SC ruling will check ninth schedule's misuse: BJP

New Delhi, Jan 11 (UNI) The BJP today welcomed the Supreme Court judgement ruling that the laws in the ninth schedule of the constitution did not enjoy ''absolute immunity'' from judicial scrutiny.

Party Spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad, a former Law Minister and a practising lawyer, described the judgment as 'monumental', which would have sobering restraint on frequent political pressure to include 'vulnerable and patently flawed' laws under the ninth schedule and take keep it away from judicial purview.

He said the BJP respected the ruling which recognised the basic strcutrue doctrine and the recognition of powers of judicial review of the Supreme Court. The judgment will have a sobering and stabilising influence on the polity of the country, he said, referring to the demand for providing for religion-based reservation and put it under ninth schedule to escape judicial review.

Mr Prasad declined to take questions on Tamil Nadu's law providing for reservation for the Other Backward Classes exceeding the 50 per cent ceiling prescribed by the Supreme Court on the ground that he would not comment on sub judice matters.

A nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held that fundamental rights contained in part III of the Constitution form an integral part of the basic structure of the Constitution and any violation or encroachment of these rights have to be examined by the court.

The Court held that any law put in the ninth schedule of the constitution after April 24, 1973 did not enjoy absolute immunity against judicial review.

The Bench also ruled that the power of making a law and adjudging its contitutional validity cannot be conferred upon a single organ.

UNI