Question

Which of the following amendments reduced the voting age from 21 to 18 for General Elections?
A) 42nd Amendment
B) 73rd Amendment
C) 61st Amendment
D) 54th Amendment

Answer 1

Hint: The amendment was made to article 326 of the Constitution. The bill was introduced by B, Shankaranand, who was the then Minister of Water Resources.

Complete Answer
In the 61st Amendment of the Constitution of India, the minimum voting age of elections to Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies of States was reduced from 21 years to 18 years. It is also known as The Constitution (Sixty-first Amendment) Act,1988.

Article 326 which previously stated that the minimum age to cast a vote would be 21, was brought down to 18 as it was observed that many countries had the minimum age for casting a vote as 18. It was stated in the bill that at present the youth are educated and enlightened, hence, the lowering of the age would provide an opportunity to the unrepresented youth of the country to vent out their feelings, while being a part of the political process.

The Lok Sabha debated the bill on 14 and 15 December 1988 and passed on 15 December, after making a formal amendment to replace the term 'sixty-second' with 'sixty-first’ in Clause 1. On 16, 19 and 20 December 1988, the Rajya Sabha discussed the bill and passed it on 20 December 1988, after implementing the Lok Sabha amendment.

 The correct option is (C)61st Amendment

Note: The bill received President Ramaswamy Venkataraman’s assent on 28 March 1989, after it got the ratification of all the States. It was notified in The Gazette of India, and also came into force on the same date.