Saturday, June 14, 2025
HomeLawSupreme Court agrees to examine petition of a 94-year-old widow seeking to declare 1975...

Supreme Court agrees to examine petition of a 94-year-old widow seeking to declare 1975 Emergency as unconstitutional

Petitioner Veera Sarin had moved the SC on December 4, asking the Apex Court to declare the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975 as 'unconstitutional'. Sarin's husband was hounded and their properties were confiscated by the Congress government, after which he had succumbed to the pressure and died.

The Supreme Court today agreed to examine whether it would be feasible or desirable to look into the Constitutional validity of the Emergency imposed by the former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. The apex court was hearing a plea filed by a 94-year-old widow who wants the Emergency imposed 45 years ago to be declared “wholly unconstitutional”. The woman had also sought an amount of Rs 25 crore as compensation from authorities involved in imposing and enforcing the Emergency.

Hearing the plea, the bench comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy issued notice to the Central Government stating that the court would hear the petitioner on the limited aspect of whether the validity of such proclamation can be probed by the Court after the passage of “such a long time.”

“We are having difficulty. Emergency is something which should not have happened,” the top court observed while hearing the plea.

Arguing that the Court is empowered to examine the validity of the proclamation of emergency, senior advocate Harish Salve appearing for petitioner Veera Sarin, said that Emergency was a “fraud” and the “greatest assault” on the Constitution as rights were suspended for months.

94-year-old widow moves Supreme Court seeking for declaration of Emergency as unconstitutional

Petitioner Veera Sarin had on December 4, moved the SC seeking for declaration of Emergency as unconstitutional. Referring to the 2017 judgment of KS Puttaswamy (Retd.) vs. Union of India which overruled the decision of 5-Judge Bench in ADM Jabalpur v. Shiv Kant Shukla, the petition held that the end of the darkest chapter of the Indian democracy is yet to bring closure to the petitioner who had endured brutalities at the hands of those in power during the Emergency.

Petitioner seeks justice for the lifetime of misery and perennial sufferings due to the Emergency

In her plea, the Sarin argued that the then government authorities specifically targeted her and her husband with untenable and groundless detention orders, and they had to escape the country because of the government’s organised looting of businesses and homes of the victims.

The petitioner cited the Delhi High Court’s ruling passed in December 2014 which ultimately put an end to the proceeding against her deceased husband and stated that the valuables impounded from her husband’s prosperous and thriving business worth crores of rupees were yet to be returned.

She also alleged that the government authorities had during those days, seized valuable worth crores from the petitioner’s husband. “His business was shut down, assets and valuables including immovable property was seized and appropriated. The Petitioner’s husband succumbed to the pressure and died. Since then the Petitioner has been single-handedly facing all proceedings initiated against her husband during the Emergency period, which were arbitrarily pursued,” the petition stated.

The petitioner’s husband, HK Sarin, had a flourishing art and gem business in Karol Bagh and Connaught Place. However, shortly after the Emergency was imposed in June 1975, raids were conducted in commercial bases in Sarin and valuables, jewellery and artefacts were seized on suspected violations of the Customs Act.

The emergency was proclaimed minutes before the midnight of June 25, 1975, by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The proclamation was revoked in March 1977.

Join OpIndia's official WhatsApp channel

  Support Us  

For likes of 'The Wire' who consider 'nationalism' a bad word, there is never paucity of funds. They have a well-oiled international ecosystem that keeps their business running. We need your support to fight them. Please contribute whatever you can afford

OpIndia Staff
OpIndia Staffhttps://www.opindia.com
Staff reporter at OpIndia

Related Articles

Trending now

Khawaja Asif’s comedy hour: Pakistan ‘hacked’ IPL floodlights and Indian dam gates in response to Operation Sindoor, apparently

Pakistan, which can’t keep its own lights on now claims to be switching off India’s stadium floodlights — remotely. Asif’s claim is so ludicrous it makes science fiction sound like documentary.

What are India’s strategic petroleum reserves and how they help secure Indian energy needs in case of any oil crisis resulting from escalating Middle...

The reason behind such sustainable supply of crude oil amid tensions is the consistent expansion of its Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR). The programme to stockpile crude oil predates Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, since he took office, India’s SPRs have increased exponentially.
- Advertisement -