India's Constitution Has Three Emergency Powers, Articles 352, 356 and 360, and Parliament Must Approve Each Within One or Two Months or It Lapses

The Constitution lets the President proclaim three kinds of emergency, all gathered in Part XVIII (Articles 352 to 360), which has been in force since 26 January 1950. Article 352 covers a threat to India’s security from war, external aggression or armed rebellion. Article 356 covers a state whose government cannot be carried on according to the Constitution. Article 360 covers a threat to the financial stability or credit of India. A proclamation under any of them lapses unless both Houses of Parliament approve it, within one month for Article 352 and within two months for Articles 356 and 360.

Most of the rules below took their present form in the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978. The footnotes in the Government of India’s published text date its changes to Part XVIII to 20 June 1979.

Article 352: who proclaims a national emergency and how Parliament checks it

The President proclaims it, and only after the Union Cabinet (the Prime Minister and the ministers of Cabinet rank) has communicated its decision in writing. The grounds are “war or external aggression or armed rebellion”. The President may act before the event if satisfied that danger is imminent, and since 3 January 1977 the proclamation can cover the whole of India or only a named part.

Until 1979 the third ground was “internal disturbance”, and the 1975 proclamation used it. The 44th Amendment replaced it with “armed rebellion”.

Parliament’s clock then starts. The proclamation goes before both Houses and ends after one month unless each House approves it by a resolution. Approval needs a majority of the House’s total membership and at least two-thirds of the members present and voting. An approved proclamation runs for six months and can be renewed in further six-month steps, again by both Houses. The text sets no cap on renewals.

The Lok Sabha, the directly elected House, holds a separate lever. If it passes a resolution disapproving the proclamation or its continuation, the President must revoke it. A notice signed by one-tenth of its members forces a special sitting within 14 days to consider such a resolution.

What changes for rights and for the states

The Union gets reach over the states. Article 353 lets it direct any state on how to use its executive power. Article 250 lets Parliament legislate on any subject in the State List (the subjects the Constitution assigns to the states), and those laws lapse six months after the proclamation ends. Article 354 lets the President modify how tax revenue is shared between the Union and the states until the end of the financial year in which the proclamation ceases. Under Article 83(2), Parliament can extend the Lok Sabha’s five-year term by law, one year at a time and never beyond six months after the proclamation ends.

Two articles deal with rights. Article 358 lifts the limits that Article 19 (speech, assembly, association, movement and similar freedoms) places on the State’s laws, but since 1979 only for an emergency declared on war or external aggression, and only for laws that state they relate to it. Article 359 lets the President suspend, by order, the right to go to court to enforce the Part III rights the order names. Since 1979 the order cannot name Article 20 (no retrospective criminal laws, no double punishment, no forced self-incrimination) or Article 21 (life and personal liberty).

The three national emergencies, 1962, 1971 and 1975

The first was proclaimed on 26 October 1962, during the war with China. The Home Ministry’s report for 1967 to 1968 says the government announced on 18 March 1967 that it wanted to end the emergency from 1 July 1967 everywhere except troubled border areas. That needed a constitutional amendment, and the report says consensus for one was not forthcoming. On 30 September 1967 three orders barred every state and territory government except Assam (including NEFA), Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur and Tripura from using the main emergency powers without the Centre’s approval. The proclamation was revoked on 10 January 1968. The 42nd Amendment later added the words that let a proclamation cover only part of India. The fighting included the stand at Rezang La on 18 November 1962.

The second was proclaimed on 3 December 1971, during the war with Pakistan that year. The Home Ministry’s report for 1977 to 1978 records that it was revoked on 27 March 1977.

The third was proclaimed on 25 June 1975 by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. The notification published the next day, G.S.R. 353(E), quotes it saying that a grave emergency exists “whereby the security of India is threatened by internal disturbance”. The Press Information Bureau calls it the first emergency declared in peacetime. An excerpt from J. P. Goyal’s memoir, which draws on the Shah Commission’s interim report, says the Cabinet met at 6 a.m. on 26 June and approved the proclamation after it was issued. The Cabinet’s written advice has been a requirement since 1979.

The Press Information Bureau lists what followed: press pre-censorship from 26 June, orders on 27 June suspending court access for Articles 14, 21 and 22, and nearly 35,000 detentions under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act by the Shah Commission’s count. The 38th Amendment of 1975 barred courts from questioning the proclamation. In ADM Jabalpur, a majority of four judges of the Supreme Court, with Justice H. R. Khanna dissenting, ruled in 1976 against detainees who had asked courts to protect their right to personal liberty. On 24 August 2017 a nine-judge bench in the Puttaswamy privacy case overruled it. Its lead opinion says “ADM Jabalpur must be and is accordingly overruled.”

Lok Sabha elections were held from 16 to 20 March 1977, and the 1975 proclamation was revoked on 21 March. The Home Ministry’s report adds that 6,851 people were then still detained under the ordinary provisions of that Act, and that the Home Minister told the Lok Sabha on 5 April 1977 that no one should be held indefinitely.

Article 356: how a state government can be replaced

Article 355 makes it the Union’s duty to protect every state against external aggression and internal disturbance and to see that each state’s government runs according to the Constitution. Article 356 is the tool. If the President, on a Governor’s report “or otherwise”, is satisfied that a state’s government cannot be carried on according to the Constitution, the President may assume the state government’s functions and declare that Parliament will exercise the legislature’s powers. The President cannot take over a High Court’s powers.

The clocks are longer than under Article 352. Parliament must approve within two months. Approval lasts six months and can be renewed in six-month steps, up to three years in all. Beyond one year, Parliament may renew only if a national emergency is in force and the Election Commission certifies that elections to the state’s Assembly cannot be held. The article names one exception: a proclamation of 11 May 1987 for Punjab, whose limit became five years.

The Constituent Assembly adopted the draft of this article on 4 August 1949. Ambedkar told it that he did not “altogether deny” the possibility of abuse, and hoped such articles “would remain a dead letter”. He expected a President to warn a state first, then order an election, and use the article only if both failed.

What the Supreme Court decided in Bommai

The Supreme Court’s nine-judge bench decided S. R. Bommai v. Union of India on 11 March 1994. The case began with the Karnataka proclamation of 21 April 1989. Justice P. B. Sawant wrote that the article had been used on more than 90 occasions and, in his words, “in almost all cases against governments run by political parties in opposition”.

The Union argued that Article 74(2), which bars courts from asking what advice ministers gave the President, kept the material behind a proclamation out of reach. Justice Sawant and Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy rejected that argument. In their opinions they held that:

• a proclamation can be reviewed by courts, and the Union must show that relevant material existed;
• the Assembly cannot be dissolved until both Houses approve the proclamation, only suspended;
• a court can restore a dismissed government and Assembly if the proclamation was invalid;
• a ministry’s majority is tested on the floor of the House;
• secularism is part of the Constitution’s basic structure.

Justice Sawant wrote that the states “are neither satellites nor agents of the Centre”. Justice Reddy wrote that the Sarkaria Commission’s recommendations on Article 356 “do merit serious consideration”. The commission was appointed to report on Centre-State relations.

The court held the Karnataka proclamation and the Meghalaya proclamation of 11 October 1991 unconstitutional but gave no relief, because fresh elections had been held. It held the proclamations of 15 December 1992 for Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh not unconstitutional.

Manipur, 2025 to 2026, as a worked example

The proclamation for Manipur was issued on 13 February 2025, after the Chief Minister resigned on 9 February. The Rajya Sabha confirmed it on 4 April 2025, after the Lok Sabha, inside the two-month limit. On 5 August 2025 the Rajya Sabha approved renewal for six months from 13 August. President’s Rule was revoked on 4 February 2026, before that period ended. The 60-member Assembly stayed in suspended animation instead of being dissolved, and its term runs to 2027, Eastern Mirror reported.

Article 360: the financial emergency

Ambedkar moved the clause that became Article 360 on 16 October 1949, as draft Article 280A. He said it followed the pattern of the US National Recovery Act and recalled that the US Supreme Court had struck that legislation down. Hriday Nath Kunzru objected that members had received the amendment only that morning. The Assembly adopted it the same day.

The proclamation is for a threat to the financial stability or credit of India or any part of it. It must be approved by both Houses within two months. Unlike Articles 352 and 356, the text sets no six-month expiry after approval. While it lasts, the Union can direct states to observe “canons of financial propriety”, require salary cuts for state employees, and require state money bills to be reserved for the President. The President may also order salary cuts for Union officers, including judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.

The Home Ministry reports and court judgments opened for this article record proclamations under Articles 352 and 356. None records one under Article 360.