Kesavananda Bharati verdict profound affirmation of India’s commitment to constitutionalism: CJI Surya Kant

Hailing the historic Kesavananda Bharati case verdict as one of the most profound affirmations of India’s commitment to constitutionalism, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Saturday described it as “an act of constitutional archaeology.”

“I do not regard the Kesavananda Bharati case as a mere legal precedent. It stands, instead, as one of the most profound affirmations of India’s commitment to constitutionalism and the rule of law. It was, in truth, an act of constitutional archaeology: the judges unearthed, from within the four corners of the Constitution, those foundational principles that had always lain embedded in its design, waiting to be revealed by interpretation rather than invention,” CJI Kant said.

Addressing the opening ceremony of an international convention on ‘The Independence of Judiciary: Comparative Perspective on Rights, Institutions and Citizens’ at the OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, the CJI said, “The true brilliance of the Kesavananda majority lay in recognising that what could not be amended was what made the Constitution meaningful – it’s just soul, painstakingly designed by our framers under the visionary guidance of Dr B R Ambedkar”.

The historic Kesavananda Bharati verdict of 1973, which laid down the “basic structure doctrine” of the Constitution, allowed Parliament to amend fundamental rights with the caveat that it can’t amend the basic structure of the Constitution. The verdict produced the ‘basic structure doctrine’, which was neither a flight of judicial fancy nor an indulgence in philosophical abstraction, he said.

The CJI said the basic doctrine has allowed our Constitution to grow without losing its centre – to stretch toward new realities, and yet remain tethered to its founding spirit. “As this momentous conference reminds us: the basic structure doctrine is not to be a relic of the past, but a map for charting our future. It is the conscience that keeps our democracy from drifting into absolutism, as we modernise our institutions and confront new frontiers,” he said.

Justice Kant, who took oath as the 53^rd CJI on November 24, said the truly “basic” doctrine continues to remind us that our Constitution is not a transient political document; it is a covenant between the state and the citizen.

“As the battery of lawyers told the Bench about 50 years ago, it limits power not to weaken it, but to civilise it. This is also precisely why every generation that revisits Kesavananda Bharati rediscovers that the Constitution’s strength does not lie in ink or parchment, but in the probity of those who interpret and defend it.

“Its survival has always depended on a community of custodians who read it not as a frozen command, but as a living charge,” he said in the presence of Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, Attorney General R Venkataramani, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and several judges and senior lawyers.

On this occasion, the world’s largest moot court ‘Nyayabhyasa Mandapam’ was inaugurated.