States of Emergency - Centre for Policy Alternatives

In the federal parliamentary system of India, the unusual
constitutional distribution of power in respect of emergencies 112
that gives pre‐eminence to the Union over states, places the
President of India in a unique position. Under India’s
parliamentary system, the President is a titular Ligure, but one of
his emergency powers is under certain circumstances to dissolve
state governments and impose direct rule. The Indian President,
however, can only act on the advice of the Prime Minister. 113
The multilevel emergency regime in the Spanish constitution
carries over into the function of declaration, whereby some types
of emergency are declared by the executive and others by the
legislature. Thus for example, the least serious state of alarm can
be declared by the government with notice to the legislature, the
next level state of emergency can be declared by the executive but
with prior approval of the legislature, whereas the most serious
state of siege can only be declared by the legislature on a motion
by the government. 114
Safeguards are also found in the form of constitutionally stipulated
legislative majorities to approve declarations as well as extensions
of emergencies. These extend from simple majorities to special
majorities that are required for certain types of emergencies and
for their extension. 115 In his model of emergency powers,
Ackerman proposes the device of ‘supra‐majority escalation’
112
See esp. H.M. Seervai (1996) Constitutional
Law
of
India
(4 th Ed.)
(Bombay: Tripathi): Ch. XXIX; S.R.
Bommai
v.
Union (1994) 3 SCC 1
113
Article 352 of the Indian Constitution
114
Articles 116 (2), (3), (4) of the Spanish Constitution
115
Articles 80a and 115a of the German Basic Law; Article 352 (6) of the
Indian Constitution
77