Doctrine of Severability - Simple Explanation #lawstudents #lawschool #laws #legalterms

What is the Doctrine of Severability?

To ‘Sever’ means to divide by cutting or slicing; and here, we are talking about dividing or cutting a law.

The basic idea is that if there is law or statute that mostly conforms with the constitutional framework; but some part of the law violates any fundamental rights, then that specific part can be severed from the rest.

The court can declare the violative part as invalid.

If the remaining part of the law can exist and function even after the violative part is cut out, then such a remaining part will continue to be valid.

This doctrine is based on Article 13, which talks about Laws inconsistent with or in derogation of the fundamental rights.

The K. Gopalan v. State of Madras 1950, State of Bombay v. F.N. Balsara – 1951 and R. M. D. C vs. Union of India 1957 were some landmark cases where this doctrine was used.