The basic structure doctrine is a common law legal doctrine that the constitution of a sovereign state has certain characteristics that cannot be erased by its legislature. The doctrine is recognised in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Uganda. It was developed by the Supreme Court of India in a series of constitutional law cases in the 1960s and 1970s that culminated in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, where the doctrine was formally adopted. Bangladesh is perhaps the only legal system in the world that recognizes this doctrine in an expressed, written and rigid constitutional manner through Article 7B of its Constitution.
In Kesavananda Bharati, Justice Hans Raj Khanna propounded that the Constitution of India contains certain basic features that cannot be altered or destroyed through amendments by the Parliament of India. Key among these "basic features", as expounded by Justice Khanna, are the fundamental rights guaranteed to individuals by the constitution. The doctrine thus forms the basis of the Supreme Court of India's power to review and strike down constitutional amendments and acts enacted by the Parliament that conflict with or seek to alter this "basic structure" of the Constitution. The basic features of the Constitution have not been explicitly defined by the Judiciary, and the determination of any particular feature as a "basic" feature is made by the Court on a case-by-case basis.