OCCASIONAL PUBLICATION 112 - The Constitution of India and Indian Democracy:

Undoubtedly, the highest court of the land and courts of record, the High Courts, are possessed of the power by means of ‘judicial review’ to invalidate administrative government action or a legislative enactment on the premise of the same being repugnant to the Constitution. [...] The year 1973 was different: in the Kesavananda Bharati case, the Supreme Court asserted, for the first time, the right of the courts to strike down Constitutional amendments that violated what it called the ‘Basic Structure’, or the fundamental architecture of the Constitution. [...] The most recent and prominent judicial manifestation of the Basic Structure Doctrine was on 16 October 2015, when the highest court of the land in a 4:1 majority verdict held both the 99th Constitution Amendment Act, 2014, and the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, 2014, unconstitutional on the premise of being in violation of the Basic Structure—independence of the Judiciary, v. [...] On this aspect, the thought process of the founding fathers of the Constitution is discernible in one particular Article, i.e., Article 145, sub-article (3) of the Constitution, which provides for a minimum number of judges who are to sit for the purpose of deciding any case involving a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution or for the purpose of hearing any refer. [...] I am reminded of the address in the Constituent Assembly by one of the towering giants of Indian politics, who became the first President of the Union.