Which Constitution Amendment Act reduced the voting age from 21 years to 18 years ?
- (a)66th Amendment
- (b)62nd Amendment
- (c)61st Amendment
- (d)63rd Amendment
Correct — C, the 61st Constitutional Amendment Act. The 61st Amendment Act, 1988 amended Article 326 of the Constitution to lower the minimum voting age in elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies from 21 years to 18 years. Enacted under PM Rajiv Gandhi and brought into force in 1989, it enfranchised crores of young Indians.
- (a)66th Amendment — Wrong — the 66th Amendment Act, 1990 added a number of State land-reform Acts to the Ninth Schedule to shield them from judicial review; it has nothing to do with the voting age.
- (b)62nd Amendment — Wrong — the 62nd Amendment Act, 1989 extended the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and the nomination of Anglo-Indians (Article 334) for a further ten years; it did not touch the franchise age.
- (d)63rd Amendment — Wrong — the 63rd Amendment Act, 1989 repealed the special emergency-related provisions for Punjab that the 59th Amendment had introduced; it is unrelated to the voting age.
Article 326 fixes elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies on the basis of universal adult suffrage. As originally adopted, the qualifying age was 21 years. The 61st Constitutional Amendment Act, 1988 substituted 'eighteen years' for 'twenty-one years' in Article 326, lowering the voting age to 18 — one of the most consequential franchise reforms since independence.
All four options are late-1980s amendments, so rote pairing helps. Fix in memory: 61st = voting age 18 (the standout youth-franchise reform). The neighbouring numbers are the traps — 62nd = SC/ST reservation extension, 63rd = Punjab (repeal of the 59th), 66th = Ninth Schedule land reforms.
- 61st Amendment Act, 1988 lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 by amending Article 326.
- It came into force in 1989, during Rajiv Gandhi's government.
- Article 326 mandates elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies on the basis of adult suffrage.
- Distractor amendments: 62nd (SC/ST reservation, Art 334), 63rd (Punjab, repeal of 59th), 66th (Ninth Schedule land reforms).
Only the 61st Amendment reduced the voting age — option (c).
- Confusing the 61st with other 'famous' amendments such as the 42nd or 44th
- Mixing up the closely numbered 62nd / 63rd / 66th amendments
UPSC/UPPSC ask 'which amendment did X' or match amendment-number to subject — keep a short list of high-yield amendments with one-line subjects.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The voting age in India was reduced from 21 to 18 years with effect from which year?
- (a)1976
- (b)1989
- (c)1992
- (d)2003
Answer(b) 1989 — when the 61st Amendment Act, 1988 came into force.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which Article of the Constitution provides for elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies on the basis of adult suffrage?
- (a)Article 324
- (b)Article 325
- (c)Article 326
- (d)Article 327
Answer(c) Article 326 — amended by the 61st Amendment to set the voting age at 18.