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Nearly a half-century before Rahul Gandhi, his grandmother, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, too, was disqualified from Parliament also as a consequence of a court decision. The comparison, however, ends here.

Indira was disqualified by a single-judge Bench of the Allahabad High Court, which found her guilty of corrupt electoral practices in the elections of 1971. The decision by Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha which was stayed and subsequently reversed by the Supreme Court would be the trigger for Indira to declare the Emergency, which would change the politics of India forever.

The case was filed by the Lohiaite leader Raj Narain of the Samyukta Socialist Party after he was defeated by Indira in the election to the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in March 1971. Raj Narain challenged Indiras election on grounds of alleged corrupt practices under Sections 123(5), 123(6), 123(3), and 123(7) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which relate to the hiring of vehicles for the purpose of ferrying people to polling booths, exceeding the election expenditure limit, appealing for votes on the basis of religion, and using government functionaries for the furtherance of her election prospects respectively.

Narain alleged that Indira, along with her former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) and election agent, Yashpal Kapur, had spent more than the amount prescribed under Section 77 of the RP Act, read with Rule 90 of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961.

Justice Sinha found Indira guilty of corrupt practices under Section 123(7) of the RP Act. The misuse of police and Army personnel, judges, magistrates, and gazetted officers falls under the ambit of this subsection.

The court observed that Indira had used the services of Kapur, along with the Rae Bareli District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police to set up a stage, loudspeakers, and barricades for her election campaign. Indira had appointed Kapur her election agent after he had resigned from the Prime Ministers Secretariat on January 13, 1971, well before she started her campaign, but the Secretariat had not notified his resignation until January 25 of that year. Also, on January 7, when he was still a gazetted officer, Kapur had given speeches in favour of Indira.

The court concluded that Section 123(7) had indeed been violated and on June 12, 1975, ruled that Indira was guilty of having committed corrupt practice by having obtained the assistance of gazetted officers in furtherance of her election prospects.

Consequently, the Prime Minister was disqualified from Parliament, and from holding any elected post, for six years from the date of the decision.

Indira appealed her disqualification before the Supreme Court. The court was on vacation at the time, and on June 24, 1975, a single-judge Vacation Bench of Justice V R Krishna Iyer gave a partial stay on the High Courts order. It allowed Indira to continue as PM, but barred her from voting in parliamentary proceedings and said she could not draw her MPs salary. (Indira Nehru Gandhi (Smt.) vs Raj Narain & Anr)

The day after the SCs interim order, on June 25, 1975, Indira declared a National Emergency on grounds of internal disturbance under Article 352 of the Constitution. During the period of the Emergency, Indiras government passed the Thirty-Ninth Amendment to the Constitution, which introduced Article 329A, which said that the elections of the Prime Minister and the Speaker cannot be challenged in a court of law.

On November 7, 1975, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by then CJI A N Ray unanimously upheld Indiras 1971 election, setting aside the rulings of the Vacation Bench and the Allahabad High Court.

Article 329A was omitted by the Forty-fourth Amendment Act, 1978, passed by the Janata government.

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As Rahul Gandhi has to leave Lok Sabha, remembering Indira Gandhis disqualification 48 years ago - The Indian Express