Minerva Mills v Union of India

Minerva Mills v Union of India was a 1980 decision of the Supreme Court of India striking down provisions of the Forty Second Amendment that had sought to place constitutional amendments beyond the reach of judicial review and to give the Constitution's non enforceable Directive Principles priority over its enforceable Fundamental Rights. The Court reaffirmed and applied the basic structure doctrine first announced in Kesavananda Bharati v State of Kerala, holding that Parliament's limited amending power, and the balance the Constitution strikes between fundamental rights and directive principles, are themselves part of the Constitution's basic structure and cannot be abolished by amendment.