A landmark judgment protecting fundamental rights.

Summary - Vinod D. Bhatt - Part-3

of the Supreme Court following the brilliant arguments of Nani Palkhiwala in the Kesavanand Bharti case

Supreme Court judges were also impressed by Nani Palkhiwala's brilliant arguments.

Is there such a thing as doom or not, the exact answer to the question of Nani Palkhiwala's fortune

In 1970, Kesavananda Bharti challenged the Kerala Land Reforms Act in the Supreme Court. The Kerala government imposed restrictions on the management of religious properties through this act.

Kesavananda Bharati was the head mahant of Ednir Math in Kerala. Some of the land of the Math was owned by Kesavananda himself. Under a law passed by Kerala, the government was empowered to acquire certain lands of the Math.

In the year 1970, Kesavananda Bharti filed a case against the Kerala government in the Supreme Court to enforce the rights granted to him in the constitution. The contention of the petitioner was that the Parliament cannot amend the Constitution as it pleases as the power of the Parliament to amend the Constitution is limited. Parliament cannot change the basic structure of the constitution or the heart of the constitution.

The Supreme Court gave a final verdict on this case on April 24, 1973. The judgment states that the Parliament can make unlimited amendments in the Constitution, but there is a condition that any amendment made by the Parliament in the Constitution should not change the "basic structure" of the Constitution.

In this case, Nani Palkhiwala made such strong and logical arguments towards Kesavananda Bharti that even the judges of the Supreme Court were very impressed by her.

The hearing of Kesavananda Bharti case in the Supreme Court lasted for the longest time - 68 days and this case was given the highest priority in the Supreme Court.

The Kesavanand Bharti case arose at the culmination of a serious conflict between the central government under the leadership of the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi and the judiciary.

Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai said about Nani Palkhiwala, who can be ranked among the first ten lawmakers with the world's most brilliant intellectual talent, 'You, Nani Palkhiwala, are "India's Finest intellectual".

During his public life spanning five decades, Palkhiwala wrote a number of in-depth articles on various subjects. He also spoke well. Intellectuals flocked in large numbers to listen to his lectures. Palkhiwala had an uncanny ability to hold the audience under his spell.

In the book "Nani Palkhiwala : Selected Writings" some of the most beautiful writings of Palkhiwala have been selected from numerous writings.

One of his articles is titled: Are we masters of our fate? Are we the masters of our destiny? That is, is our destiny in our hands or is our life going according to the destiny we have written?

Palkhiwala has started the article very well by saying that in the subject of predestination everyone builds their opinion or belief according to their own experience. I will here tell you a few incidents of my life, from which you are free to draw your own conclusions. My only request to you is that whatever you decide from this, decide with an open mind, without any prejudice or bias.

Some of the great men of the world also believed that some events in their lives were predestined, meaning that some events in their lives were written in their destiny. There are some people in the world who can see some future events in advance, in short some people are gifted with the amazing ability to predict the future accurately.

In my mind Dr. The example of Radhakrishnan comes to mind first. Years before he became Vice President and then President, he was only a professor. His son Gopal father Dr. In a book written on the life of Radhakrishnan, the following incident is quoted.

"Once in the summer Dr. When Radhakrishnan went to Europe, he met a famous palmist of the time. He Dr. Radhakrishnan's hand lines predicted that he would rise to the top position in life, he would become the head of the nation. But before death they will lose control of their mind. (be before his death, lose his mind).

In that period Dr. These two prophecies about Radhakrishnan seemed so baseless that these prophecies became a family joke for us." (Page No-143)

Dr. Radhakrishnan's son Gopal wrote in his book that two facts are clear from the above incident - one is that man has his own destiny and the other is that there are few people who have foreknowledge of future events.

There have been some incidents in the past in which some dignitaries or saints have been forewarned by doom.

The most famous such case happened in the life of Winston Churchill. On that day, Winston Churchill sat in the second seat in his car instead of the one he usually sat in.

Lady Churchill asked him, why did you sit on the corner seat today instead of your usual seat?

In reply Churchill said, I don't know, I don't know,.. I don't know, I don't know, after answering this twice, Churchill said, Of course I know. Every day the driver was standing there after opening the door towards the seat on which I used to sit, but before I could go towards it, someone (some invisible power) said, Stop...(stop). Then I felt someone open the door on the other side of the car and ask me to sit on the seat on the other side...