Today is the 41st anniversary of one of the most famous cases in the history of independent India, Keshavananda Bharathi vs State of Kerala .

The eminent lawyer, Arvind Datar, wrote about this a year ago. Go read the whole article. One comes across characters such as Alvin Robert Cornelius and the redoubtable Nani Palkhivala. The basic structure doctrine is an immeasurable contribution to the safeguarding of democracy and liberties of the people of India.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-case-that-saved-indian-democracy/article4647800.ece

Excerpt:

The hard work and scholarship that had gone into the preparation of this case was breathtaking. Literally hundreds of cases had been cited and the then Attorney-General had made a comparative chart analysing the provisions of the Constitutions of 71 different countries!

CORE QUESTION

All this effort was to answer just one main question: was the power of Parliament to amend the Constitution unlimited? In other words, could Parliament alter, amend, abrogate any part of the Constitution even to the extent of taking away all fundamental rights?

Article 368, on a plain reading, did not contain any limitation on the power of Parliament to amend any part of the Constitution. There was nothing that prevented Parliament from taking away a citizen’s right to freedom of speech or his religious freedom. But the repeated amendments made to the Constitution raised a doubt: was there any inherent or implied limitation on the amending power of Parliament?

The 703-page judgment revealed a sharply divided court and, by a wafer-thin majority of 7:6, it was held that Parliament could amend any part of the Constitution so long as it did not alter or amend “the basic structure or essential features of the Constitution.” This was the inherent and implied limitation on the amending power of Parliament. This basic structure doctrine, as future events showed, saved Indian democracy and Kesavananda Bharati will always occupy a hallowed place in our constitutional history.