Justice Manmohan: Electoral Bonds Verdict and Basic Structure Are Cornerstones of Rule of Law

At a recent interaction in New Delhi by the International Bar Association on Fourth IBA, India Litigation and ADR Symposium, Justice Manmohan reflected on the continuing relevance of the Basic Structure Doctrine and why it remains one of the most significant judicial contributions to constitutional democracies worldwide.

His remarks were framed around the idea of limits and separation of powers. Limits that protect power from overreaching and limits that preserve the democratic soul of the Republic.

Justice Manmohan highlighted that the landmark judgment in Kesavananda Bharati is not merely a historical event in the legal archive. He emphasised that it is a judgment accepted globally as one that upheld the rule of law in its truest and most sustainable sense. This acceptance by the international legal community has placed India within a framework of constitutional guardianship that respects both continuity and reform.

The judgment did not lock the Constitution in time. Instead, it ensured that the power to amend would remain available while also insisting that no authority may damage the core identity of the constitutional framework, he pointed out.

Justice Manmohan underscored a simple but relevant proposition. Constitutional amendment powers exist. However, they do not extend to altering the Basic Structure. This separation between power to change and power to destroy has been the fulcrum on which India’s democratic endurance has rested. The judiciary’s approach, according to him, has been guided by restraint. Not everything that can be changed must be changed. Not every opportunity for alteration must be exercised. This philosophy of restraint has helped maintain equilibrium among institutions snd also been advantageous to investors. It has ensured that checks remain active and ambition does not override stability.

The judge noted that six countries around the world have adopted or recognised the Basic Structure principle in some form. The most striking among them is Pakistan which accepted the idea despite having a very different constitutional and political journey. The doctrine has travelled beyond India and has been studied as a structural safeguard against unforeseen excesses by state power. Global acceptance reinforces the idea that India’s constitutional architecture is not insular. It belongs to a broader legal discourse that values accountability and permanence.

Justice Manmohan further remarked that boundaries have been essential for the life span of the Constitution and emphasised that another such judgment is the electoral bonds judgment. The fact that the Constitution has survived for seventy five years is not accidental. It is a result of deliberate guardrails. These guardrails have helped India maintain an uninterrupted democratic structure even in periods of political turbulence. The survival of the Constitution is therefore a story of the rule of law winning repeatedly over the impulse for concentrated power.