The Supreme Court (SC) today rejected the petition seeking removal of the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the preamble of the Constitution. A bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar heard the petitions. The Supreme Court bench said that being socialist in the Indian sense means only a welfare state.

SC dismissed the petition

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjeev Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar said in this case that the amendment power of Parliament also extends to the Preamble. The court clearly stated that the date of adoption of the Preamble does not limit the power of Parliament to amend the Preamble.

Taking this as the basis, the court rejected the petitioner's argument. The CJI said in this case that when so many years have passed, then why is an attempt being made to exaggerate this matter.

The petitioners had given this argument

Let us tell you that the petitions related to this were filed in the Supreme Court by former BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, social activist Balram Singh and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay. The petitioners had argued that the 42nd Amendment distorted the original vision of the Constitution makers. The petitioners had also argued that the Constitution makers had deliberately excluded the words “socialist” and “secular” during the Constituent Assembly debates.

Most notably, the petitioners also questioned the validity of the 1976 Parliament, which operated during the Emergency and under an extended term. Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing social activist Balram Singh, argued that the term 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 Constitution makers.

At the same time, in this case, former BJP MP Subramanian Swamy argued that the inclusion of these words has made the preamble inconsistent with its original acceptance date. He also suggested that these words should be accepted as words added later, and not be considered as part of the original text.