Basic structure doctrine

Common card · No. 413471

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...

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