Judiciary Rules here - Says Ninth Schedule Laws Open To Review

Persisting with its assertive mode vis-a-vis the legislature, thesupreme court on Thursday ruled that laws put in the ninth schedule after April 1973 could not escape judicial scrutiny if they appeared to breach the citizen’s fundamental rights or undermined the basic structure of the constitution.
The unanimous verdict by the nine-judge constitution bench led by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, like the one by the SC on Wednesday in the MPs’ expulsion case, asserted the court’s role as the final arbiter at the expense of the notions of parliamentary supremacy.
In practical terms, it means that many crucial laws, such as the one enacted by Tamil Nadu to extend the quantum of reservations well beyond the supreme court-mandated 50% ceiling, will now be open to challenge in courts on grounds of being contrary to the basic structure as well as violative of fundamental rights—the right to equality (Articles 14, 15 and 16), right to freedom of expression (Article 19) and right to life (Article 21).
The court upheld parliament’s power to put certain laws in the ninth schedule, but that will be of little comfort to politicians who, over the years, have sought to take advantage of the provision—Article 31B, conceived to protect land reform laws from challenges from landlords—to innoculate all sorts of laws from judicial scrutiny. In the most recent instance, the Centre had come under pressure to put anti-sealing laws in the national capital in the schedule.
The TN Reservation Act, which was inserted in the ninth schedule in 1994, will straightaway be examined on the basis of the twin parameters, fundamental rights and basic structure, by a three-judge bench to be constituted later.

What is ninth schedule?

The ninth schedule was drafted by the Nehru government in 1951. It’s a constitutional provision granting parliament the power to insulate any law from judicial review. The provision has come into sharp focus as the political class has tended to use it for all kinds of purposes, most recently for job reservations.

No scrutiny of laws that have passed muster: SC


The supreme court’s decision to put the TN government’s 69% reservations under the judicial scanner is sure to lead to a churning in the political class, with the OBC establishment not concealing its unease over the development. The nine-judge bench, however, was remarkably unanimous as it, in the 108-page judgment, strongly argued that the ninth schedule cannot fetter the court from nullifying laws which fail the twin tests. “The jurisidiction conferred on the supreme court by Article 32 is an important and integral part of the basic structure of the constitution and no act of parliament can abrogate it or take it away...,’’ Justice Sabharwal said, writing the judgment for the bench.
The bench ruled that parliament’s powers to amend the constitution and put laws in the ninth schedule cannot reach such proportions as to bar the court’s powers to test the validity of laws. The court further said that those ninth schedule laws whose validity has already been upheld by the SC cannot be challenged afresh on the basis of Thursday’s order.