This article was written by SASANK MITTA is a student of Indira priyadarsini law college 

INTRODUCTION

The word basic structure begins in France and Germany in the 20th century Carl Schmitt who is a German constitution lawyer and another one Maurice hauriou raised the arguments for the implementation of constitutional limits on the constitutional amendment, The basic structure means as an example we can’t change the eyes or nose of a human body but we can try to make difference in other aspects such as skin, as in the same way the parliament shall not introduce any amendment which may affect or violates the basic structure of the constitution, There are particularly two most important articles in our Indian constitution which deals which is the basic structure of the Indian constitution.

ARTICLE-13

Article 13 of the Indian constitution says that “Any law which is inconsistent with part 3 of the Indian constitution shall be void”, as we all know that part 3 of the Indian constitution is about the fundamental rights of the citizen of India in simple language this article stating that any new law or any new amendment which violates the fundamental rights of a citizen is a void one.

ARTICLE-368

Article 368 deals with the amendment procedure of the constitution of India the parliament has the right to establish any new amendment and the president must have to give his assent for the amendment.

Kesavananda Bharati vs State of Kerala (1973)

This is the most important case law of the Indian constitution this case was held with 13 judges bench and the decision was taken in a ratio of 7:6 headed by CJ Sikri we have to remember the date of the landmark judgment is 24th April 1973 and in this case, the supreme court said that the parliament can amend any law in the constitution but the parliament does not have rights to amend any law which affects the basic structure of the Indian constitution and the lawyer was Nanabhoy palkhivala who dealt the case of kesavananda Bharati and The proceedings of this case were run till 68 days and over 100 cases were sidelined for this case and to get to know what is wrong and what is right more than 70 countries constitutions were compared and the judgment in this case is 703 pages long.

Shankari Prasad vs Union of India (1951)

This is also one of the landmark judgments given by the supreme court of India in this case the supreme court states that the parliament can amend any part of the constitution of India including the fundamental rights as well.

Indira Gandhi vs Raj Narain (1975)

This was the first landmark judgment in which the kesavananda Bharti was applied by the supreme court of India and the newly added 329A clause 4 is declared unconstitutional because that amendment violated the basic structure of the Indian constitution. 

CONCLUSION

There are lots of cases that explain the basic structure of the Indian constitution such as in the case of golaknath the supreme court said some features of the constitution lay at its core and required much more than usual procedure to change and the basic structure of the constitution also includes supremacy of the constitution, secular form of constitution, unity and integrity of the nation, etc. As we all know that the preamble of the constitution is also one of the basic structures of the constitution of India was said by the supreme court of India in the case of SR Bommai case, the only thing every judgment stating that the amendment was given by the parliament should not affect any fundamental rights of the citizen of India.

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