President’s rule is the suspension of a state government, with the state administered from the centre. It sits in Article 356, it has been used well over a hundred times, and the rules around it were tightened considerably after decades of misuse.
What Article 356 says
Where the President is satisfied, on the Governor’s report or otherwise, that the government of a state cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution, a proclamation may be issued assuming the functions of the state government.
In practice the Council of Ministers exercises the state’s executive power through the Governor, and the state’s legislative power is exercised by Parliament. The Assembly is either dissolved or kept in suspended animation.
How long it lasts
A proclamation must be approved by both Houses of Parliament within two months or it lapses. Once approved it runs for six months, and can be extended six months at a time up to a maximum of three years.
Extension beyond one year is subject to further conditions, requiring a national emergency to be in force or the Election Commission to certify that elections in the state cannot be held.
The Bommai judgment
The turning point was S. R. Bommai v. Union of India in 1994. The Supreme Court held that a proclamation under Article 356 is subject to judicial review, that the material behind it can be examined, and that a court can restore a dismissed government where the proclamation is found invalid.
Most importantly, it held that a government’s majority must be tested on the floor of the House, not assessed by the Governor in a report. Before Bommai, a Governor’s opinion that a ministry had lost support was frequently enough.
Use of Article 356 fell sharply afterwards, which is a fair measure of how much of the earlier practice had rested on that opinion.
When it is legitimately used
Where no combination can command a majority after an election or a collapse, which is the hung assembly case, and where a breakdown of constitutional machinery genuinely occurs.
What it is not for, on the Bommai reading, is removing a government the centre disagrees with politically.
What it means for voters
Under President’s rule you still have an MLA if the Assembly is suspended rather than dissolved, but they sit in a house that is not functioning. Where the Assembly is dissolved, a fresh election follows and the winners serve a full term rather than the remainder of an old one.
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