Declaration of Emergency under the provisions of our Constitutin

By Barada Das

Cuttack,Jan  25 : The 146th  meeting of the Thinkers’ Club over the zoom Platform was held to discuss on the above topic. This discussion is in continuation of the discussion on the  Indian Constitution by the members of the Club. 

The meeting was inaugurated by Shree Guru Kalyan Mohapatra, who is the Chief Editor of “Samay” a leading Daily News Paper published from Odisha. Mr Mohapatra in his inaugural speech said that, the declaration of emergency is a safety valve in our constitution to act prompt in difficult situations, where it is not possible to work in a crisis by going through the regular process of constitutional procedures. On different grounds emergency was declared in this country by the President. 

As per our constitution, it is a short term matter and needs to be ratified by the Parliament within one month of its immediate session. He focused on the dark days of Indian democracy, i.e. the period from 25-06-1975 to 27-03-1977.  During the period of Indira Gandhi, spurious and undemocratic modes were adopted to grab power which was flowing out of her grip. That was definitely a flaw in our constitution.

 The subsequent non congress governments of Morarjee desai and Atal Behari Bajpayi wanted to make some corrections to close the loop holes. During Bajpayi’s Government, Venkat Challiah Committee was entrusted to suggest to some means to streamline the Constitution in the greater interest of the nation. It is unfortunate that, such an authentic finding is not implemented till today. He also said, while modifying the constitution all stake holders need to be contacted.

Manoj Manjari Devi, while participating in the discussion said, the constitution of our country is the hard effort of our predecessors made by experts in reference to the Constitutions of different developed countries. The constitution was drafted before 1950. It is natural that, some of the provisions may not suit to the present environment. The emergency provision need to be used with caution. 

Professor Surjya Narayan Mishra, former Head of the Department of Political Science, Utkal University was the chief speaker of the meet.  As per him, under our constitution emergency can be declared in four situations. 1.  Foreign invasion of our territory. 2. Declaration of war with some different country. 3. Internal disturbances causing violent armed mutiny or some factors creating damage to internal peace and harmony in the public life. 4. Factors creating financial insurgency. So far today the fourth one is not evoked. The first Emergency was declared on 26-10-1962 and lasted till31-12-1968. This was warranted due to the Chinese aggression during that period. The second emergency was declared on 4-12-1971 due to the Indo Pak war. Indira Gandhi made declaration of emergency on 25-06-1975. This emergency created a bad precedent and created a black spot on the democratic history of the country. This declaration of emergency made the intellectuals think over this provision of the constitution and probable misuse of the same.

Prof Mishra, discussed in elaboration about the constitutional provisions relating emergency and in this context, he cited the decisions of the Minerva Mills case, Keshabananda Bharati case and how emergency was used to scrap the duly elected Government of Namurdipada in Kerala. Earlier he spoke about declaration of emergency in the USA, England, Germany and France.  He discussed in brief about the evocation of emergency in Madras. He also highlighted on the necessity of judicial review of declaring President’s rule.

Sj Vibek Pattanaik, the former senior bureaucrat gave his personal opinion while summarizing the proceedings. According to him, the provision of emergency should be there in the constitution for safety and tranquility in the country. Future is always uncertain. The world is a dynamic place. Technology is being updated every moment. Anything can happen any moment. The provision of emergency is incorporated to deal with any kind of crisis or calamity. He said, there is a necessity of safe guarding the provisions in the constitution against probable misuse of it.

The meeting was moderated by Advocate Barada Prasanna Das, the President of the Club. Mr Das informed the presents in the meet, though this is the concluding session of discussion on awareness of the Constitution, there is enough scope to discuss on the constitution. He announced about the future programs of the club. Dr Dippayan Pattanaik, the assistant secretary gave his concluding remark expressing his satisfaction over the deliberations made in the webinar. He wished this commendable activity to be carried further.

Mr Pratap Rout from Jhadkhanda, Pushpnjali Parida, Vijaya Malla and many others have joined in the meet and participated in the discussions.

Prof Umasankar Misra, the Secretary of the Club wanted to know from the experts about the law and order situation in West Bengle. He said, emergency can be declared when the constitutional systems fail due to armed rebellions but in Bengle the crisis is more than a mutiny without arms. He offered the customary vote of thanks in the honour of the guests and the attendees.