On April 24, 1973, three years prior to the passing of the 42nd Amendment Act of the constitution during the Emergency (January 22, 1976), a 13-judge bench (one of the largest ever assembled) of the Supreme Court of India gave the nation the “basic structure” doctrine.
https://thewire.in/government/the-right-wing-putsch-on-secularism-and-socialism
The judgement stipulated that parliament had no power to amend certain fundamental features of the Constitution. These features included: democracy, federalism, rule of law and secularism, among others.
Yet, right-wing voices seem to have now suddenly mounted a concerted putsch against these defining terms in the Preamble, contending that their incorporation was a clandestine ploy to evict from popular psyche the genius of our cultural and religious history.
by Badri Raina
17/07/2025