The words ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’ were missing from one of the preambles displayed in Odisha’s state assembly, on November 26th. Naturally, the Opposition Biju Janata Dal and Congress saw red. The parties stalled the assembly’s proceedings. This took place only a day after the Supreme Court had quashed a plea that asked to remove the words permanently from the constitution. So what was the plea? What did the top court say?
Why did the Supreme Court dismiss a plea to modify Constitution’s Preamble?
First lets look at what these words mean.
SOCIALIST means somebody who believes in the social system of sharing the country equally as a society.
SECULAR means being neutral and not inclined to any one religion.
On November 25th, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea on the removal of socialist and Secular from the preamble of the Constitution. The order was based on a batch of petitions that were filed in 2020. These pleas challenged the validity of ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ in the Preamble through the 42nd Constitution Amendment in 1976.
The Apex court said the pleas were not worthy of a detailed judgement. The reason was the clear flaws present in the petitioners’ arguments. The court also called the motives for filing the petition questionable. Mainly because it had been filed nearly 44 years after the introduction of socialist, secular in the preamble.
Did you know that Socialist and Secular were not a part of the original constitution adopted in 1946.
What is the history behind ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ words in the constitution?
The original Preamble adopted on November 26, 1949, declared India a sovereign, democratic, republic. The constituent assembly consciously avoided the word socialist. they left the decision the citizens to decide based on time and age.
Similarly, the word Secular has derived a different connotation in India.
In 1960, in the Berubari case, the Supreme Court opined that the Preamble is not a part of the Constitution, so it is not a source of any substantive power. But in 1973 in Kesavananda Bharati case,the Supreme Court reversed its earlier opinion and said that the Preamble is part of the Constitution.
So in 1976, the 42nd Constitutional Amendment inserted the words ‘Socialist’, ‘Secular’ and ‘Integrity’ into the Preamble.
What is the case that Supreme court has now dismissed?
The current case was filed by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, advocate Ashwini Upadhyay and others. The pleas opposed the insertion of the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ in the Preamble.
They argued that these were included during the Emergency and forced the people to follow specific ideologies. They felt that since the date of adoption by the Constituent Assembly was mentioned in the Preamble, no additional words can be inserted later by Parliament.
