On June 12, 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court delivered a historic verdict, convicting the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of electoral malpractices and debarring her from holding any elected post under the Representative of Peoples Act.

The verdict is widely believed to have forced her to impose Emergency on June 25, 1975.

Indira Gandhi won the 1971 Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh by defeating Janata Party’s Raj Narain. Narain challenged her election alleging electoral malpractices, claiming that Indira Gandhi's election agent Yashpal Kapoor was a government servant and that she used government officials for personal election-related work. 

Justice Sinha disqualified her from Parliament and imposed a six-year ban on her holding any elected post. While the Emergency was in force, the Supreme Court later overturned her conviction on November 7, 1975.

The verdict changed the course of India’s history. Imposition of Emergency and Indira Gandhi’s subsequent defeat in the 1977 Lok Sabha elections were the direct results of Justice Sinha’s judgment.

Her government cited a breakdown of law and order situation in the country owing to massive protest by the opposition parties alleging corruption by the Congress.

Hundreds of political leaders, activists, and trade unionists were imprisoned.

The goal of the 21-month-long Emergency was to control internal disturbance, for which the constitutional rights were suspended and freedom of speech and the press withdrawn.

Indira Gandhi justified the drastic measure saying it was in the national interest, and primarily based on three grounds. Firstly, India’s security and democracy was in danger owing to the movement launched by Jayaprakash Narayan. Secondly, there was a need for rapid economic development and uplift of the underprivileged. Thirdly, the intervention of foreign powers threatened India.

A year after she was defeated by Raj Narain from Rae Bareli post Emergency, Indira Gandhi successfully contested the Lok Sabha by-elections from Chikmagalur in 1978. 

It was a turning point in Indira Gandhi’s career and the victory gave her a political rebirth. Two years later, she swept back to power in the 1980 Lok Sabha elections, with the Congress winning 353 seats.



The rest is, as they say, history.