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5. Articles 14, 19, 31A. 31B, 31C (as unamended) and 368, which are relevant for our purpose, are familiar to lawyers and laymen alike, so great is their impact on law and life. Article 14, the saviour of the rule of law, injuncts that the State shall hot deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India. Article 19 confers upon the citizens rights like the freedom of speech and expression, the right to assemble peaceably, the right to form associations, the right to move freely throughout the territory of India, the right to reside and settle in any part of India, and the right to practise any profession or to carry on any trade, business or calling. These rights make life meaningful and, without the freedoms conferred by Article 19, the goal of the Preamble will remain a dream unfulfilled. The right to property conferred by Articles 19(1)(f) and 31 was deleted by the 44th Amendment with effect from June 20, 1979.

9. Articles 31A and 31B were introduced into the Constitution by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951, the former with retrospective effect from the date of the enactment of the Constitution. Article 31C (unamended) was introduced by the Constitution (Twenty-fifth Amendment) Act, with effect from April 20, 1972. The last clause of that article, which gave conclusiveness to the declaration regarding the policy of the particular Act, was struck down as invalid in Kesavananda Bharati (supra). That part now lives an italicized existence in official publications of the Indian Constitution. The words "the principles specified in Clause (b) or Clause (c) of Article 39" were substituted by the words "all or any of the principles laid down in Part IV", by the 44th Amendment, with effect from June 20, 1979. We are concerned with Article 31C as it stood originally but, of course, without the concluding part struck down in Kesavananda Bharati (supra).

12. By Section 7 of the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978 the reference to Article 31 was deleted from the concluding portion of Article 31A(1) with effect from June 20, 1979, as a consequence of the deletion, by Section 2 of the 44th Amendment, of Clause (f) of Article 19(1) which gave to the citizens the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property. The deletion of the right to property from the array of fundamental rights will not deprive the petitioners of the arguments which were available to them prior to the coming into force of the 44th Amendment, since the impugned Acts were passed before June 20, 1979 on which date Article 19(1)(f) was deleted.