Supreme Court Junks Pleas Challenging Words ‘Socialist’, ‘Secular’ in Preamble to Constitution

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the pleas challenging the 1976 amendment to the Constitution adding terms "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" to the Preamble.

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar had on November 22 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 petitions do not require a detailed hearing, the CJI said.

"The two expressions 'socialist' and 'secular' were made in 1976 through amendments and the fact that the Constitution was adopted in 1949 does not make any difference... the retrospectivity arguments if accepted will apply to all amendments," noted the CJI.