NEW DELHI, Dec. 2 -- Rejecting a challenge to the insertion of the words "socialist" and "secular" in the Preamble to the Constitution of India, a Supreme Court Bench comprising the Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar on Monday, November 25, 2024, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, ruled that both Socialism and Secularism are part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitution.

The original Preamble, adopted on November 26, 1949, declared India a sovereign, democratic republic. The Constituent Assembly consciously resolved not to use the socialist or secular terms in the Constitution because both concepts had yet to be defined in the Indian context.

When the Constitution...