Question

Under the Constitution of India, consider the following statements in the context of constitutional amendments: I. Judicial review extends to constitutional amendments. II. Laws inserted into the Ninth Schedule after 24th April, 1973 remain open to scrutiny for violation of the basic structure. III. Parliament's amending power under Article 368 is unlimited. Which of the above statements is/are correct?

• A. I and II
• B. II and III
• C. I only
• D. I, II and III

Hint:

Remember the "Basic Structure" threshold: April 24, 1973 (Kesavananda Bharati date) is the "cut-off." Post-1973, everything in the Ninth Schedule is open to judicial challenge!

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

The basic structure doctrine is the anchor for this entire question, so testing each statement against that doctrine settles the answer.

1. Statement I: Courts reviewing constitutional amendments for basic structure violations is now settled law, so this statement holds true.
2. Statement II: The Ninth Schedule was originally meant to place certain laws beyond judicial challenge, but I.R. Coelho clarified that this protection does not extend to laws added after 24 April 1973 if they damage the basic structure. This statement is also true.
3. Statement III: Calling Article 368's amending power "unlimited" contradicts the very foundation of the basic structure doctrine, which exists specifically to cap that power. This statement is false.
4. The remaining combinations either wrongly include the false Statement III or wrongly drop one of the two true statements, so none of them fit as well as the pairing of I and II alone.

Since exactly two of the three statements survive scrutiny, and they are I and II, that combination is the accurate one.

\[ \boxed{\text{I and II}} \]

Answer 2

A quick way through this kind of combination question is to sort the statements into "true" and "false" buckets first, then see which listed combination matches the true bucket exactly.

1. Sorting Statement I: True, judicial review of constitutional amendments for basic structure compliance is well established.
2. Sorting Statement II: True, the I.R. Coelho ruling specifically opened up post-1973 Ninth Schedule insertions to basic structure review.
3. Sorting Statement III: False, since the basic structure doctrine is precisely what limits Article 368, making the power anything but unlimited.
4. Matching to the options: Since only I and II belong in the "true" bucket, any option that adds III or drops either I or II fails, leaving the combination of I and II as the only one that matches the sorted result.

Sorting the statements first, then matching to the option that reflects exactly the true ones, gives a clean answer.

Hence, the correct answer is I and II.