Court case(2007) 2 SCC 1

The Gudalur Janmam Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1969 of Tamil Nadu was struck down in Balmadies Plantations v. State of Tamil Nadu (1972) in so far as it transferred forest lands to the State, as not being agrarian reform protected by Article 31A. Parliament then inserted the Act in the Ninth Schedule by the 34th Amendment, 1974. The landowners challenged the insertion. A five-judge Bench in 1999 noticed that Waman Rao permitted challenges to post-1973 additions but that the scope of such review was unclear, and referred the matter to a nine-judge Bench.

Sabharwal CJ, for a unanimous Bench, held that Article 31B does not give Parliament a blanket power to put any law beyond the reach of the Constitution. Every law inserted into the Ninth Schedule on or after 24 April 1973 is open to challenge on the ground that it abrogates fundamental rights, judged by the "impact test": the Court asks whether the law, by its actual effect, damages or destroys the rights guaranteed by Part III that are part of the basic structure, in particular Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 and the principles underlying them, and the "essence of the right" test. Judicial review under Article 32 is itself a basic feature, and a constitutional amendment cannot be used to remove it. If a law is upheld on this test it cannot be challenged again on the same ground, but an Act previously struck down and then placed in the Schedule must be tested afresh. The matter was sent back to the regular Bench to apply the principles.