Waman Rao case
Also called: Waman Rao v. Union of India (1981) · Topic: Amendment of the Constitution and the Basic Structure · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Waman Rao v. Union of India (1981) is a Supreme Court judgment that set a cut-off date for applying the basic structure doctrine. The date is 24 April 1973, the day the Kesavananda Bharati case was decided. Amendments and Ninth Schedule entries made before that date stay valid. The Ninth Schedule is a list of laws, mostly land reforms, protected from fundamental-rights challenges. Amendments and entries made after that date can be tested against the basic structure, meaning the essential features of the Constitution.
Example
Land reform laws added to the Ninth Schedule by the 1st Amendment (1951) are safe under Waman Rao because they came before 24 April 1973. A law added after that date can be challenged. I.R. Coelho (2007) later confirmed that such later laws can be struck down if they damage the basic structure.
Don't confuse with
- I.R. Coelho case (2007): the date came from Waman Rao. Coelho, a 9-judge bench, held that post-1973 Ninth Schedule laws can be struck down, including for harming the essence of Arts. 14, 19 and 21.