In an October 1971 report, the Law Commission, headed by former Supreme Court Chief Justice P.B. Gajendragadkar,
It is cardinal principal of legal jurisprudence that legislature passes law
executor executes it and Courts Declare laws.viz Valid or Invalid
Constitution
The 25th Amendment was intended to strip the Supreme Court of the power to
go into the quantum of compensation for takeover of property for public use.
It would do this by amending and replacing the word "compensation" for the
word "amount" for property acquired or requisitioned. The Amendment would
also to insert a new clause 31(C) in the Constitution, which would prevent a
bill from being challenged in the Court, either under Article 14 (equality
before the law), Article 19 (right to property, freedom of association,
speech, religion etc.) or Article 31 (on deprivation of law except under
authority of law), if Parliament certified that the bill was intended to
ensure equitable distribution of material resources or to prevent
concentration of economic power.[1]
In an October 1971 report, the Law Commission, headed by former Supreme
Court Chief Justice P.B. Gajendragadkar, recommended deletion of the part of
article 31C which placed any law containing a declaration that it was for
giving effect to certain Directive Principles, outside judicial review. The
Commission stated that it would be "unreasonable to prevent any judicial
inquiry into the question as to whether laws passed in pursuance of the
policy (giving primacy to Directive Principles) bore any connection with the
objects intended to be served by it. Parliament should trust the judiciary
to do its duty fairly, fearlessly, impartially and objectively and to take
cognizance of the changed philosophy which Parliament proposed to adopt in
recognising the importance, the urgency and the significance of implementing
the Directive Principles in question". However, the report was rejected by
the government.[1] The Law Commission's view would later be justified in
1973 by the Supreme Court verdict in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala,
in which the Court held the relevant section of the 25th Amendment as
unconstitutional
--The constitutionality of sections 4 and 55 of the 42nd Amendment were
challenged in Minerva Mills v. Union of India, when Charan Singh was
caretaker Prime Minister. Section 4 of the 42nd Amendment, had amended
Article 31C of the Constitution to accord precedence to the Directive
Principles of State Policy articulated in Part IV of the Constitution over
the Fundamental Rights of individuals articulated in Part III. Section 55
prevented any constitutional amendment from being "called in question in any
Court on any ground". It also declared that there would be no limitation
whatever on the power of Parliament to amend the Constitution. After the
1980 Indian general election, the Supreme Court declared sections 4 and 55
of the 42nd amendment as unconstitutional. It further endorsed and evolved
the basic structure doctrine of the Constitution
Bad effects of Article 31-C:-
There are a large number of instances, which suffered because of Article
31-C, such as, Coal Nationalization, Acquisition of textile Undertakings,&
electricity Supply Undertakings, refractory plants Nationalization,
acquisition under Urban Land Ceiling Act,etc., which were all taken over for
a pittance.
Article 31-C, as originally enacted, only protected laws meant for
furthering the directive principle contained in Articles 39(b) & 39(c). By
the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution, the scope of 31-C was widened to
protect all laws furthering any of the directive principle contained in Part
IV of the Constitution.
A Constitution Bench in Minerval Mill case struck down the amendment to
31-C. The Property owners are contending that once the amendment is struck
down, the state cannot rely on Article 31-C to deprive industrialists,
businessman & persons of their property without paying adequate compensation
equal to the market value, as Article 31-C does not at all exist.
Under the MHADA Act, the property can be acuired by MHADA/ Government on
payment of 100 months rent to the owners of the property, thereby taking
away thge property of owners. Further, The Maharashtra Rent Control Act
1999, wherein the rents are frozen at 1940 level & meagre 4% increase is
permitted every year. The Government has claimed the protection of Article
31C of the Constitution of India to MHADA Act 1976 and The Maharashtra Rent
Control Act 1999.