Emergency (Part XVIII) Types of Emergencies Grounds for proclamation Consequences of Proclamation

During a lockdown the trains stop, the roads empty and the government suddenly does things it normally cannot. Now imagine the Constitution itself has a switch that does something like this, but for the whole country: Parliament can make laws on State subjects, the Centre can order State governments around, and some of your fundamental rights can be frozen. Who is allowed to flip that switch, on what grounds, and what stops it from being flipped for the wrong reasons? Part XVIII of the Constitution answers these questions, and the answers changed after the country lived through the mid-1970s Emergency.

In two minutes

Part XVIII gives the President three emergency powers: national Emergency (Art. 352, security of India), failure of constitutional machinery in a State (Art. 356) and financial emergency (Art. 360), each with its own grounds, approval route, duration and consequences, and each now open to some judicial scrutiny.

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