50 years of Kesavananda Bharati case

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Background:

• The case had its roots in Golaknath vs State of Punjab, in which the Supreme Court in an 11-member bench, ruled that Parliament could not curtail any fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution.
• To nullify the Golaknath verdict, Parliament enacted the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, laying down that its powers to amend the Constitution were unrestricted and unlimited. 
• Two years after Golaknath, the government nationalised a big portion of the banking system but the compensation to existing shareholders was minimal.
• In the Rustom Cooper vs Union of India (Bank Nationalisation case) the Supreme Court struck down the compensation offered, while upholding the government’s right to nationalisation.
• The 25th Amendment made many changes in Article 31 (dealing with compulsory acquisition of property) following the Bank Nationalisation case.
• The 26th Amendment terminated the privileges and privy purses of the ex-rulers of the former princely states, which was aimed at getting over the Supreme Court’s ruling in the privy purses case.
• Meanwhile, Kesavananda Bharati had moved the top court on 21 March 1970 against the land reforms law passed by the Kerala government with an objective to distribute land among landless farmers.
• He had contended that the land reforms law by the government was an attempt to impose restrictions on the management of the mutt’s property, which was the only source of income for his ashram.
• The then Senior advocate Nani Palkhivala, representing Swamiji extended the ambit of the case and challenged the series of constitutional amendments introduced.
• The law came to be known as the “Kesavananda Bharati versus State of Kerala” case. 

About the verdict-

•  The judgement was delivered on April 24, 1973, by a 13-judge bench of the Supreme Court after a hearing that lasted 66 days.
• It was the longest argued case with the largest bench (13 judges, this has happened only once till date) of the Supreme Court (SC); the 703-page judgment, spread over 11 judicial opinions, established a permanent bulwark against tyranny and dictatorship.
• The verdict that provided a firewall to the constitutional edifice continues to be debated till date.
• The ruling was the result of a petition by Kesavananda Bharati, the head of a Hindu monastery in Kerala’s Kasargod district, challenging the state government’s land reform acts that would result in the institution losing its holdings.
• The Kesavananda Bharati ruling was the culmination of a power struggle between Parliament and the Supreme Court that began with an earlier case.
• The judgment introduced the Basic Structure doctrine which limited Parliament’s power to make drastic amendments that may affect the core values enshrined in the Constitution like secularism and federalism. 
• The verdict upheld the power of the Supreme Court to judicially review laws of Parliament. 
• It evolved the concept of separation of powers among the three branches of governance — legislative, executive and the judiciary.
• The judgment also refused to consider the right to property as a fundamental right that was covered by the ‘basic structure’ doctrine.

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