mela because Shri Kapur is called upon to pay his tribute to the martyrs, he holds that not only must the capacity of a Govt. servant unshakably stick to him, but that Shri Kapur must have been authorised by the Prime Minister herself knowing, as she did, that he was a Govt. servant to go and make a public speech at the Mela and canvass for votes for her. I do not think that we can indulge in a flight of fancy which could be described as “flamboyant.” 425. The uncontroverted evidence of Shri Kapur which had been ignored by the trial Judge was that it was the special business of this witness as an officer on Special duty in the Prime Minister's Secretariat, in his own words, “to deal with the representations received from public and other works of semi-political nature.” It is difficult to understand how the occupant of such a difficult and responsible office as that of the Prime Minister of the numerically largest democracy in the world can possibly discharge his or her duties towards the public satisfactorily without the aid of such officers. Naturally, as the Prime Minister was contemplating standing for election from the Rae Bareli constituency, it would not be outside the scope of the duties of such an officer to attend especially to the complaints and representations from Rae Bareli. He stated that Shri Gulzarilal Nanda, who was then the Railway Minister, had received some representations from the Rae Bareli. He also said that he had from time to time, forwarded some representations to Shri Gulzarilal Nanda who had asked him to accompany him to Rae Bareli. Therefore, apparently without being asked by the Prime Minister, but, after informing her of his intention to go with Shri Gulzarilal Nanda, the witness had, in the course of the performance of duties especially assigned to him since his appointment, visited Rae Bareli in the company of Shri Gulzarilal Nanda. This could not be outside the scope of his duties. 426. Again, without any contradiction from any evidence whatsoever, his statement, unquestioned also in cross-examination, was that the Prime Minister did not, at any time, ask him in his own words “either directly or indirectly to do anything pertaining to her election”. The Prime Minister's replies to interrogatories served upon her show that she had no personal knowledge of what Shri Kapur did at Rae Bareli before he was appointed her election agent. It is also apparent from the evidence of this witness and of the Prime Minister herself that, when he expressed his desire on 9th or 10th January, 1971, to the Prime Minister to resign from his post as Officer on Special Duty, she asked him to think over the matter as this would mean that he could not return to his post. He had earlier said that this decision was taken with a view to do work for the public in general and the Congress party in particular as he wanted to enter public life. It is clear that the Prime Minister had left the decision entirely to the free will and option of Shri Kapur who had been asked to ponder over it carefully. When Shri Kapur had informed the Prime Minister again on 13-1-1971 that he had reached his final decision, after due consideration, to resign from his post so as to be able to do public work, as he had political ambitions she had agreed to it and had asked him to see Shri P.N. Haksar, who was incharge of the Prime Minister's Secretariat. He informed Shri P.N. Haksar about this decision on the

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents