Fundamental rights and the supreme court c.1

This book is a pioneer attempt at the study of judicial behaviour as an integral part of the political process in India. The contribution of this work is that the norms evolved by the Supreme Court to operationalize the concept of reasonableness have been identified from the mass of judicial decisions on fundamental rights. It has also been brought out that by an astute combination of legal craftsmanship and judicial statemanship, the courts have employed these norms to achieve different policy results in order to meet the exigencies of the situation.

The specific area selected for the study is the judicial determination of 'reasonableness of restrictions' on the fundamental freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution of India. A special reference has been made to the restrictions on the freedom 'to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business'. A critical evaluation of judicially determined norms of reasonable ness which is the constitutionally prescribed criterion of validity, and how and with what result have the norms and standards evolved by the courts operated, constitute the theme of the study.