Important Legal Definitions

Grounded in Article 13 of the Constitution, this doctrine dictates that if a specific statutory provision violates fundamental rights, only the offending, unconstitutional clause will be struck down, leaving the remainder of the enactment intact if it can operate independently.

In A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras, the Supreme Court held Section 14 of the Preventive Detention Act unconstitutional for barring courts from examining detention grounds, but preserved the rest of the statute as valid.