Supreme Court dismisses challenges to 'secular', 'socialist' in Preamble

The Supreme Court on Monday, 25 November, dismissed pleas challenging the 1976 amendment to the Constitution adding the terms 'socialist', 'secular' and 'integrity' to the Preamble.

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar had on 22 November reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas filed by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain and others challenging the inclusion of the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the Preamble to the Constitution.

The petitions do not require a detailed hearing, 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.