This is a post about the 24th Amendment which gave the Parliament power to amend all parts of the Constitution including Part III relating to fundamental rights .
The Bill sought to amend article 368 as article 368 provides for amendment of the Constitution as well as procedure therefore.
The Bill also sought to amend article 13 of the Constitution to make it inapplicable to any amendment of the Constitution under article 368.
Article 13 and 368 are shown here .
Key provisions were
Amendment of article 13.-In article 13 of the Constitution, after clause (3), the following clause was to be inserted, “(4) Nothing in this article shall apply to any amendment of this Constitution made under article 368.”.
Amendment of article 368
“Nothing in article 13 shall apply to any amendment made under this article.”
Both can be seen in above screenshots .
The Bill was a reaction to Golak Nath case, 1967. The Golak Nath ruling led to increased parliamentary authority to amend the Constitution. Through the Amendment, Parliament sought to restore to itself undisputed authority to amend the Constitution .
Prior to the Golak Nath Case, the Supreme Court maintained that Fundamental Rights were also amendable. The case ruled that the Fundamental Rights were transcendental in nature and the Parliament cannot abridge or take away any Fundamental Rights.
The Supreme Court via the Kesavananda Bharati case upheld the validity of the 24th Amendment & stated that the Parliament is empowered to abridge or take away any of the Fundamental Rights but at the same time laid down the doctrine of the ‘basic structure of the Constitution’.