'Socialist' and 'Secular' to remain in constitution; Supreme Court rejects PILs filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court dismissed the batch of petitions challenging the inclusion of the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Preamble of the Constitution during the Emergency. There is no need for further discussion and judgment on the writ petitions. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar said parliament has the power to amend the preamble.

The process of adding words cannot be invalidated because it has been so many years. The Supreme Court has made it clear in several judgments in the past that secularism is part of the basic structure of the Constitution. The bench explained what socialism and secularism are and how they should be implemented will depend on the policy of the government. The court dismissed the petitions filed by senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and Balram Singh.

On November 22, the apex court had observed that the 1976 constitutional amendment, which included the words "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" in the Preamble to the Constitution, was subject to judicial review. The court also said that what Parliament did during the Emergency cannot be said to be invalid.

The words "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" were included in the Preamble to the Constitution under the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution by the Indira Gandhi government in 1976. Through this amendment, the description of India in the Preamble was changed from "sovereign, democratic republic" to "sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic".