EVOLUTION OF BASIC STRUCTURE OF CONSTITUTION. [PART 1]: UPSC Daily Important Topic | 1 December 2021

1.  Shankari Prasad case (1951)

• The constitutional validity of the First Amendment Act (1951), which curtailed the right to property, was challenged.

• The Supreme Court ruled that the power of the Parliament to amend the Constitution under Article 368 also includes the power to amend Fundamental Rights.

2.  Golak Nath case (1967)

• The Supreme Court reversed its earlier stand. In that case, the constitutional validity of the Seventeenth Amendment Act (1964), which inserted certain state acts in the Ninth Schedule, was challenged.

• The Supreme Court ruled that the Fundamental Rights are given a ‘transcendental and immutable’ position and hence, the Parliament cannot abridge or take away any of these rights.