Indira Gandhi’s ’71 poll win set aside by Allahabad HC

HT’s report on the verdict that caused a political upheaval and led to imposition of Emergency

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The Allahabad high court on June 12, 1975, held Mrs Indira Gandhi guilty of corrupt practices in the Rae Bareli election and debarred her from all elected offices for six years, making it the first time in the history of parliamentary democracy that a Prime Minister was unseated from Parliament by the judiciary.

After consulting her senior colleagues and legal experts, Mrs Gandhi decided she was not bound to resign in view of the stay order obtained from the very judge who declared her election to the Lok Sabha invalid.

The grounds on which her election was set aside were that Mrs Gandhi was guilty of obtaining the assistance of gazetted government officers, including Mr Yashpal Kapoor. The Prime Minister's plea that she decided to contest the election and filed the papers on February 1, 1971, was not accepted by the judge, who ruled that she held herself out as a candidate on December 29, 1970, the day she addressed a news conference in New Delhi.

Mrs Gandhi will file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the high court judgment as soon as a certified copy is obtained.