The Supreme Court on Friday queried whether an amendment can be made to the Preamble of the Constitution without altering the date on which the Preamble was formally adopted and enacted.The Court was hearing a plea challenging the 42nd amendment to the Constitution of India and, in effect, seeking the deletion of the terms "socialist" and "secular" to describe India in the Preamble to the Constitution.A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta asked the parties to the case to consider its query on an academic level."On an academic level, consider if a preamble that has a date mentioned can be changed without altering the date before 'adopt, enact and give to ourselves'. Otherwise, it is not that the Preamble cannot be amended, no issues. This is perhaps the only Preamble I have seen that comes with a date", Justice Datta remarked.The matter will be taken up next in the last week of April.The bench was hearing the petition filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union Minister Subramanian Swamy seeking the deletion of the words "socialist" and "secular" from the Preamble to the Indian Constitution.Swamy has challenged the 42nd amendment to the Constitution which changed the description of India in the Preamble from a "sovereign democratic republic" to a "sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic."Another prayer in Swamy's plea is to strike down the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, that require political parties to give an undertaking to uphold secularism to be registered.During yesterday's hearing of the matter, Dr. Swamy argued that the amendment which introduced these words to the Preamble was brought in during the draconian Emergency period.Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and Rajya Sabha member Binoy Viswam opposed the plea. Viswam through advocate Sriram Parakkat contended that Swamy's plea is an abuse of the process of law, devoid of merit and deserves to be dismissed with exemplary costs.The Court has tagged the plea with Swamy's matter.
TAGS: Subramanian Swamy Preamble Indian Constitution Socialist
