Supreme Court to rule on removal of 'Secular' and 'Socialist' from Constitution Preamble

Supreme Court of India. File Pic

The Supreme Court of India on Friday announced that it will deliver a verdict on Monday regarding several petitions aimed at removing the terms 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Preamble of the Indian Constitution, reported news agency ANI.

A bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar reviewed the petitions, during which they remarked that the concept of socialism in India is primarily understood as a commitment to a "welfare state."

The bench emphasised that secularism is an integral part of the Constitution's basic structure,and the 42nd Amendment had been examined by the Supreme Court earlier as well.

The Supreme Court was hearing petitions filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, along with lawyers Balram Singh, Karunesh Kumar Shukla, and Ashwini Upadhyay.

Earlier, the bench reiterated that the ideals of secularism and socialism in the Preamble of Indian Constitution should not be interpreted solely through the western lens.

"Socialism can also mean that there should be equality of opportunity and the wealth of a country should be distributed equally. Let's not take the Western meaning. It can have some different meanings as well. Same with the word secularism," the bench had said.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who is one of the petitioners, had said that the two words inserted in the Preamble through the 42nd Constitution Amendment Act of 1976 during Emergency, cannot bear the date of the original Preamble, which was framed in 1949.

Swamy in his petition had said that the two words, inserted in the Preamble violated the basic structure doctrine enunciated in the famous Kesavananda Bharati judgement by a 13-judge bench in 1973, by which Parliament's power to amend the Constitution was barred from tinkering with the basic features of the Constitution, stated ANI.

Swamy further asserted that the framers of the Constitution had deliberately chosen not to include these terms, claiming that their addition imposed specific political ideologies on citizens and infringed upon their right to choose.

He maintained that such amendments exceeded Parliament's authority under Article 368 of the Constitution.

It was further stated that Dr BR Ambedkar had rejected the incorporation of these words, as the Constitution cannot thrust upon the citizens certain political ideologies by taking away their right to choose, stated PTI.

(With inputs from PTI)