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The Fourteenth Amendment does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer's Social Statics.... Some of these laws embody convictions or prejudices which judges are likely to share. Some may not But a Constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory, whether of paternalism and the organic relation of the citizen to the State or of laissez faire. It is made for people of fundamentally differing views, and the accident of our finding certain opinions natural and familiar or novel and even shocking ought not to conclude our judgment upon the question whether statutes embodying them conflict with the Constitution of the United States. (see Mr. Justice Holmes, p. 82-83 (1931 Edition).
It would also be pertinent in this context to reproduce the words of Patanjali Sastri C.J. in the case of State of Madras v. V.G. Row [1952] S.C.R. 597 while dealing with reasonable restrictions:
In evaluating such elusive factors and forming their own conception of what is reasonable, in all the circumstances of a given case, it is inevitable that the social philosophy and the scale of values of the judges participating in the decision should play an important part, and the limit to their interference with legislative judgment in such cases can only be dictated by their sense of responsibility and self-restraint and the sobering reflection that the Constitution is meant not only for people of their way of thinking but for all, and that the majority of the elected representatives of the people have, in authorising the imposition of the restrictions, considered them to be reasonable.
1597. In my opinion, the second part of Article 31C is liable to be quashed on the following grounds:
(1) It gives a carte blanche to the Legislature to make any law violative of Articles 14, 19 and 31 and make it immune from attack by inserting the requisite declaration. Article 31C taken along with its second part gives in effect the power to the Legislature, including a State Legislature, to amend the Constitution.
(2) The legislature has been made the final authority to decide as to whether the law made by it is for the objects mentioned in Article 31C. The vice of second part of Article 31C lies in the fact that even if the law enacted is not for the object mentioned in Article 31C, the declaration made by the Legislature precludes a party from showing that the law is not for that object and prevents a court from going into the question as to whether the law enacted is really for that object. The exclusion by the Legislature, including a State Legislature, of even that limited judicial review strikes at the basic structure of the Constitution. The second part of Article 31C goes beyond the permissible limit of what constitutes amendment under Article 368.
The second part of Article 31C can be severed from the remaining part of Article 31C and its invalidity would not affect the validity of the remaining part. I would, therefore, strike down the following words in Article 31C:
and no law containing a declaration that it is for giving effect to such policy shall be called in question in any court on the ground that it does not give effect to such policy.
1598. We may now deal with the Constitution (Twentyninth Amendment) Act. This Act, as mentioned earlier, inserted the Kerala Act 35 of 1969 and the Kerala Act 25 of 1971 as entries No. 65 and 66 in the Ninth Schedule to the Constitution. I have been able to find no infirmity in the Constitution (Twentyninth Amendment) Act. It may be mentioned that an argument was advanced before us that Articles 31B and 31A are linked together and that only those enactments can be placed in the Ninth Schedule as fall within the ambit of Article 31A. Such a contention was advanced in the case of N.B. Jeejeebhoy v. Assistant Collector, Thana Prant, Thana [1965] 1 S.C.R. 636. Repelling the contention Subba Rao J. (as he then was) speaking for the Constitution Bench of this Court observed: