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because he took the view that Article 31C was merely an extension of the principle accepted in Article 31A and "the ground which sustained the validity of clause (1) of Article 31A, would equally sustain the validity of the first part of Article 31C". So far as the other learned Judges were concerned, they did not express any view specifically on the constitutional validity of Article 31A, since that was not in issue before them. Ray, J., Palekar, J., Mathew, J., Beg, J., Dwiwedi, J. and Chandrachud, J., held Article 31C to be valid and if that view be correct, Article 31A must fortiorari be held to be valid But it must be said that there is no decision of the Court in Keshavananda Bharati's case holding Art. 31A as constitutionally valid, and logically, therefore, it should be open to the petitioners in the present case to contend that. tested by the basic structure doctrine, Article 31A is constitutional. We have already pointed out that on merits this argument has no substance and even on an application of the basic structure doctrine. Article 31A cannot be condemned as invalid. But in any event, I do not think that it would be proper to reopen the question of constitutional validity of Article 31A which has already been decided and silenced by the decisions of this Court in Shankari Prasad's case, Sajjan Singh's case and Golak Nath's case. Now for over 28 years, since the decision in Shankari Prasad's case Article 31A has been recognised as valid and on this view, laws of several States relating to agrarian reform have been held to be valid and as pointed out by Khanna, J. in Keshavananda Bharati's case "millions of acres of land have changed hands and millions of new titles in agricultural lands have been created". If the question of validity of Article 31A were reopened and the earlier decisions upholding its validity were reconsidered in the light of the basic structure doctrine, these various agrarian reform laws which have brought about a near socio-economic revolution in the agrarian, sector might be exposed . to jeopardy and that might put the clock back by settling at naught all changes that have been brought about in agrarian relationship during these years and create chaos in the lives of millions of people who have benefitted by these laws. It is no doubt true that this Court has power to review its earlier decisions or even depart from them and the doctrine of stare decisis cannot be permitted to perpetuate erroneous decisions of this Court to the detriment of the general welfare of the public. There is indeed a school of thought which believes with Cardozo that "the precedents have turned upon us and they are engulfing and annihilating us, engulfing and annihilating the very devotees that worshipped at their shrine" and that the Court should not be troubled unduly if it has to break away from precedents in order to modify old rules and if need be to fashion new ones to meet the challenges and problems thrown upon by a dynamic society. But at the same time, it must be borne in A mind that certainty and continuity are essential ingredients of rule of law. Certainty in applicability of law would be considerably eroded and suffer a serious set- back if the highest court in the land were readily to overrule the view expressed by it in earlier decisions even though that view has held the field for a number of years. It is obvious that when constitutional problems are brought before this Court for its decision, complex and difficult questions are bound to arise and since the decision on many of such questions may depend upon choice between competing values, two views. may be possible depending upon the value judgment or the choice of values made by the individual Judge. Therefore, if one view has been taken by the Court after mature deliberation, the fact that another Bench is inclined to take another view would not justify the Court in reconsidering the earlier decision and overruling it. The law laid down by this Court is binding on all Courts in the country and numerous cases all over the country are decided in accordance with the view taken by this Court. Many people arrange their affairs and large number of transactions also take place on the faith of the correctness of the decision given by this Court. It would create uncertainty, instability and confusion if the law propounded by this Court on the faith of which numerous cases have been decided and many transactions have taken place is held to be not the correct law after a number of years. The doctrine of stare decisis has evolved from the maxim "stare decisis et non quita movere" meaning "adhere to the decision and do not unsettle things which are established", and it is a useful doctrine intended to bring about certainty and uniformity in the law. But when I say this, let me make it clear that I do not regard the doctrine of stare decisis as a rigid and inevitable doctrine which must be applied at the cost of justice. There may be cases where it may be necessary to rid the doctrine of its petrifying rigidity. "Stare decisis" as pointed out by Brandeis "is always a desideratum, even in these constitutional cases, but in them, it is never a command". The Court may in an appropriate case overrule a previous decision taken by it, but that should be done only for substantial and compelling reasons. The power of review must be- exercised with due care and caution and only for advancing the public well-being and not merely because it may appear that the previous decision was based on an erroneous view of the law. It is only where the perpetuation of the earlier decision would be productive of mischief or inconvenience or would have the effect of deflecting the nation from the course which has been set by the Constitution makers or to use the words of Krishna Iyer, J. in Ambika Prasad Misra v. State of U.P. & Ors. "where national crisis of great momenta to the life, liberty and safety of this country and its millions are at stake or the basic direction of the nation itself is in peril of a shake- up" that the Court would be justified in reconsidering its earlier decision and departing from it. It is fundamental that the nation's Constitution should not be kept in constant uncertainty by judicial review every now and then, because otherwise it would paralyse by perennial suspense all legislative and administrative action on vital issues. The Court should not indulge in judicial stabilisation of State action and a view which has been accepted for a long period of time in a series of decisions and on the faith of which millions of people have acted and a large number of transactions have been effected, should not be disturbed. Let us not forget the words of Justice Roberts of the United States Supreme Court-words which are equally applicable to the decision making process in this Court:

Here the view that Article 31A is constitutionally valid has been taken in atleast three decisions of this Court, namely, Shankari Prasad's case, Sajjan Singh's case and Golak Nath's case and it has held the field for over 28 years and on the faith of its correctness, millions of acres of agricultural land have changed hands and new agrarian relations have come into being, transforming the entire rural economy. Even though the constitutional validity of Article 31A was not tested in these decisions by reference to the basic structure doctrine, I do not think the Court would be justified in allowing the earlier decisions to be reconsidered and the question of constitutional validity of Article 31A A re-opened. These decisions have given a quietus to the constitutional challenge against the validity of Article 31A and this quietus should not now be allowed to be disturbed. I may point that this view which I am taking is supported by the decision of this Court in Ambika Prasad Misra v. State of U.P. and ors. (supra).

(a). Originally, in the draft bill in addition to these clauses, there was one more clause, namely, clause (d) which sought to give protection to a law providing for the acquisition or requisitioning of any immovable property for the rehabilitation of displaced persons and, as a corollary to the proposed amendment of Art. 31A, it was proposed in Clause (S) of the Bill to add in the 9th Schedule two more State Acts and four Central Acts which fell within the scope of clauses (d) and (f) of the revised Article 31A. Vide cl. (4) of the Statement of objects and Reasons-The two State Acts which were proposed to be included in the 9th Schedule were the Bihar Displaced Persons Rehabilitation (Acquisition of Land) Act. 1950 and the United Provinces Land Acquisition (Rehabilitation of Refugees) Act, 1948. The West Bengal Land Development and Planning Act, 1948, which was struck down by this Court in State of West Bengal v. Bela Banerjee, and the invalidity of which really started the entire exercise of the Constitution (Fourth Amendment) Act. 1955, was however, left-out of the 9th Schedule in the draft Bill because it included certain purposes of acquisition which fell outside the proposed clause (d) of Article 31A. But, while the Constitution (Fourth Amendment) Act, 1955 was being debated, an ordinance was issued by the Governor of West Bengal omitting with retrospective effect all the items in the definition of "public purpose" except the settlement of displaced persons who had migrated into the State of West Bengal, with the result that the West Bengal Act as amended by the ordinance came within the category of legislation specified in the proposed clause (d) of Art. 31A. In view of this amendment, the West Bengal Act was included in the 9th Schedule by way of amendment of the draft Bill. It is significant to note that similar Orissa Statute which provided for acquisition of land for purposes going beyond the proposed clause (d) of Article 31A and which was not amended in the same manner as the West Bengal Act, was not included in the 9th Schedule. A Central Act, namely, the Resettlement of Displaced Persons (Land Acquisition) Act, 1948 fell within the proposed clause (d) of Art. 31A and it was therefore included in the 9th Schedule in the draft Bill. The link between Articles 31A and A 31B was thus maintained in the draft Bill, but when the draft Bill went before the Joint Committee. the proposed clause (d) of Article 31A was deleted and the Bihar, U.P. and West Bengal Acts as also the above-mentioned Central Act which were originally intended to be within the scope and ambit of Article 31A, became unrelated to that Article. Even so, barring these four Acts, all the other statutes included in the 9th Schedule fell within one or the other clause of the amended Art. 31A. Subsequent to this amendment. several other statutes dealing with agrarian reform were included in the 9th Schedule by the Constitution (Seventeenth Amendment) Act, 1964 and no complaint can be made in regard to such addition, because all these statutes partook of the character of agrarian reform legislation and were covered by clause (a) Of Article 31A in view of the extended definition of "estate" substituted by the same amending Act. The validity of the Constitution (Seventeenth Amendment) Act, 1964 was challenged before this Court in Golak Nath's case (supra) and though the Court by a majority of six against five took the view that Parliament has no power to amend any fundamental right, it held that this decision would not affect the validity of the Constitution (Seventeenth Amendment) Act, 1964 and other earlier amendments to the Constitution and thus recognised the validity of the various constitutional amendments which included statutes in the 9th Schedule from time to time upto that date. Then came the Constitution (Twenty Ninth Amendment) Act, 1972 by which two Kerala agrarian reform statutes were included in the 9th Schedule. The validity of the Twenty Ninth Amendment Act was challenged in Keshavananda Bharati's case, but by a majority consisting of Khanna. J. and the six learned Judges led by Ray. C.J., it was held to be valid. Since all the earlier constitutional amendments were held valid on the basis of unlimited amending power of Parliament recognised in Shankari Prasad's case and Sajjan Singh's case and were accepted as valid in Golak Nath's case and the Twenty Ninth Amendment Act was also held valid in Keshavananda Bharati's case. though not on the application of the basic structure test, and these constitutional amendments have been recognised as valid over a number of years and moreover, the statutes intended to be protected by them are all falling within Article 31A with the possible exception of only four Acts referred to above, I do not think, we would be justified in re-opening the question of validity of these constitutional amendments and hence we hold them to be valid. But, all constitutional amendments made after the decision in Keshavananda Bharati's case would have to be tested by reference to the basic structure doctrine, for Parliament would then have no excuse for saying that it did not know the limitation on its amending power. It may be pointed out that quite a large number of statutes have been included in the 9th Schedule by the subsequent constitutional amendments and strangely enough, we find for the first time that statutes have been included which have no connection at all with Article 31A or 31C and this device of Article 3113 which was originally adopted only as a means of giving a more definite and assured protection to legislation already protected under Article 31A, has been utilised for the totally different purpose of excluding the applicability of Fundamental Rights to all kinds of statute which have nothing to do with agrarian reform or Directive Principles.

of a fundamental right by a statute, if sought to be constitutionally A protected, might affect the basic structure of the Constitution. In every case, therefore, where a constitutional amendment includes a statute or statutes in the 9th Schedule, its constitutional validity would have to be considered by reference to the basic structure doctrine and such constitutional amendment would be liable to be declared invalid to the extent to which it damages or destroys the basic structure of the Constitution by according protection against violation of any particular fundamental right.