SC Junks Pleas Challenging Addition Of Words ‘Socialist’, ‘Secular’ To Preamble To The Constitution, Here’s What CJI Said

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (Nov 25) dismissed petitions challenging the inclusion of the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ in the Preamble to the Constitution in accordance to the 42nd Amendment passed in 1976. The bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar observed that the amendment power of the Parliament extends to the Preamble as well, reported the LiveLaw.

During the previous hearing, the bench had observed that the 1976 amendment to the Constitution—which added terms “socialist”, “secular” and “integrity” to the Preamble — underwent judicial reviews. The bench had observed that it couldn’t say whatever Parliament did during the emergency period was all nullity.

“The two expressions ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ were made in 1976 through amendments and the fact that the Constitution was adopted in 1949 does not make any difference… the retrospectivity arguments if accepted will apply to all amendments,” noted the CJI, as reported by The Telegraph.

The batch of pleas were filed by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain and Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.

The bench had earlier refused to refer the matter to a larger bench as sought by the petitioner. It had observed that “being socialist” in the Indian sense was understood to be a “welfare state”.

Advocate Jain had argued that in a recent verdict of a nine-judge Constitution bench, the majority view doubted the interpretation of the word “socialist” as propounded by former apex court judges Justices VR Krishna Iyer and O Chinnappa Reddy.

Emergency in India was declared by the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from June 25, 1975 to March 21, 1977.

What does the bench say about meaning of Socialist in Indian content?

“The way we understand socialism in India is very different from other countries. In our context, socialism primarily means a welfare state. That is all. It has never prevented the private sector, which is thriving well. We have all benefited from it,” the Bench state, as quoted by the New Indian Express.