Constitution 332 — Reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assemblies of the States

The Constitution of India, 1950

Statutory text

(1) Seats shall be reserved for
the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, except the Scheduled Tribes
in the autonomous districts of Assam, in the Legislative Assembly of every
State **.
(2) Seats shall be reserved also for the autonomous districts in the
Legislative Assembly of the State of Assam.
(3) The number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes or the
Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly of any State under clause (1)
shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats
in the Assembly as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the State or of the
Scheduled Tribes in the State or part of the State, as the case may be, in respect
of which seats are so reserved, bears to the total population of the State.
(3A) Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (3), until the taking
effect, under article 170, of the re-adjustment, on the basis of the first census
after the year 2026, of the number of seats in the Legislative Assemblies of
the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, the seats
which shall be reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly
of any such State shall be,—
(a) if all the seats in the Legislative Assembly of such State in
existence on the date of coming into force of the Constitution (Fifty-
seventh Amendment) Act, 1987 (hereafter in this clause referred to as
the existing Assembly) are held by members of the Scheduled Tribes, all
the seats except one;
(b) in any other case, such number of seats as bears to the total
number of seats, a proportion not less than the number (as on the said
date) of members belonging to the Scheduled Tribes in the existing
Assembly bears to the total number of seats in the existing Assembly.
(3B) Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (3), until the
re-adjustment, under article 170, takes effect on the basis of the first census
after the year 2026, of the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of the
State of Tripura, the seats which shall be reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in
the Legislative Assembly shall be, such number of seats as bears to the total
number of seats, a proportion not less than the number, as on the date of
coming into force of the Constitution (Seventy-second Amendment) Act, 1992,
of members belonging to the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly in
existence on the said date bears to the total number of seats in that Assembly.
(4) The number of seats reserved for an autonomous district in the
Legislative Assembly of the State of Assam shall bear to the total number of
seats in that Assembly a proportion not less than the population of the district
bears to the total population of the State.
(5) The constituencies for the seats reserved for any autonomous district
of Assam shall not comprise any area outside that district **.
(6) No person who is not a member of a Scheduled Tribe of any
autonomous district of the State of Assam shall be eligible for election to the
Legislative Assembly of the State from any constituency of that district **:
Provided that for elections to the Legislative Assembly of the State of
Assam, the representation of the Scheduled Tribes and non-Scheduled Tribes in
the constituencies included in the Bodoland Territorial Areas District, so
notified, and existing prior to the constitution of Bodoland Territorial Areas
District, shall be maintained.

Back to Constitution