Amendments To The Preamble

In 1976, when the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act was approved, the Preamble was significantly modified. The Amendment Act of 1976 was one of the most significant revisions to the preamble to the Indian Constitution. Indira Gandhi, the leader of the Indian National Congress at the time, signed this act. Another title for the same thing is Mini-constitution, as in this the Indian Constitution was revised. A committee led by Sardar Swaran Singh recommended how this amendment would be authorised after being contacted to look at the issue of changing the constitution in the light of prior practice. There is a parliamentary procedure to amend the preamble, which needs to be followed. 

Important aspects of the Preamble

Four important elements may be derived from the preamble’s text:

• The constitution’s power is derived from the Indian people.
• State’s nature of India: It asserts that India is an independent, socialist, democratic, religious, and republic state.
• The constitution’s aims are justice, freedom, fairness, and brotherhood.
• November 26th, 1949 was the approval date

Amendment related to the preamble of Indian constitution

In both language and character, India’s Constitution is unique. The Indian Constitution establishes law and order and is recognised as the country’s supreme law. The Constitution was created by a constituent assembly that provided provisions for future modifications. The Indian Constitution as it exists currently has undergone major alterations as a result of many amendments. 

Majorly, the preamble of the Indian constitution was amended only once in 1976 by the 42nd Amendment Act. However, there is also a 44th Amendment act, which was to overturn the 42nd Amendment. The parliamentary procedure to amend the preamble is also supposed to be followed everytime the preamble needs to be modified. 

The 42nd Amendment Act: amendments to the preamble

The Constitution Act, of 1976, is widely regarded as among the most contentious actions in the history of Indian constitutional revisions, which is a major amendment to the preamble. In this act, attempts were made to curtail the Supreme Court’s & High Courts’ authority. The citizens’ fundamental duties were established.

By this amendment, there were many parts of the Indian constitution that were changed, including the clause itself. There were also some new sections and articles that were introduced. The 59 clauses of the amendment took away many powers of the Supreme Court. It also made the political system to move towards the parliamentary sovereignty. The 42nd amendment also provided Parliament with the power to amend the Constitution parts without even judicial review. The power of central government as compared to state governments was now more and it eroded the federal structure of India. The amendment act also modified the India’s description and it changed to “sovereign, socialist secular democratic republic” from “sovereign democratic republic”. In addition to it, the words “unity of the nation” also got changed to “unity and integrity of the nation”.

Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2021

The Constituion (Amendment Bill), 2021 was presented by K J Alphons, a BJP representative of Kerala. This bill wants to replace the phrase “EQUALITY of status & opportunity” in the Preamble by “EQUALITY of status and opportunity to be born, nourished, trained, find work, and be treated with dignity.” It also aims to replace the term “socialist” with the term “equitable.”. “Access to information technology” and “pleasure” are also proposed as goals inside the bill.

Conclusion

The Preamble to the Indian Constitution is a key starting section that explains the constitution’s purpose in detail. The Preamble explains how to use and handle it, as well as what its main function is. The Preamble was majorly changed just once by the 42nd Amendment Act. There were many changes that were made in this amendment that included the change in description of India, clauses of preamble, giving more powers to the Central government, allowing the Parliament to change the preamble without judicial review, and more.