In the long journey of India’s constitutional democracy, few moments have tested its spirit as severely as the Emergency of 1975–77. And within that dark chapter, no judgement casts a longer shadow than ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla (1976). A cautionary tale, it remains a moment when the Court bent not to the law, but to political pressure.

It began in June 1975, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha was declared void by the Allahabad High Court for electoral malpractice. Facing a massive political storm, she advised President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare Emergency under Article 352, citing internal disturbance.

Suspension of civil liberties, mass arrests, and gagging of the press followed. Thousands were detained under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) without trial or evidence. Most chillingly, the government suspended Article 21, stripping citizens of the right to challenge illegal detentions. Habeas corpus, one of democracy’s oldest safeguards, was effectively dead.

As petitions flooded high courts across the country, some judges began to resist, ordering detainees released. Bent on crushing all resistance, the government dragged the fight to........

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