Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala
Court
Supreme Court of India
Date
24 April 1973
Citation
AIR 1973 SC 1461; (1973) 4 SCC 225
Bench
CJI S.M. Sikri, Justices K.S. Hegde, A.K. Mukherjea, J.M. Shelat, A.N. Grover, P. Jaganmohan Reddy, H.R. Khanna, K.K. Mathew, M.H. Beg, S.N. Dwivedi, A.N. Ray, Y.V. Chandrachud, and M. Hameedullah Beg
This case arose when Swami Kesavananda Bharati, head of a religious sect in Kerala, challenged the Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1963, and the Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1969, which imposed restrictions on his right to manage religious property.
The case came before a special bench of 13 judges — the largest ever constituted in the Supreme Court of India. The primary constitutional question was whether Article 368 granted Parliament unlimited power to amend any part of the Constitution, including Fundamental Rights.
The government had argued, following the Golaknath case (1967), and then the constitutional amendments (24th, 25th, 26th, and 29th), that Parliament possessed unlimited constituent power to amend even the fundamental rights.
Key Takeaways
- Basic Structure Doctrine: Parliament cannot amend the basic structure of the Constitution
- Decided by 13-judge bench — the largest in SC history
- 7:6 majority — one of the closest constitutional decisions
- Overruled Golaknath v. State of Punjab (1967) prospectively
- 24th Constitutional Amendment upheld but with basic structure limitation
- Protects democracy, federalism, secularism, and independence of judiciary
- This doctrine applies to ALL future constitutional amendments
Educational summary created by NyayPoint. This is not legal advice. Refer to the official judgment for authoritative text. View original source
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Case Information
- Court
- Supreme Court of India
- Year
- 1973
- Citation
- AIR 1973 SC 1461; (1973) 4 SCC 225
- Category
- Constitutional Law