India: Doctrine of Basic Structure was recognized for the first time as a concept by the Honorable Supreme Court of India in the Kesavananda Bharati case (1973).
It’s an Indian innovation in which the court declared that Article 368 (the power to amend constitution) did not enable Parliament to alter the basic structure or framework of the Constitution and parliament could not use its amending powers under Article 368 to ‘damage’, ’emasculate’, ‘destroy’, ‘abrogate’, ‘change’ or ‘alter’ the ‘basic structure’ or framework of the constitution. This decision is not just a landmark in the evolution of constitutional law, but a turning point in constitutional history. Continue reading
Abhimanyu Dinesh Rathi 