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Why Landmark Cases Are Exam Favourites
The text of the Constitution is only half of Indian polity. The other half is how the Supreme Court has read it, and several rulings changed what the text means in practice. Examiners love them because each case has a name, a year, a bench strength and a one-line principle, which makes four-option questions easy to set.
The trick is to learn cases in clusters rather than as a flat list. Here the clusters are: who can amend what (Golaknath to Minerva Mills), what Article 21 protects (Maneka Gandhi to Puttaswamy), and how far the Centre and the legislature can go (Bommai and Indra Sawhney).
For each case, hold three facts: the year, the article involved and the principle laid down. Anything beyond that is detail that exams seldom reward.
1. Which case laid down the doctrine that Parliament cannot destroy the basic structure of the Constitution?
2. How many judges sat on the bench in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973)?
3. Which case held that the procedure under Article 21 must be fair, just and reasonable?
4. In Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992), what overall ceiling did the Court fix on reservation in ordinary circumstances?
5. Which ruling declared the right to privacy a fundamental right under Article 21?
6. The Supreme Court laid down binding guidelines against sexual harassment at the workplace in:
7. In Golaknath v. State of Punjab (1967), the Supreme Court held that Parliament:
8. S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994) is best known for: