http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200701111201.htm
NEW DELHI, Jan. 11: In a significant judgment a nine judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday held that no blanket immunity from judicial review would be available to laws put under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
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:The Bench rejected the argument that once Parliament in his wisdom puts a law under the Ninth Schedule for the welfare of the people, such a law could not be subjected to judicial scrutiny. The Bench said giving such a blanket power to Parliament to include any law under the Ninth Schedule would violate the basic structure doctrine and would also amount to destroying the fundamental rights granted to the citizen.
Nearly 280 laws or legislations were included in the Ninth Schedule to take away the jurisdiction of the courts to examine the legality of such laws. The Tamil Nadu reservation act providing for 69 per cent reservation, over and above what had been permissible under the apex court’s Mandal judgement, viz, 50 per cent was one such important legislation included in the Ninth Schedule. The Parliament also included several other legislations relating to social security measure in the Ninth Schedule to ensure that these laws were kept beyond judicial review.
