Basic structure doctrine

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The basic structure doctrine is a common law doctrine holding that a sovereign state's constitution has certain characteristics that its legislature cannot alter. The doctrine is recognised in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Uganda. It was developed by the Supreme Court of India in a series of constitutional law cases in the 1960s and 1970s that culminated in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, where the doctrine was formally adopted. Bangladesh is perhaps the only legal system in the world that recognizes this doctrine in an expressed, written, and rigid constitutional manner through Article 7B of its Constitution. In Kesavananda Bharati, Justice Hans Raj Khanna propounded that the Constitution of India contains certain basic features that cannot be altered or destroyed through amendments by the Parliament of India. Key among these "basic features", as expounded by Justice Khanna, are the fundamental rights guaranteed to individuals by the constitution. The doctrine thus forms the basis of the Supreme Court of India's power to review and strike down constitutional amendments and acts enacted by the Parliament that conflict with or seek to alter this "basic structure" of the Constitution. The basic features of the Constitution have not been explicitly defined by the Judiciary, and the determination of any particular feature as a "basic" feature is made by the Court on a case-by-case basis. The Supreme Court's initial position on constitutional amendments had been that any part of the Constitution was amendable and that the Parliament might, by passing a Constitution Amendment Act in compliance with the requirements of article 368, amend any provision of the Constitution, including the Fundamental Rights and article 368. In 1967, the Supreme Court reversed its earlier decisions in Golaknath v. State of Punjab. It held that Fundamental Rights included in Part III of the Constitution are given a...