Indian elections in 1971 started with congress 'Garibi hatao' slogans. As oil prices increased in the international markets, India too was captured in the inflation. Rising prices of oil, foodgrains and other essential commodities led to massive protests in many parts of the country. Students' protests in Gujarat and Bihar during 1974 led to the emergence of leaders such as Morarji Desai, and Jayaprakash Narayan among others.

Moreover, there was a railway strike organised by George Fernandes to meet the demand of improved working conditions and bonus for the Railway employees. The period also saw the conflict between the judiciary and the executive. This conflict culminated in the famous Kesavananda Bhauti case, and later into a rulling declaring Indira Gandhi's election invalid.

As the Allahabad High court passed a judgement to this effect, the stage was set for a political confrontation between congress and opposition parties led by Jayaprakash Narayan.

These events finally led to the declaration of emergency by the government on 25th June 1975.

The issue of conflict between the executive and judiciary was over:

(1) Fundamental Rights of people
(2) Decreasing the power of judiciary
(3) Amending the criminal laws
(4) Appointing the judges of the Supreme Court

4

Two developments further added to the tension between the judiciary and the executive. Immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision in 1973 in the Kesavananda Bharati case, a vacancy arose for the post of the Chief Justice of India. It had been a practice to appoint the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as the Chief Justice. But in 1973, the government set aside the seniority of three judges and appointed Justice A. N. Ray as the Chief Justice of India. The appointment became politically controversial because all the three judges who were superseded had given rulings against the stand of the government. Thus, constitutional interpretations and political ideologies were getting mixed up rapidly. People close to the Prime Minister started talking of the need for a judiciary and the bureaucracy ‘committed’ to the vision of the executive and the legislature. The climax of the confrontation was of course the ruling of the High Court declaring Indira Gandhi’s election invalid.