The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a series of petitions challenging the 1976 constitutional amendment that introduced the terms "socialist," "secular," and "integrity" in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. The pleas, filed by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy and advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, among others, sought to question the validity of these additions.

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar had reserved the verdict on November 22 after hearing arguments. Delivering the judgment, the CJI said, “The petitions do not require a detailed hearing.” The court upheld the validity of the amendments brought during the Emergency-era government under the 42nd Constitutional Amendment.

The petitioners contended that attaching the words "socialist" and "secular" in 1976 had resulted in a direct contradiction with the original adoption of the Constitution in the year 1949. But the bench rejected those claims, saying: “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 Chief Justice further clarified that the arguments about the amendment being retrospective, if accepted, would apply to all constitutional amendments.

For decades now, the presence of the two words "socialist" and "secular" in the Preamble has been debated, arguing that it shifts the original intent of the Constitution, but what is clear in this ruling is that amendments, by the prescribed legal process, stand valid even if the Constitution was first adopted.