What is the purpose of using super constructor with props argument?

A child class constructor cannot make use of this reference until super() method has been called. The same applies for ES6 sub-classes as well. The main reason of passing props parameter to super() call is to access this.props in your child constructors.

Passing props:

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        console.log(this.props);  // Prints { name: 'sudheer',age: 30 }
    }
}

Not passing props:

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super();
        console.log(this.props); // Prints undefined
        // But Props parameter is still available
        console.log(props); // Prints { name: 'sudheer',age: 30 }
    }

    render() {
        // No difference outside constructor
        console.log(this.props) // Prints { name: 'sudheer',age: 30 }
    }
}

The above code snippets reveals that this.props behavior is different only with in the constructor. It would be same outside the constructor.