Basic Structure Doctorine (Constitution of India) - Evolution of The Doctrine

Evolution of The Doctrine

The basic structure doctrine was further clarified in Minerva Mills v. Union of India (case citation: AIR 1980 SC 1789). The Constitution (Forty-Second Amendment) Act had been enacted by the government of Indira Gandhi in response to the Kesavananda judgment in an effort to reduce the power of the judicial review of constitutional amendments by the Supreme Court. In the Minerva Mills case, Nani Palkhivala successfully moved the Supreme Court to declare sections 4 & 55 of the 42nd amendment as unconstitutional.

Chief Justice Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud explained in the Minerva Mills judgment that since the power of Parliament to amend the constitution was limited, as had been previously held through the basic structure doctrine in the Kesavananda case, the parliament could not by amending the constitution convert this limited power into an unlimited power (as it had purported to do by the 42nd amendment).

In addition, the court also ruled that the parliament's "power to amend is not a power to destroy". Thus the parliament did not have the power emasculate the fundamental rights of individuals, such as the right to liberty and equality. This latter view of Article 31C was questioned, but not overturned, in Sanjeev Coke Manufacturing Co v Bharat Cooking Coal Ltd. (case citation: AIR 1983 SC 239).