Basic Structure - Kesavananda Returns ?

Last September I was invited by NALSAR University students to visit their campus for a talk. A reticent bunch of bright law students were cajoled into participating in a role play of the greatest constitutional law case ever fought till date in India’s Supreme Court. -“delay”- those of you who have jumped at the present day law officers for trying to delay important constitutional law questions like electoral bonds and Kashmir should actually review how ‘delay’ has been a ‘tool’ in the executive’s armoury even decades ago when people even suspected government’s hand in poor Beg J getting himself admitted into a hospital in the middle of the hearing giving a panic attack to Sikri CJ as he had to get the mission accomplished before his impending retirement. What confounds me in all this is that, notwithstanding the perceived accommodation of the executive’s line by the Court in most cases such as Ayodhya, Rafael, Investigation into Judge Loya’s death, demonetisation, Electoral Bonds, Central Vista Development and vires of Money Laundering Law, the executive still feels the need to rock the boat and initiate an attack on foundational principles such as “Basic Structure” which have been a given for decades. Not that it has come in the way of certain courts, such as the United States Supreme Court from upsetting decades old settled law such as Roe v. Wade, yet such international scrutiny would also impact upon the decisional process should the Court be called upon to reconsider the Basic Structure theory- which for years has been hailed as India’s gift to the World’s constitutional jurisprudence.