ValkyaEditorial

Tagged “thirty-ninth-amendment”

1 article on thirty-ninth-amendment.

Landmark JudgmentSupreme Court of India

Indira Nehru Gandhi v. Raj Narain: how the five-judge Bench struck down a constitutional amendment that tried to immunise a single election

On 7 November 1975, a five-judge Constitution Bench unanimously struck down Clause (4) of Article 329A — the Thirty-ninth Amendment's attempt to retroactively withdraw the Prime Minister's election from judicial scrutiny — as a violation of the basic structure. On the merits, the Court reversed the Allahabad High Court and upheld Mrs Gandhi's Rae Bareli election, but on statutory grounds: the retroactive amendments to the Representation of the People Act had taken the very corrupt-practice findings out from under Sinha J's judgment. The judgment installed free and fair elections, judicial review of election disputes and the rule of law as basic-structure components.

Valkya Editorial··16 min