Minerva Mills Ltd. is a limited company dealing in textiles.

On August 20, 1970 the Central Government appointed a committee under section IS of the Industries (Development Regulation) Act, 1951 to make a full and complete investigation of the affairs of the Minerva Mills Ltd as it was of the opinion that there had been or was likely to be substantial fall in the volume of production. The said Committee submitted its report to the Central Government in January 1971, on the basis of which the Central Government passed an order dated October 19, 1971 under section 18A of the 1951 Act, authorising the National Textile Corporation Ltd., to take over the management of the Mills on the ground that its affairs are being managed in a manner highly detrimental to public interest. This undertaking was nationalised and taken over by the Central Government under the provisions of the Sick Textile Undertakings (Nationalisation) Act, 1974. The petitioners challenged the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Sick Textile Undertakings (Nationalisation) Act, 1974 and of the order dated October 19, 1971, the constitutionality of the Constitution (Thirty Ninth Amendment) Act which inserted the impugned Nationalisation Act as Entry 105 in the Ninth Schedule to the Constitution, the validity of Article 31B of the Constitution and finally the constitutionality of sections 4 and 55 of the Constitution (Forty Second Amendment) Act, 1976 on the ratio of the majority judgment in Kesavananda Bharati's case, namely, though by Article 368 of the Constitution Parliament is given the power to amend the Constitution, that power cannot be exercised so as to damage the basic features of the Constitution or so as to destroy its basic structure. Opining that sections 4 and 55 of the Constitution (Forty Second Amendment) Act are void and beyond the amending power of the Parliament, the Court by majority (Per Chandrachud. C.J., on behalf of himself, A. Gupta. N.L. Untwalia & P.S. Kailasam, JJ.) ^ HELD: (1) The newly introduced clause S of Article 368 transgresses the limitations on the amending power of Parliament and is hence unconstitutional. It demolishes the very pillars on which the preamble rests by empowering the Parliament to exercise its constituent power without any "limitation whatever". No constituent power can conceivably go higher than the sky-high power conferred by clause (5), for it even empowers the Parliament to "repeal the provisions of this Constitution", that is to say, to abrogate the democracy. and substitute for it a totally antithetical form of Government. That can most effectively be achieved, without calling a democracy by any other name, by a total denial of social, economic and political justice to the people, by emasculating liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship and by abjuring commitment to the magnificent ideal of a society of equals. The power to destroy is not a power to amend. [240C-E] Since the Constitution had conferred a limited amending power on the Parliament, the Parliament cannot under the exercise of that limited power enlarge that very power into an absolute power. Indeed, a limited amending power is one of the basic features of Indian Constitution and therefore, the limitations on that power cannot be destroyed. In other words, Parliament cannot, under Article 368, expand its amending power so as to acquire for itself the right to repeal or abrogate the Constitution or to destroy its basic and essential features. The donee of a limited power cannot by the exercise of that power convert the limited power into an unlimited one. [240E- G] Smt. Indira Nehru Gandhi v. Raj Narain, [1976] 2 SCR 347, followed.

(2) The newly introduced clause (4) of Article 368 is equally unconstitutional and void because clauses (4) and (5) are inter-linked. While clause (5) purports to remove all limitations on the amending power, clause (4) deprives the courts of their power to call in question any amendment of the Constitution. [241E-F] Indian Constitution is founded on a nice balance of power among the three wings of the State namely, the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. It is the function of the Judges, may their duty, to pronounce upon the validity of laws. If courts are totally deprived of that power, the fundamental rights conferred upon the people will become a mere adornment because rights without remedies are as writ in water. A controlled Constitution will then become uncontrolled. Clause (4) of Article 368 totally deprives the citizens of one of the most valuable modes of redress which is guaranteed by Article 32. The conferment of the right to destroy the identity of the Constitution coupled with the provision that no court of law shall pronounce upon the validity of such destruction is a transparent case of transgression of the limitations on the amending power. [241H, 242A] If a constitutional amendment cannot be pronounced to be invalid even if it destroys the basic structure of the Constitution, a law passed in pursuance of such an amendment will be beyond the pale of judicial review because it will receive the protection of the constitutional amendment which the courts will be powerless to strike down. Article 13 of Constitution will then become a dead letter because even ordinary laws will escape the scrutiny of the courts on the ground that they are passed on the strength of a constitutional amendment which is not open to challenge. [242A-C]