Amendment and the basic structure doctrine (Part XX) 4.3Constitutional Bodies and Offices Services (Part-XIV, Chap-1)

Your housing society can change its bye-laws, but only when enough members vote in a properly called meeting. The rule-change procedure protects members from a sudden takeover. The country's rulebook needs the same protection, and it also needs people to run it: someone to hold elections, recruit civil servants, audit the government's accounts and advise it on law. This topic covers both halves: how the Constitution can be changed and what limits that power, and the independent offices and commissions that the Constitution itself creates so that government does not mark its own homework.

In two minutes

Article 368 lets Parliament amend the Constitution by a special majority (with State ratification for federal matters), but since Kesavananda Bharati (1973) it cannot destroy the basic structure; the Constitution also creates independent bodies, namely the Public Service Commissions, Election Commission, CAG, Finance Commission and National Commissions, each protected by its own appointment and removal rules.

The rest of this chapter

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