Consider the following statements:
- 1. The Parliament of India can place a particular law in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution of India.
- 2. The validity of a law placed in the Ninth Schedule cannot be examined by any court and no judgement can be made on it.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
Answer is Wrong!
Answer is Right!
This question was previously asked in
UPSC IAS – 2018
Statement 2 is incorrect. The absolute immunity from judicial review for laws in the Ninth Schedule was challenged and limited by the Supreme Court. In the *Kesavananda Bharati* case (1973), the Court propounded the ‘Basic Structure Doctrine’. Later, in the *I.R. Coelho case* (2007), the Supreme Court ruled that laws placed in the Ninth Schedule after April 24, 1973 (the date of the *Kesavananda Bharati* judgment) are open to judicial scrutiny and can be challenged on the ground that they violate the basic structure of the Constitution. Thus, it is not true that the validity of a law placed in the Ninth Schedule *cannot* be examined by *any* court.
– Laws in the Ninth Schedule were initially considered immune from judicial review.
– The Supreme Court ruled that laws added to the Ninth Schedule after April 24, 1973, are subject to judicial review based on the Basic Structure Doctrine (*I.R. Coelho case*).