The Basic Structure

In one line

Parliament may amend any article of the Constitution, but not so as to destroy what makes the Constitution that Constitution, and a court will say when it has.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the basic structure doctrine, laid down in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, is that article 368 confers a power to amend and not a power to destroy, so no amendment may damage or destroy the basic structure of the Constitution. It limits constituent power itself, so it binds a Parliament acting with a two-thirds majority and the ratification of half the States. In Minerva Mills Ltd v. Union of India it struck down clauses (4) and (5) of article 368 and the amended article 31C, the Court holding that "a limited amending power is one of the basic features of Indian Constitution". In Waman Rao v. Union of India it got a date: amendments putting laws into the Ninth Schedule on or after 24 April 1973 are open to challenge. In I.R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu it became an impact test, applied through article 21 read with articles 14 and 19.

Why the law has this at all

[The Amending Power] ends with a settled proposition: article 368 reaches every article, Part III included. Follow it to the end. A Parliament with the numbers could delete article 32, abolish the States, or provide that no further election need be held. Each step is an "amendment" in the literal sense, and on the literal reading each is lawful. The doctrine exists because the framers gave Parliament a power over the Constitution and gave nobody a power over the country.

The provision

Article 368(1) says Parliament "may in exercise of its constituent power amend by way of addition, variation or repeal any provision of this Constitution". The doctrine hangs on that one word. The Forty-second Amendment 1976 tried to close the argument by adding two clauses. Clause (4): no amendment "shall be called in question in any court on any ground". Clause (5): "there shall be no limitation whatever on the constituent power of Parliament to amend by way of addition, variation or repeal the provisions of this Constitution under this article." Both are still printed, and their footnote records that the section that inserted them "has been declared invalid by the Supreme Court in Minerva Mills Ltd. and Others Vs. Union of India and Others AIR 1980 SC 1789".

Article 32 is the other half. Clause (1) guarantees "The right to move the Supreme Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the rights conferred by this Part", and clause (4) says that right "shall not be suspended except as otherwise provided for by this Constitution". A limit on amendment is worth nothing without a court to hear the complaint, which is what clause (4) of article 368 was written to remove.