India is a federal country of “its own kind”. It acquires unitary features during an Emergency. Due to this reason, Dr B.R Ambedkar called the Indian Federal system as unique because it becomes entirely unitary during an Emergency. During an Emergency, as Constitutional machinery fails, the system converts itself into a unitary feature. The Emergency is a period of depression where all Fundamental Rights of a person is taken away except article 20 and 21.
The Emergency Provisions in the Indian Constitution have been borrowed from the Weimar Constitution of Germany.
Types of Emergencies:
- National Emergency: Article 352 deals with National emergency. This kind of emergency arises when there is a threat to National security due to external aggression, war and armed rebellion. India has witnessed a National emergency thrice. Twice being due to war and the third time in 1975, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had declared an emergency as her candidature was declared invalid in Indira Gandhi vs Shri Raj Narain and Anr.
- State Emergency: Article 356 deals with State Emergency. State Emergency is also called as President rule. Article 356 empowers the President to impose President Rule in a state, if he is satisfied with the report from the governor of the state or ‘otherwise’ the effect that ‘the Government of the State cannot be carried on with accordance with the provisions of the Constitution’.
- Financial Emergency: Financial Emergency is dealt with in Article 360 of The Constitution of India. This kind of emergency can be imposed by the President when the financial stability or credit situation of the country is threatened, however the constitution does not lay any basis for imposition of financial emergency. This decision can be challenged in the court. The clauses of financial emergency were inspired by the ‘National Recovery Act 1933’ of the United States 7 . However, till now India has never seen Financial Emergency.
Debate in Constituent Assembly
H.V. Kamath accused the Drafting committee of plagiarising the United Kingdom’s Emergency power act 1920 in a ‘dishonest fashion’. He further added that the provision was ‘dangerous and India should do better and not worse than the British government which did not suspend the right to constitutional remedies even during the Second World War. Kamath argued for strong safeguards against the misuse of emergency powers by the executive. He invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution that provided for the President to notify parliament on all actions taken during an emergency. Also, the Weimar Constitution made it incumbent on the President to revoke emergency if parliament demanded such a measure.
T. T. Krishnamachari invoked the historical context of the Emergency Powers Act, 1920 and argued that this type of a provision was meant to ‘meet one purpose namely that all our efforts all these years spent in Constitution making may not go in vain and those people who will be in power in the future would be adequately empowered to save the Constitution.’
