The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed pleas seeking the removal of the terms ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ from the Preamble of the Constitution of India.
The bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar dismissed the pleas saying that the arguments made by the petitioners did not have merit.
The bench observed that the power of Parliament to amend the Constitution extends to the preamble as well.
PILs filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, and Balram Singh.
The challenge was made to 42nd Amendment of 1976, which had introduced the terms ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ into the Constitution’s Preamble.
The petitioners argued that these words should be removed.
Earlier during the hearing, the Supreme Court observed that both terms must be understood in the Indian context, rather than in the context of Western countries.
(Inputs By Sambhav Sharma)
