What was held in the Coelho case? In this context, can you say that judicial review is of key importance…

Question

What was held in the Coelho case? In this context, can you say that judicial review is of key importance amongst the basic features of the Constitution?

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Coelho (2007) held that laws added to the Ninth Schedule after 24 April 1973 can be struck down for damaging the basic structure, making judicial review itself a basic feature. Judicial review is the keystone feature because it enforces every other one, provided courts exercise restraint.

**Introduction**

The Ninth Schedule, created in 1951 to protect land reforms, had grown to 284 entries. In I.R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu (2007), a nine-judge Bench decided whether placing a law there could put it beyond the courts.

**What the Coelho Bench Held**

SKETCH: timeline | Road to Coelho
- 1951 :: Ninth Schedule created
- 1973 :: Basic structure born
- 1981 :: Waman Rao cut-off
- 2007 :: Coelho opens review

1. **No blanket immunity**: Laws added after 24 April 1973, the Kesavananda Bharati date, can be struck down if they damage the basic structure.
2. **Rights test**: The Court looks at the law's actual effect on Fundamental Rights; Articles 14, 19 and 21 form part of the basic structure.
3. **Review is basic structure**: Article 31B cannot create a zone free of judicial review, though laws already upheld stay settled.

**Why Judicial Review Is the Keystone Feature**

1. **Guardian of other features**: Federalism and secularism survive because courts can strike down breaches, as S.R. Bommai (1994) did for Article 356.
2. **Repeatedly shielded**: Minerva Mills (1980) struck down the 42nd Amendment's ouster clauses, and L. Chandra Kumar (1997) placed Articles 32 and 226 in the basic structure.
3. **Framers' intent**: Ambedkar called Article 32 "the very soul of the Constitution and the very heart of it".
4. **Not above all**: Democracy and the rule of law are co-equal features, and overreach, as critics saw in the NJAC verdict (2015), erodes review's legitimacy.

**Conclusion**

Coelho confirmed that no device can switch off judicial review, making it first among the basic features because it enforces all the others. Its authority rests on restraint, so that the Constitution itself remains supreme.

What was held in the Coelho case? In this context, can you say that judicial review is of key importance amongst the basic features of the Constitution?

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