Justice for Indira

To the delight of her fervent followers, five justices of the Supreme Court of India last week ruled that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was innocent. In separate but concurring opinions, the judges upheld the legality of the 1975 election-law amendment--passed retroactively by India's rubber-stamp Parliament after opposition members either were arrested or walked out--that changed the statutes under which Mrs. Gandhi had been found guilty of corrupt campaign practices. In essence, the ruling reversed the June Allahabad high court decision that would have barred her from holding elective office for six years.

The Allahabad decision had triggered a mounting protest campaign by Mrs. Gandhi's opposition that led her to declare a state of emergency and suspend many of India's democratic freedoms. After the Supreme Court's ruling, Mrs. Gandhi emerged from her New Delhi home to speak to a jubilant crowd of her supporters. "In joy and sorrow you have always been with me," she said, denouncing her opponents as "those who started the trouble." The Prime Minister gave no clue as to what she would do next. Unquestionably, she will push ahead on the ambitious social and economic reforms inaugurated during the emergency (TIME, Oct. 27). Some Indians were hopeful that, with the court case behind her, Mrs. Gandhi would now feel strong enough to relax the emergency decrees, free the estimated 20,000 people still held without trial, dissolve Parliament and call for new elections for next spring--which she would almost certainly win.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.