The Ninth Schedule to the Constitution of India (i.e., the laws placed in this Schedule) gets its immunity due to the provisions of Article 31-B of the Constitution, which is as under:
“31-B. Validation of certain Acts and Regulations.—Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions contained in Article 31-A, none of the Acts and Regulations specified in the Ninth Schedule nor any of the provisions thereof shall be deemed to be void, or ever to have become void, on the ground that such Act, Regulation or provision is inconsistent with, or takes away or abridges any of the rights conferred by, any provisions of this Part, and notwithstanding any judgment, decree or order of any court or tribunal to the contrary, each of the said Acts and Regulations shall, subject to the power of any competent Legislature to repeal or amend it, continue in force.”
Article 31-B thus provides that the laws specified in the 9th Schedule shall not be void even if they take away or abridge any fundamental rights, i.e., such laws shall be valid even though they are inconsistent with the fundamental rights.
However, I may point out that as per the decision of a 9-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the case of I.R. Coelho v. State of T.N., (2007) 2 SCC 1 : AIR 2007 SC 861, it has been held that all laws which have been placed in the 9th Schedule on or after 24 April 1973 (the date of decision in Kesavananda Bharati case in which the doctrine of basic structure of the Constitution was laid down) shall have to be tested on the touchstone of the basic structure doctrine.
This implies that if any such law (which was placed in the 9th Schedule on or after 24 April 1973) violates the basic features of the Constitution, then such law shall be invalid and void, despite the protection granted under Article 31-B of the Constitution.
There are several features of the Constitution that have been declared by the Supreme Court, from time to time, to be the basic features of the Constitution. Whether or not a particular feature is a basic feature is decided by the Supreme Court only when the matter comes before it. But, already several features have been so declared. You can read some more details about the Kesavananda Bharati case and the doctrine of basic structure in my article: What exactly is Kesavananda Bharti case decided by Supreme Court of India?
I may write with some satisfaction that after the judgment of the Supreme Court in the aforesaid I.R. Coelho case in the year 2007, no new law has been placed in the 9th Schedule. So, this unhealthy practice of giving protection to certain laws from being challenged on the ground of violation of fundamental rights, has now stopped. Credit for this goes to the Supreme Court.
