77 DOUBLE SEVEN 77

THE EMERGENCY,HANS RAJ KHANNA,STOLEN GENERATION

Ever heard of DOUBLE SEVEN.

It was our standard mix-n-fix for all our cock,rock and mocktails ..well 77 was our good old gorgie porgie[george fernandes] idea of throwin out COCA COLA..in the aftermath of the emergency…the first PEOPLE’S JANATA GOVERNEMENT .\

77 was our desi cola,our ingenuity,our perspiration,our inspiration,our mischief and our colonial revenge in the WATER WAR!!

How we cried when this BLOCK-BUSTER of a JANATA governemnt bluffed it’s way out.

With the collapse of the JANATA government 77 faded from our collective consciousness.

COCA COLA and PEPSI are back.....77 is now INDRA NOOYI in PEPSI..who knows..  

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Today is the time to remember the great JUSTICE HR KHANNA who delivered a sixer of a verdict during the DARK AND DEEP EMERGENCY.

In my days in college the legal eagles we admired were NANI PALKIVALA AND RAM JETHMALANI.

I really enjoyed the reminscenses of JR KHANNA in the HINDU,INDIAN EXPRESS,HINDUSTAN TIMES and THE TIMES OF INDIA.

One of the most important legal terminologies I learnt   was the HABEAS CORPUS…even today when I go thro the HABEAS CORPUS petitions in the HIGH COURTS,I cannot but think of this ONE MAN ARMY who took our cuture of dissent and fairplay to HIMALAYAN HIGHTS…read on… 

The Habeas Corpus Case [wikistuff,this is!!!]

Justice Khanna is known for his courage and independence during the period that has been called the darkest hour of Indian democracy^[3], during the Indian Emergency (1975-1977) of Indira Gandhi.

The emergency was declared when Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court invalidated the election of Indira Gandhi to the Lok Sabha in June 1975, upholding charges of electoral fraud^[3] by Raj Narain.

In an atmosphere where a large number of people had been detained without trial under the repressive Maintenance of Internal Security Act, several high courts had given relief to the detainees by accepting their right to habeas corpus as stated in Article 21 of the Indian constitution. This issue was at the heart of the case of the Additional District Magistrate of Jabalpur v. Shiv Kant Shukla, popularly known as the Habeas Corpus case, which came up for hearing in front of the Supreme Court in December 1975. Given the important nature of the case, a bench comprising the five seniormost judges was convened to hear the case.

During the arguments, Justice Khanna at one point asked the Attorney General Niren De: "Life is also mentioned in Article 21 and would Government argument extend to it also?". De answered, "Even if life was taken away illegally, courts are helpless"^[4].

The bench opined in April 1975, with the majority deciding against habeas corpus, permitting unrestricted powers of detention during emergency. Justices A.N. Ray, P. N. Bhagwati, Y. V. Chandrachud, and M.H.Beg, stated in the majority decision:^[4]

In view of the Presidential Order [declaring emergency] no person has any locus to move any writ petition under Art. 226 before a High Court for habeas corpus or any other writ or order or direction to challenge the legality of an order of detention.

However, Justice Khanna resisted the pressure to concur with this majority view. He wrote in his dissenting opinion:

detention without trial is an anathema to all those who love personal liberty^[5]... A dissent is an appeal to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of a future day, when a later decision may possible correct the error into which the dissenting Judge believes the court to have been betrayed.^[4]

Before delivering this opinion, Justice Khanna mentioned to his sister: ‘‘I have prepared my judgment, which is going to cost me the Chief Justice-ship of India.’’^[6] True to his apprehensions, he was superseded for the post of Chief Justice in January 1977, despite being the most senior judge at the time.

Subsequently, the judiciary has wrested the power of judicial appointments from the executive in a landmark ruling in the Advocates-on-Record case in 1993.

The New York Times, wrote at the time:

If India ever finds its way back to the freedom and democracy that were proud hallmarks of its first eighteen years as an independent nation, someone will surely erect a monument to Justice H R Khanna of the Supreme Court. It was Justice Khanna who spoke out fearlessly and eloquently for freedom this week in dissenting from the Court’s decision upholding the right of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Government to imprison political opponents at will and without court hearings... The submission of an independent judiciary to absolutist government is virtually the last step in the destruction of a democratic society; and the Indian Supreme Court’s decision appears close to utter surrender.^[6]

INDIA TODAY was a child of the EMERGENCY…the emergency excesses and sexcesses was easy fodder for INDIA TODAY….JUSTICE HR KHANNA deserves a frontpage on INDIA TODAY.

VINOD MEHTA of OUTLOOK was with DEBONAIR during the emergency  and fought the emergency in his own little way….dear OUTLOOK lets have KHANNA and SINHA on the cover…and some rivetting stuff from the legal eagles we are blessed with.

Interestingly  PAKISTAN is going thro a similar phase…thus we are 30 years ahead in the continental race.

I cried when I kept replaying the saga of KASHMIR SINGH….its a medical miracle….they deserve a visit to the TAJ MAHAL on state expense…this is textbook stuff….