THE ANTITHESIS OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE WORDS ‘SOCIALIST’ AND ‘SECULAR’ INTO THE PREAMBLE OF THE CONSTITUTION IS A DEADLY SIN COMMITTED THROUGH THE 42ND AMENDMENT

- BY JUSTICE SHIV NARAYAN DHINGRA (RETD)

In 1976, the Swaran Singh Committee was appointed to recommend constitutional amendments. It submitted its report the same year itself, and the Preamble of the Constitution was amended based on this report through the 42nd Amendment. The two words 'socialist' and 'secular' were added in the Constitution and, instead of 'sovereign democratic republic', we became a 'sovereign socialist secular democratic republic. In an article published in the Illustrated Weekly of India (July 4, 1976), eminent jurist N.A.

Palkhivala argued that the Preamble was a part of the Constitution statute, not of the Constitution. Article 368 deals only with an amendment of the Constitution, but not of the Constitution statute. The Preamble cannot be amended under Article 368. It refers to the most momentous event in India's history and sets out, as a matter of historical fact, what the people of India in 1949 resolved to do for their unfolding future. No parliament can amend or alter the historical past.

Socialism is the antithesis of the fundamental rights granted to the people of this country by the Constitution.