Verdict to heat up court battles

The governments and the law-makers lost their war in the Supreme Court on Thursday, but it would only increase the intensity of the many battles which are likely to be fought in various courts in the coming months.

The unanimous ruling of the nine-judge bench was that the laws put in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution and enjoying immunity from judicial review could be challenged in a court of law.

Now these laws will go before smaller benches in the Supreme Court. The list of cases are formidable and the subjects are sensitive socio-economic issues.

There are 35 writ petitions and appeals in the Supreme Court itself. The high courts might be seized of several more. The subjects of these appeals are often part of the political agenda of the powerful parties, like reservation and right to property.

Already a cry has risen for the review of the Constitution bench judgment. However, the success rate of review petitions in the Supreme Court is in decimals.

A review is meant for correcting "apparent errors of facts or law" and is not a retrial. It would be difficult to show that there are manifest errors in the judgment, which received instant ovation from jurists and commentators for its erudition.

On the other hand, the executive and the legislators have a hard task defending their laws as the court has left several gateways open for attack. The "basic structure" doctrine is one.

The definition of basic structure of the Constitution has defied jurists and the judiciary. Therefore, the laws could be assailed on the ground that they violated the amorphous principle of basic structure.

The judgment also says that the laws could be challenged for violation of Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21.

The scope of these fundamental rights have been expanded so widely that it is easy to challenge the validity of most of the laws alleging that these rights have been violated.

Against such all-out attack, the governments have to defend their laws invoking social justice and the constitutional mandate to implement equal distribution of national resources. Every political and economic issue turns into a legal issue sooner rather than later in this country.

Therefore, one should not expect just a battle in the courtrooms over these issues, but a simultaneous debate raging in other forums as well in the coming months.