States of emergency in India

This article is about general information on emergencies in India. For the 1975–1977 emergency, see The Emergency (India).
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Part XVIII of the Constitution of India allows for a constitutional setup that can be proclaimed by the President of India as a state of emergency, when the consultant group perceives and warns against grave threats to the nation from internal and external sources or from financial situations of crisis. Under Article 352 of the Indian constitution, upon the advice of the cabinet of ministers, the President can overrule many provisions of the constitution, which can suspend fundamental rights to the citizens of India and acts governing devolution of powers to the states which form the federation. In the history of independent India, such a state of emergency has been declared thrice.

  1. The first instance was between 26 October 1962 to 21 November 1962 during the India-China war, when "the security of India" was declared as being "threatened by external aggression".[1] [2]
  2. The second instance was between 3 and 17 December 1971, which was originally proclaimed during the Indo-Pakistan war.
  3. The third proclamation between 25 June 1975 to January 1977 was under controversial circumstances of political instability under Indira Gandhi's premiership, when emergency was declared on the basis of "internal disturbances". The proclamation immediately followed a ruling in the Allahabad High Court, that voided the Prime Minister's election from Rae Bareli in the 1971 Indian general election. She was also prohibited from contesting election for next 6 years, challenging her legitimacy to continue in her post. Indira Gandhi, instead recommended to the then president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to proclaim a state of emergency to strengthen her hand.

The phrase Emergency period used loosely, when referring to the political history of India, often refers to this third and the most controversial of the three occasions.

In 1978, the Forty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India, substituted the words "armed rebellion" for "internal disturbance" in Article 352, making the term more specific and less subject to interpretations.[1] The amendment also protected Articles 20 and 21 from being suspended during an emergency.[citation needed]

The President can declare three types of emergencies — national, state and financial emergency in a state.

  1. ^ a b Bari, M. Ehteshamul (2017). States of Emergency and the Law: The Experience of Bangladesh. Routledge. pp. 62–64. ISBN 9781351685917.
  2. ^ Austin, Granville (1999). Working a Democratic Constitution: The Indian Experience. Oxford University Press. pp. 63–66. ISBN 0195648889.