Supreme Court Refuses To Remove ‘Socialist’ And ‘Secular’ From Constitution’s Preamble

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed pleas challenging the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution, by which the words socialist and secular were inserted in the Constitution’s Preamble during the Emergency.

In an important order, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar observed that the amendment power of the Parliament extends to the Preamble of the Constitution as well.

“It has almost been so many years, why rake up the issue now,” CJI Khanna said.

The bench ruled that the addition of these terms could not be invalidated merely on the ground that the Preamble retained its original adoption date of November 26, 1949.

“The fact that the Constitution was adopted and actively given to themselves by the people of India on 26th day of November 1949, does not make any difference. The date of the adoption would not curtail or restrict the power under Article 368 of the Constitution,” the CJI stated while reading out the operative part of the judgment.

The full judgment will be released later this week.

The petitions were filed by former BJP parliamentarian Subramanian Swamy, social worker Balram Singh and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay. Their contention was that the 42nd Amendment distorted the original vision of the Constitution’s framers, who they said had deliberately excluded the terms ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ during Constituent Assembly debates.

The petitioners also questioned the legitimacy of the 1976 Parliament, which operated during the Emergency and under an extended tenure.