Fifty years ago, Indian democracy faced its gravest constitutional threat. The imposition of Emergency on June 25, 1975, followed by trampling over dissenting voices and suppression of civil liberties, appeared like the eclipse of a nascent democratic republic’s promise with the shadow of autocratic authoritarianism.

The 21-month-long censorship of the press, mass arrest, and centralisation of power in the hands of an unaccountable executive marked the nadir of Indian democracy. The admission registers of various jails across India, and especially Tihar Jail, Delhi, are a testament to the same. As we reflect on the semicentennial of the Emergency, the shadow of the period looms large. It is important to remember it not as an unpleasant, distant memory but as a cautionary tale, aiding the republic to navigate future polity.

The Emergency was the consequential outcome of power-seeking political masters trying to negate the effect of Indira Nehru Gandhi vs Shri Raj Narain & Anr. (1975). Though it was initiated by the executive branch of the state, it caused institutional paralysis. Rather than being a political aberration, it was a systemic failure of institutional safeguards.

The judicial capitulation in ADM Jabalpur v Shivkant Shukla (1976) exposed the fragility of the constitutional guarantee of checks and balances. The judiciary completely surrendered itself to the whims and fancies of the executive branch of state by declaring that “habeas corpus could be suspended during emergencies". The legislative branch was no different. Parliament, bent in subservience, became a rubber stamp of the executive, losing its conscience. The press, regarded as the fourth and unalienable pillar of democracy, succumbed to censorship, barring a few notable exceptions. The ones who withstood the test of time, JHR Khanna from the judiciary or The Indian Express from the media, are the north stars of Indian........

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