PM granted conditional stay (1975)
The Supreme Court today (June 24) granted Prime Minister Indira Gandhi stay of the operation of the Allahabad High Court judgment, imposing conditions on her functioning as a member of the Lok Sabha but without impairing her constitutional rights as Prime Minister of India.
The Vacation Judge, Mr V. R. Krishna Iyer, issued a long order today to this effect on the stay application of Mrs Gandhi. He left it open to either party to go before a division bench to modify the order if there be any change of circumstance.
The Judge made it clear that he was not going into the merits of the Allahabad High Court judgment and was dealing with the stay application only from the legal point of view without going into political aspects.
He was doing so because he was delivering the order “with a sense of hurry, although after careful consideration of arguments heard till last evening.”
The Judge noted that for around two decades there had rarely been an “absolute stay” issued by the Supreme Court in election cases where a member had been unseated by the High Court for corrupt practices.
The electoral disqualification and the finding of corrupt practice in a High Court judgment “automatically stands eclipsed” during the stay. “The typical stay restores to the appellant, during its operation, the full status of a member of a legislature minus the right to participate in debates, including voting and drawing of remuneration as a legislator.”
{{/usCountry}}The electoral disqualification and the finding of corrupt practice in a High Court judgment “automatically stands eclipsed” during the stay. “The typical stay restores to the appellant, during its operation, the full status of a member of a legislature minus the right to participate in debates, including voting and drawing of remuneration as a legislator.”
{{/usCountry}}The Judge said that, therefore, he proposed to direct a stay, substantially on the same lines as had been made in earlier similar cases, modified by the compulsive necessities of the present case.
Mr Justice Krishna lyer said that at the first flush he was disposed to prolong the “absolute stay” granted by the High Court, but on fuller reflection hesitated to take that course.
Tiger Hill strafed by laser-guided bombs (1999)
MIRAGE-2000 fighters today (June 24) led the Indian offensive by pounding the enemy posts atop the 16,000 feet high Tiger Hill in the Drass subsector with laser-guided bombs, killing at least 15 Pakistani soldiers and destroying field fortifications. In a related development, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said today that India had no intention of crossing the Line of Control (LoC). “Dikkaten na rahin hain, yeh sacch hai, Phir bhi Line of Control kak ullangan kar ke udhar jaane kak irada nahi hai” (It is true there are difficulties. Even so, we don’t intend to violate the LOC and cross over), Mr Vajpayee said during a brief chat with newsmen. Later in the day, the Prime Minister called on President K.R. Narayanan and briefed him on the Kargil developments. The meeting lasted an hour.