Constitution Project

INTRODUCTION

As the name of the topic suggests, ‘President: National Emergency’; this project is all about the powers of the head of the executive i.e. The President during the proclamation of any emergency, whether it be a financial crisis or during the times of war. We will see in this topic how crucial is the role of The President at times of emergency and why is it so that a post which remains dormant in all the normal activities of the state suddenly gets so many exclusive powers during national emergency. We will start of the project by first overviewing and mentioning the article of the Constitution which provides the President with such exclusive powers i.e. Article 352. Then we will further move ahead with the project by comparing the powers of the president between ‘Weimer Constitution’ and ‘Indian Constitution’. Later half of the project will deal with deal with a very crucial topic, which is the validity of ‘Right to Life’ during emergency. It will also contain important case laws regarding the need and importance of ‘Right to life’ at times of National Emergency. At the end of the project we will conclude by mentioning the ‘Powers to Nullify National Emergency’, who has that kind of power, when where and by whom can it be applied and so on. It is important to note that research methodology used while making of this project is purely ‘Doctrinal’. And furthermore, this project or topic is quite interesting to be researched upon because our country as already been through a National Emergency during the tenure of ‘Indra Gandhi’.

POWERS OF PRESIDENT UNDER ARTICLE 352

Article 352 is the first article of Part-XVIII i.e. ‘Emergency Provisions’ of the Indian Constitution. This is an extensive article with 9 clauses or sub-sections. But the gist of it or you can say an overview is provided as follows: The clause (1) of article 352 clearly mentions that ‘if the President is satisfied that a grave emergency exists whereby the security of India or any part of it’s territory is threatened by war, external aggression or armed rebellion; he may by proclamation make a declaration to that effect.’ But it is keen to note that the very next clause i.e. clause (2) provides for the revocation of the proclamation issued under clause (1) by ‘subsequent proclamation’. Moving further, clause (3) restricts the President from making a proclamation on his own. He could only do so when the decision of the union cabinet along with the Prime Minister is communicated to him in writing for issuing such proclamation. Clause (4) states that every proclamation issued under this article shall be laid before each House of Parliament and shall cease to operate at the expiration of one month unless, before the expiration of that period it has been approved by resolutions of both Houses of Parliament. Now, clause (5) states that when such a proclamation is approved by resolutions, it shall cease to operate on the expiration of a period of six months from the date it was passed. Clause (6) simply states that for the passing of the resolution, there should be a majority of not less than two-third of the members present and voting. Under clause (7), the President has an obligation to revoke a proclamation if the House of People disapprove of such proclamation and passes a resolution against it. Last but not the least clause (9) states that the powers conferred on the president by this article shall include the power to issue different proclamation on different grounds whether it be war, external aggression or armed rebellion.