Secularism is recognized as part of the basic structure of the constitution: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday said that secularism has always been considered an integral part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitution.

A bench comprising Justices Sanjeev Khanna and Sanjay Kumar accepted the observation while hearing a batch of petitions 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 of the Constitution.

“This Court has held in a series of decisions that secularism has always been part of the basic structure of the Constitution. as the fundamental feature of the Constitution,” the panel said.

The words “socialist” and “secular” were inserted into the preamble of the Constitution through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment introduced by the Indira Gandhi government in 1976.

The amendment changed the description of India in the preamble from a “sovereign democratic republic” to a “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic”.

During the hearing, Jain stated that Dr. B.R. Ambedkar opined that the inclusion of the word “socialism” would restrict personal freedom. He added that the preamble cannot be changed by amendment. Judge Khanna said there were different meanings of socialism and “the meaning accepted in Western countries should not be accepted.” “Socialism may also mean that there should be equality of opportunity and the wealth of the country should be distributed equally,” the panel said.

Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, who also filed the petition, said that he is not against the words “socialist, secular and honest” or their inclusion in the Constitution, but he is against the inclusion of these words in the preamble in 1976 and that too has a retrospective effect. dated November 26, 1949.

He said adding the word had no real effect in the country but opened a Pandora’s box for future governments to play around with it and remove the word from the preamble.

Swamy, on the other hand, contended that the preamble was a declaration made on November 26, 1949 and therefore the addition of additional words to it by subsequent amendment was arbitrary.

He said it was wrong to portray that as per the present preamble, the Indian people agreed on November 26, 1949 to make India a socialist and secular republic. The bench said it would review the case and posted it for further hearing on November 18.

On February 9, the Supreme Court questioned the possibility of amending the Preamble of the Constitution, while maintaining the date of its adoption, November 26, 1949.

“For academic purposes, is it possible to change the preamble which contains the date without changing the date of acceptance. Otherwise, yes, the preamble can be amended. There is no problem with that,” Justice Dutta observed.

Jain noted that the preamble of the Indian Constitution has a specific date, so it cannot be amended without discussion.

Swamy said that the 42nd Amendment Act was passed during the Emergency (1975-77).

On September 2, 2022, the apex court had marked Swamy’s plea along with another pending case filed by one Balram Singh and others for hearing.

Both Swamy and Singh sought the removal of the words “socialist” and “secular” from the preamble.

Swamy in his statement maintained that the Preamble cannot be altered, amended or abrogated.

According to him, the preamble outlines not only the essential features of the Constitution, but also the fundamental conditions on which it was adopted to create a single integrated community.