The Hindu : Consensus on retaining Art. 356 with safeguards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 29, 2003

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Consensus on retaining Art. 356 with safeguards

By Vinay Kumar

SRINAGAR AUG. 28. The Centre and the States have reached a consensus on retaining Article 356 in the Constitution that empowers the Centre to impose President's Rule in a State, but favoured incorporating certain safeguards to check its misuse.

At a press conference here today after the conclusion of the two-day Inter-State Council meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, said Article 356 had dominated the Council's deliberations since its inception in 1990. The Centre would incorporate the essential features of the Bommai case judgment into the Constitution. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, who presided over the meeting, has asked the Union Law Ministry to draft amendments to Article 356 and these would be introduced in Parliament.

Mr. Advani said that all the decisions taken by the Council were "unanimous" and that all the Chief Ministers felt that such unanimity had not been seen previously.

"As the Home Minister for the past five years, I have found that the deliberations of the Inter-State Council have always been non-partisan and constructive. As a result of this cooperation from the States, many ruled by the Congress and the Left, we are seeing a good, healthy, cooperative federalism functioning in the country," he said. As the Council has done away with the Sarkaria Commission recommendations, the forum would now be used for sorting out crucial issues of cooperative federalism and socio-economic concerns — a major decision at the Srinagar session.

`Only as last resort'

Briefing reporters on the Council's deliberations in relation to Article 356, the Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, said the provision should be used only as the last resort. The Council felt that where the invocation of Article 356 was necessitated, the facts and the detailed reasons should be brought to the notice of the State Government concerned and its response obtained. The Council decided that material facts and grounds on which Article 356 is invoked should be made an integral part of the proclamation issued under the Article. Also, the Governor's report should be in the nature of a "speaking document".

Mr. Jaitley said that it was observed that the remedy provided in Article 365 was less harsh than that in Article 356. The Centre derives power from Article 365 to take action when there is a failure on the part of a State to carry out directions given to it under Articles 256 and 257. However, the Council noted that till date the Centre had never issued directions under the two constitutional provisions and that no proclamation had been issued under Article 356 based on Article 365.

Referring to Article 355 which lays down the duty of the Union to protect every State against "external aggression" and "internal disturbance", the Council said that in an emergency situation threatening the country's security, prior consultation with the State Government concerned before deploying troops there suo motu would not be possible. However, in other circumstances of domestic trouble it would be desirable to consult the State concerned as recommended by the Sarkaria Commission.

Action plan

The Council decided to set up a sub-committee of select Chief Ministers to prepare the blueprint for an "Action Plan on Good Governance" which could be discussed at the next meeting.

Taking note of the action taken report on the recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission, which submitted its report on Centre-State relations in 1988, the Council said that of the 247 recommendations, decisions had been taken in respect of 230 of which 170 had been implemented. Seven others were at various stages of implementation while 53 were found unacceptable, and the deliberations in Srinagar were on the remaining 17.

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