Supreme Court launches dedicated webpage on Kesavananda Bharati judgment to help with law research

The Supreme Court of India on Monday launched a webpage to mark the 50th anniversary of the judgment in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala delivered on April 24, 1973..According to Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, the webpage can be used by the world for law research."Today is the 50th anniversary of the Kesavanada Bharathi judgment which was delivered on April 24, 1973. We have dedicated a webpage on the judgments which has case notes, written submissions etc. which the world can use for law research," he said..The Kesavananda Bharati case was heard by a bench of 13 judges of the Supreme Court of India, making it the largest bench in Indian legal history. The bench comprised of then Chief Justice of India SM Sikri, Justices JM Shelat, KS Hegde, AN Grover, AN Ray, P Jaganmohan Reddy, DG Palekar, HR Khanna, KK Mathew, MH Beg, SN Dwivedi, BK Mukherjea and YV Chandrachud..The bench was established to hear a case that raised crucial constitutional questions regarding the Parliament's authority to modify the Constitution. It took six months to hear arguments and deliver the final verdict. The ruling established the fundamental structure doctrine of the Constitution, which asserts that specific fundamental features of the Constitution, such as democracy, secularism, federalism, and the rule of law, cannot be changed by the parliament. Further, the court stated that the power of judicial review is an essential part of the basic structure of the Constitution, which cannot be revoked by parliament through constitutional amendments.The webpage offers copies of the judgment in both English and Hindi languages. Additionally, it presents the individual judgments of all thirteen judges. It also includes written arguments and submissions of the petitioner, respondents, and intervenors, as well as Nani Palkhivala's brief submission on the second last day of the hearing. The page also provides reference material authored by Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhavan and advocate Ramesh D Garg.Access the page here.