Delhi. Aug 9—Mrs Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, personally introduced new legislation in Parliament today to abolish the princely institution of maharajahs, an act that the Supreme Court prevented her from carrying out last year.

The Bill, to be considered in the winter session of Parliament, would bring an end to the £2.7m in annual privy purses received by the 278 remaining maharajahs along with a host of privileges such as gun salutes, free utilities, duty free imports. and exemptions from most income tax laws.

The Bill would also reduce them in rank to commoners addressed as “Mister”.

Mrs Gandhi made the abolition of the maharajah class an important part of her party's manifesto in the parliamentary elections last March when she won a two-thirds majority in the House.

Bui her first attempt to withdraw the princely pensions and privileges was thwarted by a single vote in the Upper House of Parliament last year after the Lower House had adopted the Bill by the needed two-thirds majority.

Within hours of the debacle, the Government promulgated a presidential ordinance depriving the maharajahs of their purses and privileges. The princes then challenged the ordinance in the Supreme Court and won.

The Court ruled that the purses were a property and could not he snatched away without amendment of a clause of the constitution guaranteeing citizens the right to hold properly Last week Parliament made the necessary constitutional amendment.—AP and UPL