NDA (II) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 148 of 146

Correct — D, general emergency. Article 352 is headed Proclamation of Emergency and empowers the President to declare one when satisfied that a grave emergency exists whereby the security of India or of any part of its territory is threatened by war, external aggression or armed rebellion. It may be proclaimed even before war or rebellion actually breaks out, if the President is satisfied that there is imminent danger of it. This is the emergency that applies to the country or a part of it as a whole, and the paper's phrase general emergency is being used to mark it off from the two specific emergencies that follow it — the one for a State's constitutional machinery and the one for finance.

• (a)financial emergency — Financial emergency is Article 360, not 352. It applies where the financial stability or credit of India or of any part of its territory is threatened, and it has never been proclaimed in India.
• (b)failure of constitutional machinery in States — That is Article 356, commonly called President's Rule. It applies to a single State whose government cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution, and it has been used many dozens of times, unlike Article 352.
• (c)suspension of the enforcement of rights conferred in Part III of the Constitution — The sharpest distractor, because it is genuinely connected. That is Article 359, and it can operate only while a Proclamation of Emergency under Article 352 is already in force — a consequence of Article 352 rather than its content. Article 358 is the neighbouring provision, which suspends Article 19 automatically when the emergency rests on war or external aggression.

The Constitution provides three distinct emergencies and gives each its own Article. Article 352 is the national one, Article 356 the State one and Article 360 the financial one, with Articles 358 and 359 dealing with what happens to Fundamental Rights while a national emergency runs. A national emergency has been proclaimed three times — in 1962 during the conflict with China, in 1971 during the war with Pakistan, and in 1975 on the ground of internal disturbance. It was the third of these that led the Forty-fourth Amendment of 1978 to replace internal disturbance with armed rebellion and to require the Union Cabinet's recommendation in writing before a proclamation can be issued.

This is an Article-number item, and the reliable method is to learn the emergency provisions as a block of consecutive numbers rather than as isolated facts, because the options in such questions are always drawn from within the block. Note the wording issue honestly. General emergency is not a phrase the Constitution uses — the Article's own heading is Proclamation of Emergency, and textbooks usually call it a National Emergency. The paper's label is nevertheless unambiguous in context, since the other three options name the financial emergency, the State provision and the rights provision, leaving the countrywide emergency to be described by whatever term is left.

• Article 352 provides for the Proclamation of Emergency on grounds of war, external aggression or armed rebellion.
• It may be proclaimed before war or rebellion actually occurs, if the President is satisfied that there is imminent danger of it.
• Article 356 covers failure of constitutional machinery in a State and Article 360 covers financial emergency.
• Article 359 allows the suspension of the enforcement of Part III rights, and operates only while a Proclamation of Emergency is in force.
• The Forty-fourth Amendment, 1978, replaced internal disturbance with armed rebellion and required the Cabinet's written recommendation.

• Confusing Article 359 with Article 352; the first is a consequence that can operate only while the second is in force.
• Mixing Article 356 with Article 360 — one is the State provision, the other the financial one.
• Assuming Articles 20 and 21 can be suspended; since the Forty-fourth Amendment they cannot, even during an emergency.

Asked as a bare Article-number item with the three neighbouring emergency provisions offered as distractors.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Financial emergency in India is provided for under which Article of the Constitution?

  • (a)Article 352
  • (b)Article 356
  • (c)Article 359
  • (d)Article 360

  Answer(d) Article 360 — invoked where the financial stability or credit of India is threatened; it has never been proclaimed.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Forty-fourth Amendment Act, 1978, replaced which ground for a national emergency under Article 352?

  • (a)war, with external aggression
  • (b)internal disturbance, with armed rebellion
  • (c)armed rebellion, with internal disturbance
  • (d)external aggression, with armed rebellion

  Answer(b) internal disturbance, with armed rebellion — a direct response to the proclamation of 1975.