The Emergency, 1975 to 1977: When Democracy Was Suspended

The Emergency is the one period in which India's democratic machinery was switched off from within. It lasted twenty-one months. How it began and how it ended are both part of the Constitution's story.

The trigger

On 12 June 1975 Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court, hearing a petition by the socialist leader Raj Narain, held Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractice in her 1971 election from Rae Bareli and set the election aside. The Supreme Court granted a conditional stay. Opposition leaders, led by Jayaprakash Narayan, called for her resignation and for mass protest.

On the night of 25 June 1975, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, on the Prime Minister's advice, proclaimed an Emergency under Article 352, on the ground of "internal disturbance". The Cabinet was informed the next morning.

What changed

• Fundamental rights were suspended, and the right to move the courts to enforce them was barred.
• Opposition leaders and tens of thousands of others were detained without trial, many under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).
• Newspapers were censored before publication. On 26 June some papers appeared with blank editorials in protest.
• Lok Sabha elections due in 1976 were postponed.
• Programmes of forced sterilisation and slum demolitions, notably in Delhi, caused lasting harm.

In April 1976, in ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla, the Supreme Court held by four judges to one that detainees could not approach the courts even to claim the right to life during the Emergency. The lone dissent, by Justice H. R. Khanna, is now regarded as one of the finest in the court's history; he was later superseded for Chief Justice. In 2017 a nine-judge bench in the privacy case expressly overruled the majority view.

The Forty-second Amendment of 1976 made sweeping changes, including limits on judicial review. It also added the words "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" to the Preamble, and the Fundamental Duties in Part IVA.

How it ended

In January 1977 the government announced elections. Political prisoners were released. In March 1977 the Congress lost, and Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi both lost their own seats. The Emergency was withdrawn on 21 March 1977 and the Janata Party formed the government.

The safeguards

The Forty-fourth Amendment of 1978 was written so that the same thing could not be done the same way again:

• "Internal disturbance" was replaced by "armed rebellion" as a ground for a national emergency.
• An emergency can be proclaimed only on the written advice of the Union Cabinet, not the Prime Minister alone.
• A proclamation must be approved by a special majority in both Houses within one month, and renewed every six months.
• Articles 20 and 21, protection in respect of conviction for offences and the right to life and personal liberty, can no longer be suspended during any emergency.
• The right to property was removed from the fundamental rights and became a constitutional right under Article 300A.

Why it is remembered

The Emergency showed that a constitution's words cannot protect a democracy on their own. It also showed that voters can. Given a free election, they removed a government that had suspended their rights, and a new government restored them in the text itself.