Page 41 - Banking Finance May 2020

ARTICLE

EMERGENCY:

A BITTER

ALTERNATIVE

TO 21 DAYS

LOCKDOWN

I ndia has taken the extreme measure of enforcing a which could have given a unitary structure to country,

21-day lockdown, amidst corona outbreak, making it
allowing the country to override state directives.
the first time a nation was shut under the provisions
of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. Section 6(2)(i)
of the Act authorizes the NDMA (National Disaster A state of emergency in India refers to a period of
governance under an altered constitutional setup that can
Management Authority), headed by the prime minister, to be proclaimed by the President of India, when they perceives
take measures for "the prevention of disaster, or the grave threats to the nation from internal and external
mitigation, or preparedness and capacity building for dealing sources or from financial situations of crisis. Under the advice
with the threatening disaster situation or disaster as it may of the cabinet of ministers and using the Constitution of India,
consider necessary". The Act also provisions for a national the President can overrule many provisions of the
executive authority, which exercises powers to issue constitution, which guarantee fundamental rights to the
guidelines that, will be in effect during lockdown. citizens of India and acts governing devolution of powers to
the states which form the federation. In the history of
The other alternative could have been imposing emergency,
independent India, a state of emergency has been declared
thrice.
About the author
The first instance was between 26 October 1962 to 10
Abhinav Jain January 1968 during the India-China war, when "the security
Manager-Faculty , Staff Training Centre Gurgaon
Union Bank of India of India" was declared as being "threatened by external
aggression". The second instance was between 3 December

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