WHAT IS EMERGENCY(National Emergency)? its types and effects: All you need to know

Emergency is a state, which is proclaimed in the country when it will become difficult for national or state administration/government to handle any particular situation. so far it has been proclaimed thrice in the country. The provisions and consequences of emergency are mentioned in article 352 to 360 of Indian constitution. These provisions empowers government to handle any crucial situations effectively. During the emergency period, the administration will be converted into unitary system from federal structure of it without any formal amendment to constitution.

This kind of transformation of the political system from federal during normal times to unitary during Emergency is a unique feature of the Indian Constitution. In this context, Dr B R Ambedkar observed in that:

"All federal systems including American are placed in a tight mold of federalism. No matter what the circumstances, it cannot change its form and shape. It can never be unitary. On the other hand, the Constitution of India can be both unitary as well as federal according to the requirements of time and circumstances without any formal amendments. In normal times, it is framed to work as a federal system. But in times of Emergency, it is so designed as to make it work as though it was a unitary system."

The emergencies are announced  mainly based on three criteria. In general words these are called three types of emergency. Those are as enlisted below,

Sl. No.	Emergency	Name	Article
1	Emergency due to external war or armed rebellion	National emergency	352
2	Emergency due to failure of constitutional conduct in states	state emergency, presidents rule	356
3	The emergency called due to financial instability	financial emergency	360

info-graphics of emergency

Let’s discuss all of them in detail one after other by answering some commonly asked questions,

National emergency:

  The national emergency can be declared in whole or any part of country on grounds of internal disturbance or armed rebellion and during war or so-called external aggression as mentioned in article 352.

The national emergency can be mainly divided into two types, those are,

1) Internal emergency: caused by aggression of internal opposing or radical forces

2) External emergency: caused by external aggression or war.

  President with written recommendation from cabinet (not prime minister alone) announces this type of emergency.
After proclamation, it has to be approved by both the houses of parliament within a month of proclamation.
 Once the its is approved, the emergency will withstand for six months and can be extended with further approval.
 The proclamation can revoked by president at any time without any recommendation or approval.
As an effect of this many changes will be done in governance as mentioned in article 352, those are mainly,

     1.     Suspension of fundamental rights: the fundamental rights and freedoms are suspended  except those mentioned in article 20 and 21.

      Article number 20 and 21 comes under fundamental rights of Indian constitution, 

Quick facts, before moving further

ARTICLE 20:  Protection in respect of conviction for offenses: (1) No person shall be convicted of any offense except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the Act charged as an offense, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the offense. (2) No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offense more than once. (3) No person accused of any offense shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. ARTICLE 21: Protection of life and personal liberty: No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

2. Empowering of president to rule: as mentioned above during emergencies the federal of governing will be converted into unitary system. By this the state’s executive, financial and legislative decisions are taken by President.

and

3. The life of LokaSabha can be extended beyond it normal term (ie. 5years): By considering the inability to conduct elections and need for the moment the term of Lokasabha can be extended if needed.

For example, the term of the Fifth Lok Sabha (1971–1977) was extended two times by one year at a time.

  Declarations Made So Far: So far, the national emergency has been declared thrice. Those are as follows,

Sl.No.	year	type	cause
1	1962-68	external aggression/war	Indo-sino border conflict at northeast India
2	1971	external aggression/war	India -Pakistan (Bangladesh liberation war) war was called
3	1975-77	internal disturbance	there was a huge internal disturbance caused after Indira Gandhi’s suit on political malpractice.

1975’s national emergency is called as mumps or black days of Indian politics, which lead to so many injustice. this emergency was solely decided by Ms. Gandhi without consulting her cabinet.
To read more about it click HERE

Precedent’s rule/state emergency:

The characteristics of the state emergency/president’s rule are quite similar to national emergency but it is proclaimed in state level. The president’s rule is implacable in any state when there is failure in constitutional machinery in the state (as mentioned in article 356). The failures are generally failure to form majority during government formation or failure to maintain state’s legislature/execution/financial items per the constitutional provisions by the state government. Hence, it is also called as “constitutional emergency”

Similar to national emergency after the president’s rule proclamation it has to be approved by both the houses of parliament but unlike national emergency the approval has to be done within two months. The revocation can be done at any time by president without any formal approval. Once the president’s rule is imposed it withstands for 6 months. It can be extended with the approval of both the houses of parliament and satisfying following conditions

1) The Nation emergency is in operation.

And

2) The election commission must certify the inability of it to conduct MLA elections (assembly elections) in that particular state.

Consequently, the governance of state with respect to state’s legislature/execution/financial are done with the help of GOVERNER.

To see the list of instances at which the presidents’ rule has been imposed CLICK HERE. 

Financial Emergency:

The article 360 gives power to president in proclaiming the financial emergency. The financial emergency is imposed when there in economic instability in the nation or in any part of it. The instability could be caused mostly by crisis caused by credit of the country or sudden boom or depression in the economical curves.

Like the other emergencies the financial emergency also needs approval from both the houses of the parliament and the period given for approval is 2 months. Once it is approved by both the houses Financial Emergency can continue indefinitely until it is revoked.

This implies two things:

1. there is no maximum period prescribed for its operation; and

2. repeated parliamentary approval is not required for its continuation.

and moreover it only needs simple majority(ie. vote more than 50%).

like other emergencies financial emergency also does not require any approval while revoking it.

Effects of Financial Emergency;
There are so many minor and major effects on financial emergency. considerable among are the financial authority of cent re extends to all the states, allowing it to decide state's financial matters. Any decision such as reduction of salaries of persons serving to state or central govt. can be taken.
and many other.

Till now no Financial Emergency has been declared so far, though there was a

financial crisis in 1991.

Quick Fact: What if Lokasabha gets dissolved without giving approval? Even though its a very rare possibility, there is a provision mentioned in the constitution for this. If the Lokasabha will get dissolved without giving its approval for the proclaimed emergency, (it may be any of the above mentioned types) the emergency will hold valid for 30 days from its date of announcement.

If you have any query/suggestion/feedback please comment down below.