Kharara

  Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973): The Case That Saved the Soul of the Indian Constitution Abstract On 24 April 1973, a thirteen-judge Bench of the Supreme Court of India delivered what is widely regarded as the single most consequential judgment in the constitutional history of independent India. In Kesavananda Bharati Sripadagalvaru and Others v. State of Kerala and Another, the Court, by the narrowest of majorities, held that while the Parliament of India possesses wide power under Article 368 to amend any provision of the Constitution, including the fundamental rights, that power is not unlimited: Parliament cannot use its amending power to abrogate or destroy the "basic structure" or essential features of the Constitution. This single proposition—compact in statement, sprawling in consequence—has shaped the trajectory of Indian democracy for more than five decades. It has been invoked to strike down constitutional amendments, to preserve the independenc...