Minerva Mills v. Union of India, AIR 1986 SC 2030

The Petitioner was Company owning textile undertaking, which were subsequently

nationalized and taken over by the Central Government under the Sick Textile Undertakings

(Nationalisation) Act, 1974. The Petitioners contended that Section 4 and 55 of 42 nd Amendment Act,

1976 to the Constitution of India were constitutional invalid. Section 4 subs tituted the words in Article

31C as ‘all or any of the principles laid down in part IV’ which earlier was restricted to only Article 39;

which thereby took away judicial review of any law on any alleged violation of Fundamental Rights

guaranteed by Article 14 and 19 if it supposedly seems to further the principles of the Directive

Principles of State Policy. Section 55 inserted clause (4) and (5) in Article 368 which swept away judicial

review from any amendment made to the Constitution by legislature inclu ding Part III (Fundamental

Rights) of the Constitution.

JUDGMENT: - Accepting the challenges made, the Court declared both Section 4 and 55 as

unconstitutional. The Court observed that by virtue of Section 55, Parliament was doing something in

garb of an authority which was not permissible by the mandate of the Constitution. Also Section 4

attempted to legitimize all future laws hitting onto fundamental rights, yet judiciary would be paralysed

to the extent of only dr awing out and stretching the law to meet the nexus with principles of Directive

Principles.