In the end, Maneka Gandhi did not in fact get her passport. But we end this year’s introspection into constitutional matters with a landmark case: Menaka Gandhi vs. Union of India, 1977. Gandhi’s passport was impounded in ‘public interest’. While this followed statutory regulations, that’s the Passport Act, 1967, the question was, did this conform to natural justice? The Longest Constitution examines what due process really means, as well as look at why 1971 was a year that set several things into motion, such as the passage of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971, a tool for the government during Emergency, as well as the year when Raj Narain filed a petition challenging Indira Gandhi’s election in the Allahabad High court.

Reading material:

On electoral malpractices and Emergency:

• Bhushan, Prashant, 2017, The Case that Shook India: the verdict that led to the Emergency,  New Delhi: Penguin Random House.
• Austin, Granville, 2003, Working a Democratic Constitution: The Indian Experience, (OUP: New Delhi).

On preventive detention laws and MISA:

• Singh, Ujjwal Kumar, 2007, The State, Democracy and Anti-Terror Laws in India, (New Delhi: Sage Publications).

On Maneka Gandhi and due process:

• Chandrachud, Abhinav, 2016, ‘Due Process’, in Choudhry, Sujit (et al), The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, (New Delhi: OUP).
• Surendranath, Anup, 2016, ‘Life and Personal Liberty, in Choudhry, Sujit (et al), The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, (New Delhi: OUP).

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