Ajay Shah and Kaushik Krishnan, in a detailed post, explore the sticky issue of ’socialism’ and analyse why the courts can’t dislodge the term from the preamble to the Indian constitution:

Legal experts say the Court will never say that socialism should be deleted, for two reasons. The first, a reason that isn’t as relevant today as it was during Mrs. Gandhi’s rule, was the fear that judges who spoke out against State Policy would be transferred or superceded. The second reason is that the judiciary is not the organ of the State that can change the Constitution. At most, it can make sure that the Legislature creates law within the framework that the Constitution allows. But it cannot create law. More importantly it cannot delete law. But all hope is not yet lost, while the PIL that sought to remove socialism from the Constitution was dismissed, the PIL that seeks to remove the socialist ideology as a necessary requirement of all political parties has been admitted.