From The Hindu, June 13, 1975: Mrs. Gandhi’s election set aside

Allahabad, June 12: In a momentous judgment likely to be a landmark in India’s history, Mr. Justice Jag Mohan Lal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court to-day set aside the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha. Holding her guilty of corrupt practice, the judge debarred Mrs. Gandhi from contesting any election under the Representation of the People Act for a period of six years but, on the plea of her counsel, stayed the operation of his judgment for 20 days. In a 258 page judgment on the petition filed by Mr. Raj Narain, a rival candidate, challenging Mrs. Gandhi’s election from the Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh in March 1971 the judge found her 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 accordingly on February 1, 1971, was not accepted by the judge. He said that she had held herself out as a candidate on December 29, 1970 (the day she addressed a press conference in New Delhi). Mr. Justice J.M.L. Sinha said that Mrs. Gandhi obtained and procured the assistance of Mr. Yashpal Kapoor during the period January 7 to January 24, 1971 in the furtherance of her election prospects when Mr. Kapoor was a gazetted officer of the Government of India and was working as an Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.