Consider the following statements:The Constitution of India defines its structure in terms of federa

Question

Consider the following statements:The Constitution of India defines its structure in terms of federalism, secularism, fundamental rights and democracy.The Constitution of India provides for Judicial review to safeguard the citizens' liberties and to preserve the ideals on which the Constitution is based.Which of the statements given above is are correct?

Accepted Answer

Statement 1 is not correct: In the Kesavananda Bharati case, the Supreme Court laid down a new doctrine of the ‘basic structure’ (or ‘basic features’) of the Constitution. It ruled that the constituent power of Parliament under Article 368 does not enable it to alter the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution. From the various judgements, features like Independent Judiciary, Secularism, Rule of law, Free and fair elections, The principle of Separation of Powers, Parliamentary system, The essence of other Fundamental Rights in Part III, The Sovereign, Democratic, Republican structure etc. emerged as the part of Basic Structure.Statement 2 is correct: Judiciary is entrusted with the task of protecting rights of individuals. The Constitution provides two ways in which the Supreme Court can remedy the violation of rights:First it can restore fundamental rights by issuing writs of Habeas Corpus; mandamus etc. (article 32). The High Courts also have the power to issue such writs (article 226).Secondly, the Supreme Court can declare the concerned law as unconstitutional and therefore non-operational (article 13).Together these two provisions of the Constitution establish the Supreme Court as the protector of fundamental rights of the citizen on the one hand and interpreter of Constitution on the other. The second of the two ways mentioned above involves judicial review. The term judicial review is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution. However, the fact that India has a written constitution and the Supreme Court can strike down a law that goes against fundamental rights, implicitly gives the Supreme Court the power of judicial review.Source: Laxmikanth: Indian Polity