Kesavananda Bharati case

Why in news?

• Kesavananda Bharati, the petitioner in Kesavananda Bharati case passed away.

About the case:

• The case began when Kesavananda Bharat, the chief pontiff of the Edneer Mutt in Kerala, challenged the Kerala Land Reforms Amendment Act (1969) as per which government could acquire some of the lands that belonged to the Mutt.
• The 29^th amendment act had included Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1969 and the Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1971 in the Ninth Schedule to the Constitution, beyond judicial review.
• The case thus evolved into a dispute over Parliament’s power under Article 368 to amend the Indian Constitution and a challenge to 24^th, 25^th and 29^th amendments to the constitution.
• The case was heard by a Bench of 13 judges — the largest formed in the Supreme Court.
• The Kesavananda Bharati judgment delivered on 24 April 1973 created the Basic Structure doctrine which limited Parliament’s power to make drastic amendments that may affect the core values enshrined in the Constitution, like secularism and federalism.
• The judgement was delivered by 7:6 majority and held 24th, 25th and 29th Amendments Acts are valid.
• The Court also held that no part of the constitution, including fundamental rights was beyond the amending power of Parliament.
• It thus nullified the “Golaknath” case judgement of 1967 which held that parliament could amend or alter the fundamental rights.
• But it said that any further amendment to the constitution could not violate the basic structure of the constitution.

About basic structure doctrine:

• The basic structure doctrine is an Indian judicial principle that the Constitution of India has certain basic features that cannot be altered or destroyed through amendments by the Parliament of India.
• There is no clear definition of what features constitute basic structure. Supreme court in this judgement and subsequent ones have added many features like “Fundamental rights”, “Secularism”, “Judicial independence” etc to the list.
• Effectively through ‘basic structure doctrine', the Supreme Court strengthened the power of judicial review and placed a limitation on the Parliament's power to amend the Constitution.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Consider the following statements regarding “Kesavananda Bharati Judgement”:
1.The judgement held that fundamental rights could not be amended by the parliament.
2.It upheld the previous judgement of the supreme court in “Golaknath” case.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to prelims question