusual is concurrency. Earlier the Union taxed manufacture and services while States taxed the sale of goods; Article 246A lets both legislate on the same transaction under a single design.
GST is the clearest instance of pooled sovereignty in Indian federalism. The Union and the States each surrendered exclusive taxing turf and now legislate on a shared base, with rates and exemptions recommended by a joint body, the GST Council.
That is why the Act sits at the junction of polity and economy: it is at once a tax reform, a federalism question and a Seventh Schedule change requiring State ratification.
- The Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016 received the President's assent on 8 September 2016; GST was rolled out on 1 July 2017.
- Article 246A gives Parliament and the State legislatures concurrent power to make laws on GST, with inter-State supply reserved to Parliament.
- Article 269A provides for GST on inter-State supply to be levied and collected by the Centre and apportioned between the Union and the States.
- Article 279A sets up the GST Council, chaired by the Union Finance Minister, with each State represented by its Finance or Taxation Minister or another nominated Minister.
- The Union Minister of State in charge of Revenue or Finance is also a member of the GST Council.
- GST Council decisions need a majority of not less than three-fourths of the weighted votes of members present and voting; the Centre's votes carry one-third weight and the States' two-thirds.
- Article 366(12A) defines goods and services tax as any tax on supply of goods, or services or both, except tax on the supply of alcoholic liquor for human consumption.
- GST on petroleum crude, high speed diesel, petrol, natural gas and aviation turbine fuel takes effect from a date the GST Council recommends.
- The measure was introduced in Parliament as the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014 and was enacted as the 101st Amendment Act, 2016.
- The Act required Parliament to provide, on the GST Council's recommendation, compensation to States for revenue loss on account of GST for five years.
- Because it altered the Seventh Schedule, the amendment needed ratification by the legislatures of not less than one-half of the States.
- The amendment also added Article 279A to the entrenched list in the proviso to Article 368(2).
Each option in this question points at a different amendment; the highlighted row is the one the stem names.
- Holding on to '122nd' — the Bill number — sends the search for GST to the wrong Act number.
- 101st (2016, GST) and 103rd (2019, EWS reservation) are adjacent numbers from the same period, so a half-remembered digit switches the answer.
- The amendment created the power to levy GST; the levy came from the CGST, SGST, UTGST and IGST Acts and the 1 July 2017 rollout.
- Alcoholic liquor for human consumption is kept outside the Article 366(12A) definition, while the five petroleum products sit inside GST but await a Council-recommended date.
- The GST Council's three-fourths threshold runs on weighted votes of members present and voting, not on a head count of States.
This idea shows up in two shapes. One gives the amendment number and asks for the subject, as here; the other gives the subject and asks for the number, or pairs several amendments with their themes in a match-the-list.
A deeper version drops the number and tests the machinery instead: which Article carries concurrent GST power, how the GST Council votes, what the Article 366(12A) definition leaves out, or whether the amendment needed State ratification.
MAINS_2023_GS-II_Q52023Same Act. What differs is the demand: the Mains question assumes you know the 101st Amendment is GST and asks you to argue how far it reflects accommodative federalism, while this Prelims item stops at identifying the subject. The Mains angle — shared taxing power and a joint Council — is the substance behind Article 246A and Article 279A here.
UPSC_2002_GS1_Q1402002Same device, different amendment: a number is given and the subject must be recalled. It also carries the numbering hazard this card flags, because it names a Bill rather than an Act — Bill numbers and the Act numbers they end up with need not agree, as the 122nd Bill and 101st Act show.
UPSC_2025_GS1_Q582025Same constitutional machinery, one step behind. That item tests which subjects need ratification by the legislatures of not less than one-half of the States under the proviso to Article 368(2); the 101st Amendment travelled that route because it altered the Seventh Schedule. This question asks only what the amendment did.
MPPSC_2020_PRE_PaperI_Q752020Same amendment named, different target. MPPSC asks whether Article 368 itself was touched by the 24th (1971) and 101st (2016) amendments; the UKPSC item asks what the 101st is about. Together they cover both halves — the amendment's subject matter and its effect on the amending procedure.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which Article, inserted by the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016, empowers both Parliament and the State legislatures to make laws with respect to goods and services tax?
- (a)Article 246A
- (b)Article 269A
- (c)Article 279A
- (d)Article 366(12A)
Answera — Article 246A is the enabling provision. It confers the power to legislate on GST on both Parliament and the State legislatures, and reserves inter-State supply to Parliament.Article 269A deals with the levy and apportionment of GST on inter-State supply, Article 279A constitutes the GST Council, and Article 366(12A) supplies only the definition of GST.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under Article 279A of the Constitution, a decision of the Goods and Services Tax Council is taken by a majority of not less than:
- (a)two-thirds of the weighted votes of the members present and voting
- (b)three-fourths of the weighted votes of the members present and voting
- (c)one-half of the members present and voting
- (d)the weighted votes of all members, taken unanimously
Answerb — Article 279A fixes the threshold at a majority of not less than three-fourths of the weighted votes of the members present and voting.Two-thirds is the States' combined share of those votes, not the decision threshold. One-half understates the requirement, and the rule is stated as a fraction of weighted votes rather than agreement by everyone.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Tenth Schedule was inserted into the Constitution of India by which one of the following?
- (a)52nd Amendment Act, 1985
- (b)91st Amendment Act, 2003
- (c)101st Amendment Act, 2016
- (d)103rd Amendment Act, 2019
Answera — the 52nd Amendment Act, 1985 inserted the Tenth Schedule, which carries the anti-defection provisions.The 91st Amendment Act, 2003 amended that Schedule by removing the one-third 'split' exemption, but it did not insert it. The 101st Amendment Act, 2016 concerns GST and the 103rd Amendment Act, 2019 concerns EWS reservation.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Consider the following statements about the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016: 1. It was introduced in Parliament as the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill. 2. The definition of goods and services tax it inserted excludes tax on the supply of alcoholic liquor for human consumption. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Answerc — both statements hold. The GST measure was introduced as the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014 and was enacted with the Act number 101, because Bills and Acts are numbered separately.Statement 2 restates Article 366(12A), which defines GST as any tax on supply of goods, or services or both, except tax on the supply of alcoholic liquor for human consumption. Options (a), (b) and (d) each discard a true statement.