Shah commission Study Guide 

 
 
 
Introduction 
 
 
What real purpose will the findings of the Shah 
Commission serve? ​Is it not a waste of time and 
resources to dig up the past happening​s? Why does the 
Janata government not apply itself to economic and 
basic other issues relating to the primary needs of the 
people? Is not the Shah Commission on a diversionary 
move? ​These and similar other questions are being 
posed by the man in the street.​ And those who favour 
the Shah Commission answer back rather defensively: 
Sensitive matters of public importance, they say, "if left 
to agencies for routine inquiries can create needless 
controversies and generate an atmosphere of 
suspicion. If there is a crisis of confidence in the 
integrity of public life; it is vital that public confidence 
should be restored. Without it no democracy can 
survive for long. It is only by establishing the truth that 
the purity and integrity of public life can be preserved.’’ 
This was the basis on which the Shah Commission was 
informed. ​The Indian 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 allowing gross 
human right violations by the government of India to go 
unopposed. It was a period under which democracy 
suffered the most. People could not voice their opinion 
in public, mass sterilisations were being forcibly 
corrected and rights leaders arrested just to name a 
few. The commission published its report on the illegal 
events during the emergency and the persons 
responsible in three volumes totaling 525 pages.The 
first interim report was submitted on 11 March 1978, 
dealing with the lead-up to the declaration of the 
Emergency and the way in which the press was 
prevented from speaking out. The second interim 
report discussed police actions and the role of Sanjay 
Gandhi at the Turkman Gate incident in which police 
fired on a crowd of people protesting against 
demolition of their houses. The final report was issued 
on 6 August 1978 and covered prison conditions, torture 
and family planning atrocities. 
 
 
 
 
Acts predominant amid Emergency:  
 
MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) 1971-1977: 
Indian Parliament passed a dubious law named MISA in 
July 2, 1971 amid the administration. The Act permitted 
the Indian law enforcement organizations to look and 
keep people and seize their properties with no 
warrants. The law was upheld keeping national security 
on the front line and to counter harm, terrorism, 
subterfuge and different dangers to country. The Act 
was corrected a few times amid the Emergency to suit 
the political prerequisites of the then controlling 
government and was utilized for capturing, tormenting 
and at times coercively cleaning individuals. Under the 
MISA, there were around 1,00,000 individuals which 
included columnists, researchers, activists, opposition 
party members and community individuals who got 
captured and were kept without a trial for a period up 
to eighteen months. The Act damaged essential human 
rights. As per reports introduced by Amnesty 
International, 1, 40,000 individuals were captured 
without trials amid the long crisis, around the country. 
The Act was disavowed by the Janata Party drove 
government in the 44th Amendment Act of 1978, which 
likewise expelled MISA from the ninth Schedule that had 
given it a resistant status till date in light of the fact 
that there was no arrangement of legal audit under the 
calendar. A portion of the prominent ministers who got 
captured under MISA amid the crisis time frame were: 
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Chandra Shekhar, Lal Krishna 
Advani, Sharad Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav and so on.  
 
COFEPOSA (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and 
Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974): The Act 
was established to forestall smuggling in the outside 
trade and retain foreign currency, in December 13, 1974, 
preceding the crisis was declared. The Act is yet 
working and has been censured by journalists and 
human rights activists in light of the fact that it is a 
financial aid to that of MISA and ought to be canceled. 
The trade organization ASSOCHAM has additionally 
requested cancelling of the Act.  
 
AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958): The Act 
was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 September 
1958, which still holds on. The law has six segments that 
gifts unique forces to the Indian Armed Forces in 
"aggravated territories" or the regions in which there is 
political strife or distress of any sort. The Act has gotten 
extreme feedback from different segments of the 
general public and in addition political pioneers, for its 
infringement of essential human rights that 
incorporates executing and seizure and inquiry of 
private property with no warrant.  
 
A portion of the other disputable acts that later got 
reprimanded on the grounds of abusing the common 
freedom and neglecting to protect essential human 
rights for serving the administration giving it a lot of 
power for battling internal and cross-border terrorism 
and political violence, are as per the following:  
 
● National Security Act (1980)  
 ● Terrorism and Disruptive Activities(Prevention) Act 
(TADA, 1985-1995),  
● Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA, 2002)  
● Mass Sterilization Campaign  
 
It was likewise the time when media was under 
enormous risk and was utilized to engender the forced 
sterilization publicity which was started by Sanjay 
Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, in 1976. Under this 
program it was compulsory for Indian men to undergo 
sterilization in order to limit population growth in the 
nation. The campaign left individuals smoldering over 
the authorities as there were men who were unwilling to 
undergo vasectomy under any conditions.  
 
Threat over Press/Media  
 
Free press, presence of a solid resistance and 
independent judiciary, every one of them were absent 
amid the progressing crisis period and it was clear that 
democracy was disintegrating at the command of the 
then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Amid the crisis 
control over the media was on top and numerous daily 
papers and magazines were restricted in that period. 
Inside three hours from taking the choice to force 
emergency in India, power supplies to all the main 
newspapers were cut. Indian Express and Times of India 
were a portion of the significant newspapers that spoke 
against the control and conveyed clear publications 
and features with striking letters criticizing the crisis.  
 
It was the time when, for the most part, all the major 
human rights were relinquished by the administration 
and democracy murdered. Amid the period there was 
going scorn among the general population for the 
administration because of measures taken by the 
legislature for the sake of 'internal disturbance' and 
security. It was likewise considered as the dark period in 
history which took Congress as a political party down 
after Independence. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
END OF THE EMERGENCY:- 
 
At 8 pm on the night of January 1977, Indira Gandhi 
announced in a broadcast over All India Radio that the 
Lok Sabha had been dissolved and fresh elections 
would be held in March. Most of her listeners were 
stunned because only 63 days earlier, on November 5, 
1976, the Lok Sabha’s term was extended, for the second 
time, until February 1978. (In actuality, the Constitution 
never gave Parliament the authority to extend its own 
term. However, with the suspension of the Constitution, 
the regime used the Emergency to give itself the 
necessary power and used it twice. Mercifully, after 
Gandhi’s humiliating defeat in the 1977 election, all the 
controversial changes she had made in the 
Constitution were repealed. The Lok Sabha’s life 
returned to five years and no more.) 
At this time, no precise information regarding a reason 
for the withdrawal is available, thanks to the heavily 
suppressive Emergency regime. There are rumours 
galore but their credibility is in doubt. 
 
 
 
QUESTION OF LEGALITY:- 
The main purpose of our commision is to answer the 
question is to determine the legality of the ‘Emergency’. 
In order to do this, members must know the emergency 
provisions and the meaning of ‘abuse of power’ 
 
Abuse of power ​- ​Improper use of authority by someone who has that authority 
because he or she holds a public office. 

Please refer to the following link for a comprehensive 

apt explanation of the same:- 
http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/72400
/12/12_chapter%207.pdf 
 
We must also gauge whether the emergency was 
necessary or not. A question Ms. Gandhi and 
supporters would swear the answer to is yes while her 
opposition would vehemently disagree.