SC junks part of 97th amendment

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down Part IXB of the 97th constitutional amendment, brought by the Centre for effective management of cooperative societies, on the ground of procedural infirmity as it was not ratified by states as per Article 368 (2), as the legislative head ‘cooperative societies’ is there in List II of 7th Schedule.
A three judge bench of Justices RF Nariman, KM Joseph and BR Gavai, by majority, confined its judgment to the procedural aspect pertaining to Article 368(2) which says the amendment shall also require to be ratified by the legislature of not less than one half of the states. Justices Nariman and Gavai only quashed Part IXB of the amendment but Justice Joseph struck down the entire amendment on the basis of violation of the basic structure. “The judgment of the HC is upheld except to the extent that it strikes down the entirety of Part IXB of the Constitution. It is declared that Part IXB of the Constitution is operative only insofar as it concerns multi-state cooperative societies both within the states and in UTs,” Justice Nariman said.