How many times has been the President’s Rule imposed?
Q. Which of the following state has had the President’ Rule imposed for a maximum number of times?- Published on 27 Feb 17a. Kerala
b. Punjab
c. Bihar
d. Manipur
ANSWER: Kerala
- Since 1950, the President’s Rule has been imposed on more than 100 occasions, that is, on an average twice a year.
- Further, on a number of occasions, the President’s Rule has been imposed in an arbitrary manner for political or personal reasons.
- Hence, Article 356 has become one of the most controversial and most criticized provision of the Constitution.
- For the first time, the President’s Rule was imposed in Punjab in 1951.
- By now, all most all the states have been brought under the President’s Rule, once or twice or more.
- When general elections were held to the Lok Sabha in 1977 after the internal emergency, the ruling Congress Party lost and the Janta Party came to power.
- The new government headed by Morarji Desai imposed President’s Rule in nine states (where the Congress Party was in power) on the ground that the assemblies in those states no longer represented the wishes of the electorate.
- When the Congress Party returned to power in 1980, it did the same in nine states on the same ground.
- In 1992, President’s Rule was imposed in three BJP-ruled states (Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan) by the Congress Party on the ground that they were not implementing sincerely the ban imposed by the Centre on religious organizations.
- In a landmark judgement in Bommai case (1994), the Supreme Court upheld the validity of this proclamation on the ground that secularism is a ‘basic feature’ of the Constitution.
- But, the court did not uphold the validity of the imposition of the President’s Rule in Nagaland in 1988, Karnataka in 1989 and Meghalaya in 1991.
- Dr B. R. Ambedkar, while replying to the critics of this provision in the Constituent Assembly, hoped that the drastic power conferred by Article 356 would remain a ‘dead-letter’ and would be used only as a measure of last resort.
- Maximum times it has been imposed in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh - 9 times.
- Recently in 2014 it was imposed in Delhi and in 2013 it was imposed in Jharkhand.
- In Punjab it has been imposed 8 times.
- Bihar and Manipur had it imposed 7 times each.
- In Delhi it was imposed only once.
