Doctrine of prospective overruling
Also called: Prospective overruling · Topic: Amendment of the Constitution and the Basic Structure · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The doctrine of prospective overruling means that a new court ruling applies only to the future. Past actions done under the old understanding of the law stay valid. It lets a court change the law without undoing everything already done. In India, the Supreme Court first used it in Golaknath (1967).
Example
In Golaknath (27 February 1967), an 11-judge bench ruled 6:5 that Parliament cannot take away fundamental rights by amendment. Applying this to the past would have cancelled earlier amendments and years of land reform. So the Court applied the ruling only to the future. The 1st, 4th and 17th Amendments and the land reforms stayed valid.
Don't confuse with
- Waman Rao cut-off (1981): it also separates old from new, but it fixes a date, 24 April 1973. Amendments and Ninth Schedule entries made before that date are safe. Later ones can be tested against the basic structure.
Related concepts
- 1st Constitutional Amendment Act 1951
- Ninth Schedule
- Shankari Prasad case
- Sajjan Singh case
- Golaknath case
- R.C. Cooper case