The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a batch of petitions challenging the inclusion of the words “socialist” and “secular” in the Preamble to the Constitution through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment in 1976.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and justice PV Sanjay Kumar reaffirmed Parliament’s “incontrovertible” power to amend the Constitution under Article 368, provided such amendments do not violate its basic structure.
The bench held 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,” stated the CJI, while reading out the operative part of the judgment. The full judgment is yet to be released.
The petitions were filed by former BJP parliamentarian Subramanian Swamy, social worker Balram Singh and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, who contended that the 42nd Amendment distorted the original vision of the Constitution’s framers. They argued that the framers 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. Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing Singh, argued: “The tenure of the Lok Sabha was extended to address emergency requirements, not to amend the Constitution. Adding these words without public consultation distorted the original intent of the framers.”