[1] The Emergency of 25 June 1975 – 21 March 1977 was a 21-month period when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a national emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on her the power to rule by decree, suspending elections and civil liberties.
Pranab Mukherjee was secretly felicitated for helping Sanjay Gandhi for arresting high profile political opponents.
[10] Indira Gandhi used the Shah commission as a forum to present herself as a victim of persecution, and this was reinforced when the government first arrested and then released her.
It was on this grounds that Indira Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee refused to depose on oath, and this was the reason why a complaint for contempt by the commission was rejected by a magistrate.
[15] The commission decided that the decision to impose Emergency was made by prime minister Indira Gandhi alone, without consulting her cabinet colleagues, and was not justified.
[17] The commission concluded that during the Emergency the provisions of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act and the Defence of India Rules were not followed but were abused in order to damage political opponents.
[16] In Chapter XV of the 26 April 1978 Interim Report the Commission said: "The decision to arrest and release certain persons were entirely on political considerations which were intended to be favourable to the ruling party.
[19] The commission found that vagabonds and beggars were forced into sterilization clinics during the emergency by Youth Congress workers and the police.
[20] In May 1978, after the second interim report of the commission had been issued, some leaders of the Janata party began demanding that special courts be set up to ensure speedy trial of cases related to the emergency.
[26] She defended her opinion on the grounds that Justice Shah had already spoken against many policies of her government including the nationalization of banks, and that much of the information regarding her perceived authoritativeness was untrue.
She also claimed that there had been clear evidence of the danger of destabilization both from within India as well as from external agencies, which necessitated her writing to the President, asking for permission to impose a state of emergency.