NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday observed the 1976 amendment to the Constitution adding terms “socialist”, “secular” and “integrity” to the Preamble underwent judicial reviews and it cannot say whatever Parliament did during the emergency period was all nullity.
A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar 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 CJI, however, said, “The subject amendment(42nd amendment) has been subjected to a lot of judicial reviews by this court. The Parliament has intervened. We cannot say that whatever Parliament did at that time (emergency) was all nullity.”
The words “socialist”, “secular” and “integrity” were inserted into the Preamble to the Constitution under the 42nd constitutional amendment moved 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”. Emergency in India was declared by the late PM Indira Gandhi from June 25, 1975 to March 21, 1977.
The bench said it would pronounce its order on the issue on November 25. During the hearing, the bench refused to refer the matter to a larger bench as sought by petitioner and said “being socialist” in the Indian sense was understood to be a “welfare state”.
Advocate Jain said in a recent verdict of a nine- judge Constitution bench, the stand for the welfare of the people and should provide equality of opportunities. majority view doubted the interpretation of word “socialist” as propounded by former apex court judges Justices V. R. Krishna Iyer and O Chinnappa Reddy. The bench then noted, “The way, we understand socialism in India is very different from other countries. In our context, socialism primarily means a welfare state. That is all. It has never prevented the private sector, which is thriving well. We have all benefited from it.” Justice Khanna said the word socialism was used in different contexts worldwide and in India it meant the state was a welfare one and must.
He said the top court held “secularism” to be part of the basic structure of the Constitution in the 1994 S R Bommai case. Advocate Jain further contended the 1976 amendment to the Constitution was passed without hearing the people as it was passed during the emergency and inclusion of these worlds would amount to forcing the people to follow specific ideologies. “When the Preamble comes with a cut-off date, how can new words be added to it?” submitted Jain while seeking a reference to a larger bench for authoritative adjudication on the issue.