The Case that Shook India: The Verdict That Led to the Emergency

On 12 June 1975, for the first time in independent India’s history, the election of a prime minister was declared void by a high court judgment. While the watershed case, Indira Gandhi vs Raj Narain, proved the strength of India’s democratic institutions, it also acted as the catalyst for the imposition of the Emergency. Based on detailed notes of the court proceedings, The Case That Shook India is both a legal and a historical document of a case that decisively shaped India’s political destiny. The author, advocate Prashant Bhushan, sets out to reveal the goings-on inside the courtroom as well as the manoeuvrings outside it, including threats, bribes and deceit. Providing a blow-by-blow account, he vividly recreates courtroom scenes, where the arguments are by turns scathing, colourful and downright shocking. As the case unfolds, we see how the ruling government can misuse legislative power, government resources and political funding. The book also includes the Supreme Court proceedings, which went unreported in the media due to censorship and throw light on the constitutional amendments that were enacted. In Bhushan’s forceful and gripping narrative, the experience is of having a frontrow seat to watch one of the most important cases in India’s legal history play out before one’s eyes.