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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

30/04/24 11:46 AM IST

Article 31C

In News
  • Recently, while hearing a case to decide whether the government can acquire and redistribute private property, a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud decided to take up another issue of “radical constitutional consequence”: does Article 31C still exist?
Article 31C
  • Article 31C was introduced by The Constitution (Twenty-fifth) Amendment Act, 1971.
  • The Statement of Objects and Reasons for the amendment specifically mentioned the “Bank Nationalisation Case” (Rustom Cavasjee Cooper vs Union Of India, 1970), in which the Supreme Court stopped the Centre from acquiring control of 14 commercial banks by enacting The Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1969.
  • An eleven-judge Bench struck the Act down by referring to the now-repealed Article 31(2), which said that the government could not acquire any property for public purposes under any law unless the law fixes compensation for the property, or specifies the principles on which compensation will be based.
  • In the Bank Nationalisation case, the court held that the ‘right to compensation’ was not appropriately ensured by the Banking Act.
  • No law giving effect to the policy of the State towards securing the principles specified in clause (b) or clause (c) of article 39 shall be deemed to be void on the ground that it is inconsistent with, or takes away or abridges any of the rights conferred by article 14, article 19 or article 31; and no law containing a declaration that it is for giving effect to such policy shall be called in question in any court on the ground that it does not give effect to such policy.
The journey of Article 31C
  • The 25th amendment was challenged in the seminal Kesavananda Bharati case (1973) in which 13 judges held by a narrow 7-6 majority that the Constitution has a “basic structure” that cannot be altered, even by a constitutional amendment.
  • As a part of this verdict, the court struck down the last portion of Article 31C, i.e., the part that states “…and no law containing a declaration that it is for giving effect to such policy shall be called in question in any court on the ground that it does not give effect to such policy”.
  • This opened the door for the court to examine laws that had been enacted to further Articles 39(b) and 39(c), to determine whether the purpose of those laws actually lined up with the principles espoused in these provisions.
  • In 1976, Parliament enacted The Constitution (Forty-second) Amendment Act, which expanded the protection under Article 31C to “all or any of the principles laid down in Part IV of the Constitution”, under clause 4.
  • As a result, every single directive principle (Articles 36-51) was protected from challenges under Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution.
  • The Statement of Objects of Reasons for the amendment stated that it was meant to give precedence to the directive principles “over those fundamental rights which have been allowed to be relied upon to frustrate socio-economic reforms for implementing the directive principles”.
  • In 1980, in its judgment in Minerva Mills v. Union of India, the SC struck down clauses 4 and 5 of the amendment.
  • The five-judge Bench held that Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution was limited, and it could not be used to remove these limitations and grant itself “unlimited” and “absolute” powers of amendment.
  • However, this ruling birthed a conundrum that the apex court must now address.
  • By striking down part of the 25th amendment, did the court strike down Article 31C as a whole, or did it restore the post-Kesavananda Bharati position wherein Articles 39(b) and (c) remained protected?
Source- Indian Express

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