Even for registration of political parties with the election commission of india, it is mandatory for those parties to follow socialism and secularism. Senior congress leader adhir ranjan chowdhury said on wednesday that the copies of the constitution book given to parliamentarians at the new parliament building on tuesday did not include the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the preamble. "We entered the new parliament building holding the new copies of the constitution given to us. The words 'socialist' and 'secular' were missing from its preamble," said Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. The words 'socialist' and 'secular' were added in 1976 by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment: "We, the people of india, have resolved to establish india as a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic..." One of the mandatory conditions for registration of political parties with the election commission of india is that the parties follow the principles of socialism and secularism. It was inserted in Section 29-A (5) of the Representation of the people Act, 1951 by an amendment brought in 1989.
In january 2015, then Union minister Ravi shankar Prasad said there was no harm in debating whether the words 'secular' and 'socialist' should be included in the preamble. In the same year, a government advertisement for Republic Day published in newspapers featured the Preamble of the Constitution, omitting the words "socialist, secular". Even then there were criticisms about it. Two lawyers and a social worker filed a petition in the supreme court in 2020 seeking the removal of the words "secular" and "socialist" from the preamble.
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