RAS question
The 65th Amendment Act, 1990 is related to:
Correct answer: (C) Establishment of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (replacing the Special Officer under Article 338).
The 65th Amendment Act, 1990 established the statutory National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes by replacing the earlier Special Officer or Commissioner arrangement under Article 338.
Explanation
The 65th Amendment changed Article 338 from a single Special Officer or Commissioner model into a statutory, multi-member National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes records that the statutory National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes came into existence after the Constitution (Sixty-fifth Amendment) Bill, 1990, and that the first Commission under the Constitution (65th Amendment) Act was constituted on 12 March 1992, replacing the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. This is why option C is the precise answer. The later 89th Amendment, 2003 separated the combined body into the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Creation of an OBC Commission is not what the 65th Amendment did; the amendment created the SC/ST commission under Article 338.
- (B) Anti-defection law concerns legislative disqualification, whereas the 65th Amendment addressed the institutional mechanism for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under Article 338.
- (D) Reduction of the voting age to 18 years is a franchise reform, not the Article 338 change that created the statutory SC/ST commission.
Concept
This tests constitutional amendment mapping, especially commissions and protective institutions under Part XVI-linked governance. RAS often asks such provisions because they connect constitutional text, welfare administration and statutory bodies used in Indian polity questions.