| Sheila Kaul | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 7, 1915 |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Political party | Indian National Congress |
| Profession | politician, social worker, social reformer, educationist |
Sheila Kaul (Hindi, Kashmiri: शीला कौल, Urdu, Kashmiri: شیلا کول) (born February 7, 1915) is a social democratic leader of the Indian National Congress and a former union cabinet minister and provincial Governor in India. She was also an educationist, social worker, and social reformer in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and an independence activist in British India. She is Jawaharlal Nehru's sister-in-law and Indira Gandhi's maternal aunt.
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Sheila Kaul belongs to a Kashmiri Pandit family. She has a degree in arts from the Lahore Women's College, and a degree in teaching from Sir Ganga Ram Training College, Lahore, and was a State Badminton Champion in the pre-partition Punjab. Kaul has lived in Lucknow, Lahore, Multan, Kanpur, Srinagar, London, Sofia, and New Delhi.
Prof. Kailas Nath Kaul, a renowned botanist, and formerly, a world authority on palms, was Sheila Kaul's husband. He established the National Botanical Research Institute (formerly the National Botanical Gardens) in Lucknow, India. Gautam Kaul, a former Director General of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and film critic, and Vikram Kaul, an international sports administrator, President of the Commonwealth Youth Sports Development Council, and former member of the Asian Cricket Council, are their sons. Deepa Kaul, a social worker and former Congress minister, is their daughter. Jawaharlal Nehru was Sheila Kaul's brother-in-law, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was her niece, and Rajiv Gandhi was her grandnephew. Prem Adib, a 1940s Bollywood superstar, was Sheila Kaul's brother-in-law. Among Sheila Kaul's friends were Margaret Thatcher, Todor Zhivkov, Princess Ileana of Romania, Isobel Hawking, and Adelaide Hawley Cumming.
Sheila Kaul's prime electoral constituency was Lucknow, from where she was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1971, 1980 and 1984. She was, however, also elected in 1989 and 1991 as Member of Parliament from Rae Bareli, a constituency election whereof has been traditionally contested by a Nehru-Gandhi Family member. She served as Governor of Himachal Pradesh from November 1995 to April 1996.
A chargesheet based on a case of 1996 accused the former Union Urban Development Minister of entering into a conspiracy with her two personal staff members and over forty other individuals for allegedly renting out government shops for a consideration. The CBI, however, did not seize any assets disproportionate to her income. An assessment of her assets showed no evidence of corruption.
| Preceded by Mahaveer Prasad |
Governor of Himachal Pradesh 1995 – 1996 |
Succeeded by Mahaveer Prasad |