Jahanvi Agarwal
The former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi’s remarks in the Rajya Sabha yesterday throwing doubt on the essential structural notion were brought up for discussion when the Supreme Court heard the Article 370 issue.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, speaking before a Constitution Bench on behalf of the petitioners, argued that the manner in which the Centre terminated Jammu and Kashmir’s special status could not be justified “unless a new jurisprudence comes to light that they can do whatever they like as long as they have a majority.”
He commented:
“Now one of your esteemed colleagues has said that in fact, basic structure theory is also doubtful.”
Tushar Mehta, the Solicitor General of India, intervened and claimed that the Parliament’s procedures could not be brought up in court.
“Parliament doesn’t discuss what goes on in courts. Mr. Sibal is addressing this here since he wasn’t there in Parliament yesterday. You should have responded in the Parliament” (Sibal is a Rajya Sabha member as well).
Following Ranjan Gogoi’s retirement as Chief Justice of India in November 2019, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha and delivered his first speech there yesterday in support of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill 2023, which aims to curtail the elected government of Delhi’s authority over services.
During his speech, Gogoi said that the basic structure doctrine has a “doubtful jurisprudence”.