New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected petitions challenging the 1976 amendment to the Constitution adding terms "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" to the Preamble.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar the petitions do not require a detailed hearing. The bench had on November 22 reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas filed by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, advocate Ashwini Upadhyay and others, challenging the inclusion of the words "socialist" and "secular" in the Preamble to the Constitution.
The CJI said 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.
On November 22, the Supreme Court said it cannot be said whatever the Parliament did during the time of Emergency was all nullity, and added that the 1976 amendment to the Constitution adding terms "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" to the Preamble has gone through judicial reviews.
The words "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" were inserted into the Preamble to the Constitution under the 42nd constitutional amendment moved by the Indira Gandhi government in 1976. Emergency in India was declared by the late PM Indira Gandhi from June 25, 1975 to March 21, 1977. The amendment changed the description of India in the Preamble from a "sovereign, democratic republic" to a "sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic".
“The subject amendment (42nd amendment) has been subjected to a certain amount of judicial reviews by this court. The Parliament has intervened…..We cannot say that whatever Parliament did at that time (emergency), we cannot say that all was nullity”, the CJI had said during the hearing.
The bench said the way socialism is understood in India is very different from other countries and, in the Indian context, socialism primarily means a welfare state. “It has never prevented the private sector, which is thriving well. We have all benefited from it”, said the bench.
The bench said that the apex court held "secularism" to be part of the basic structure of the Constitution in the 1994 S R Bommai case.
