Can Constitution's Preamble be amended without altering date, SC asks
The Supreme Court on Friday asked if the Preamble of the Constitution could have been amended without changing its adoption date of November 26, 1949. The SC bench—comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta—was hearing a petition filed by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, seeking to remove the terms "socialist" and "secular" from the Preamble. Both the aforementioned terms were added to the Preamble in 1976 under the 42nd Constitutional amendment moved by the Indira Gandhi government in 1976.
Can Preamble be changed: Justice Datta in SC
"For the academic purpose, can a Preamble that has the date mentioned be changed without altering the date of adoption. Otherwise, yes the Preamble can be amended. There is no problem with that," Justice Datta said.
Introduction of 'socialist' and 'secular' in Constitution
Swami argued that the 42nd Constitutional amendment changed the description of India in the Preamble from a "sovereign, democratic republic" to a "sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic." Swamy's petition argues that the Preamble cannot be changed or repealed as it was in 1976. Moreover, the alteration was made during the period of emergency (1975-77), the petition added. It underscored that the Preamble not only highlights the Constitution's key features but also establishes the fundamental conditions upon which it was adopted.
Framers were against usage of the words: Petition
The petitioners also claim that the framers of the Constitution never intended to introduce socialist or secular concepts in democratic governance. The court recognized the need for a thorough discussion on this issue and scheduled the next hearing for April 29. Notably, Swamy's plea has been combined with another pending case filed by Balram Singh and others, who also want to remove "socialist" and "secular" from the Preamble of the Indian Constitution.
Controversy over omission of words in Preamble
The Preamble made headlines last year when Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the new copies of the Constitution given to MPs on the opening day of the new Parliament building did not have the words "secular" and "socialist" in it. He had expressed concern over the omission, alleging that the government had made this change "cleverly" and with "problematic" intentions. Chowdhury said he wanted to raise the issue in Parliament but wasn't given a chance.
