{"id":41595,"date":"2019-02-05T10:53:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T05:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=41595"},"modified":"2019-02-05T10:53:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T05:23:03","slug":"legitimacy-of-the-basic-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/legitimacy-of-the-basic-structure\/","title":{"rendered":"Legitimacy of the basic structure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/lead\/legitimacy-of-the-basic-structure\/article26168775.ece\"><b>Legitimacy of the basic structure<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The article discusses the foundations of basic structure and its legitimacy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Facts: <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than 45 years have passed since the Supreme Court ruled in\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0that Parliament\u2019s power to amend the Constitution was not unlimited, that was limited by Constitution\u2019s basic structure.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Criticisms of the basic structure: <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The basic structure doctrine has no basis in the Constitution and finds no mention anywhere in the Constitution. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The doctrine accords the judiciary a power to impose its philosophy over a democratically formed\u00a0government,<\/span><b>\u00a0<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">resulting in \u201ctyranny of the unelected\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Arguments in support of basic structure: <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If a legislature were given the widest of powers to amend the Constitution, its authority was always subject to a set of inherent constitutional constraints. Parliament, therefore, cannot make changes that had the effect of overthrowing or obliterating the Constitution itself.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How might we react if the legislature were to amend Article 1, for example, by dividing India into two. \u201cCould a constitutional amendment, abolish Article 21,\u201d removing the guarantee of a right to life?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Kesavananda Bharti case, Court observed that any amending body organized within the statutory scheme cannot by its very structure change the fundamental pillars supporting its Constitutional authority. An amendment can only alter the form of existing Constitution and not an altogether new and radical Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Article 368 grants Parliament the power to amend the Constitution, making it clear that on the exercise of that power \u201cthe Constitution shall stand amended\u201d. Therefore, after amendment \u201cthe Constitution\u201d has to remain, naturally a change made under Article 368 cannot create a new constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legitimacy of the basic structure News: The article discusses the foundations of basic structure and its legitimacy. Facts: More than 45 years have passed since the Supreme Court ruled in\u00a0Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala\u00a0that Parliament\u2019s power to amend the Constitution was not unlimited, that was limited by Constitution\u2019s basic structure. Criticisms of the basic&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/legitimacy-of-the-basic-structure\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Legitimacy of the basic structure<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704879184},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}