SC to hear Subramanian Swamy's petition to remove "Socialism" & "Secularism" from Preamble on Sep 23

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Dr Subramanian Swamy filed a writ petition with the Supreme court to have the words"Socialism" and "Secularism" removed from the Preamble to the Constitution, which came up for consideration in the apex court today. Dr Swamy's petition was lodged alongside another one (WP(c) 645/2020) that was listed before the bench of the Chief Justice of India on September 23 by a bench made up of Justices Indira Banerjee and MM Sundresh.

The second petitioner in the case is attorney Satya Sabharwal. The 42nd Constitutional Amendment, passed in 1976 under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, added the words "socialism" and "secularism" to the Preamble. The petition questions the legality of this amendment. It is contended that such an addition is outside the scope of the Parliament's ability to modify the Constitution under Article 368.

The petitioners contend that socialist or secular notions were never meant to be incorporated into democratic administration by the Constitution's drafters. According to reports, Dr B. R. Ambedkar rejected the inclusion of these terms because the Constitution cannot deny citizens their freedom of choice by imposing particular political views on them, Live Law reported.

According to the claim, the Preamble was deemed to be a fundamental component of the Constitution in the Kesavananda Bharati case, and as such, the Parliament is unable to change it. In addition, the petitioners ask that Section 29A(5) of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951 be declared to be unconstitutional since it compels political parties to pledge adherence to socialism and secularism in order to register.

Another court petition (Balram Singh v. Union of India, WP(c) 645/2020) was submitted in July 2020 objecting to the words "socialism" and "secularism" being used in the Preamble.