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Remove secular and socialism words from the Preamble of the Constitution

Demands Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay in the Supreme Court

Constitution of India

New Delhi – The basic structure of Bharat’s Constitution was changed in 1976 with the addition of two words ‘secular’ and ‘socialism’ that were already rejected 3 times by the constitutional committee. The preamble of the constitution which forms its basic structure is not amendable, however this was amended to add the words socialist and secular. There is a PIL to reverse this amendment to our constitution is filed in the supreme court with the hearing to begin in July 2024.  There is a hope that government of India shall remove the words socialist and secular from the preamble of the constitution.

Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay

Advocate Upadhyay has published a video wherein he elaborates his stand as follows,

1. If the union government of India does not act to undo this amendment, then we have complete faith in the judiciary that the supreme court will strike down this amendment made to the preamble in 1976 as unconstitutional and order to restore the constitution to its original form.

2. The constitutional committee had discussions on the preamble on 13th December 1946, subsequently on 22nd January 1947 the preamble of the constitution was unanimously agreed and adopted. The originally adopted preamble of the constitution existed until 1976.

3. Professor KT Shah on 15th November 1948, moved an amendment to modify Article 1 to include the words socialist, secular and federal. This proposal was discussed and unanimously rejected by the constitutional committee. On 3rd December 1948 Professor KT Shah again moved an amendment to modify Article 18 to include the word secular, post discussion this proposal was also unanimously rejected by the constitutional committee.

4. On 6th December 1948 there was further discussion on this topic, wherein Shri Pandit Loknath Mishra stated that secular is a western concept that is not native to Bharat and can destroy the culture of Bharat. In this discussion Shri HV Kamath explained the difference between Dharma and religion, the concepts of socialist and secular are inappropriate for including in Bharat’s constitution. The amendment was rejected.

5. On 26th November 1949, the complete constitution of Bharat was accepted and adopted. The national anthem was finalised on 14th January 1950 and the constitutional committed was dissolved on 25th January 1950. Bharat was declared a republic with republic day celebrated on 26th January.

6. In the Golaknath case of 1967, the supreme court had stated that neither parliament nor the government has the power to amend the basic structure of the constitution. This makes it clear that preamble of the constitution cannot be amended.

7. The preamble of the constitution enshrines Fundamental rights, Sovereign nation, Democracy, Republic system, Social, economic and political justice, Fraternity, Liberty of thought and speech, Equal opportunities to all citizens, Unity and national integration of Bharat

8. The congress party won 352 Lok Sabha seats in 1971, they immediately made the 24th amendment to the constitution, which overruled the supreme court’s judgement of the 1967 Golakhnath case.

9. In 1973 in a historic judgement of the supreme court in the Kesavananda Bharati case. All of the then 13 judges of the supreme court presided over the case hearing with a majority ruling that basic structure of the constitution cannot be modified. This reaffirms that the preamble of the constitution cannot be amended.

10. The Allahabad high court hearing the petition of Indira Gandhi on 12th June 1976, voided the election outcome and banned her from contesting elections for 6 years.

11. On 24th June 1976 the supreme court allowed Indira Gandhi to continue as care taker prime minister with the conditions that no major or important decisions can be made by her and no laws can be added or amended by her during this period until the next elections are concluded. The following day on 25th June, as an angry reaction to the supreme court ruling, she declared emergency in the country.

12. The tenure of the Lok Sabha had ended in March 1976, that is elected members of Lok Sabha no longer represented the will of the people. However, the tenure of the Lok Sabha was extended by 1 more year.

13. In December 1976 the 42nd amendment was introduced that changed the preamble the constitution.  This is despite the fact that there was no constitutional committee, the term of the Lok Sabha had ended, there was a care taker government and the supreme court had ruled against amendment to the preamble of the constitution. This is why we have challenged this amendment in the supreme court. We hope that the supreme court will give us justice. I encourage everyone to create awareness and discuss about this topic in the country.

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