Letter and spirit of the Constitution
Topic: Amendment of the Constitution and the Basic Structure · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 9 "Constitution as a Living Document"
Meaning
The letter of the Constitution is its bare words. The spirit is the purpose and values behind those words. A court can read only the letter, or it can read the text in the light of its spirit. NCERT uses this contrast to explain how judges keep the Constitution alive and up to date.
Example
The basic structure doctrine from Kesavananda Bharati (1973) appears nowhere in the text. The Court found it by reading the spirit of the Constitution: democracy, secularism, federalism and the supremacy of the Constitution. NCERT therefore calls the doctrine "itself an example of a living constitution".
Don't confuse with
- Formal amendment: it changes the actual words of the Constitution through Art. 368. Reading the spirit changes the working meaning while the text stays the same.
Related concepts
- 24th Constitutional Amendment Act 1971
- 25th Constitutional Amendment Act 1971
- Kesavananda Bharati case
- Basic structure doctrine