Supreme Court and Judicial Review

Choose the Correct Answer

Correct Answer : Option c

Explanation
Statement 1 and 4 are correct: The Kesavananda Bharati case (1973), the Supreme Court overruled its judgement in the Golak Nath case (1967) stating that Parliament is empowered to abridge or take away any of the Fundamental Rights. At the same time, it 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.
The doctrine of basic structure of the constitution was reaffirmed and applied by the Supreme Court in the Indira Nehru Gandhi case (1975).

Statements 2 and 3 are not correct: Basic structure doctrine was introduced in 1973 by Kesavananda Bharati Case.
Shankari Prasad Case 1951 and Golaknath Case 1967 were before the time when doctrine of basic structure was introduced.
In the Shankari Prasad case(1951), the constitutional validity of the First Amendment Act (1951), which curtailed the right to property, was challenged. The Supreme Court ruled that the power of the Parliament to amend the Constitution under Article 368 also includes the power to amend Fundamental Rights.

In the GolakNath case (1967), the Supreme Court reversed its earlier stand. In that case, the constitutional validity of the Seventeenth Amendment Act (1964), which inserted certain state acts in the Ninth Schedule, was challenged. The Supreme Court ruled that the Fundamental Rights are given a ‘transcendental and immutable’ position and hence, the Parliament cannot abridge or take away any of these rights.