When a financial emergency is in operation, the President can issue directions…
2026
When a financial emergency is in operation, the President can issue directions for:
Answer: C. reducing the salaries and allowances of government employees — Concept — each emergency carries only the consequences its own Article grants. The Constitution creates three separate emergencies, and the powers that flow…
- A.
dissolution of the State Legislative Assembly for financial discipline
- B.
suspension of Fundamental Rights
- C.
reducing the salaries and allowances of government employees
- D.
amendment of the Constitution
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Correct answer: C
Concept — each emergency carries only the consequences its own Article grants. The Constitution creates three separate emergencies, and the powers that flow from one are never available under another. A National Emergency (Article 352) operates on fundamental rights and on Centre–State legislative and executive relations. President’s Rule (Article 356) operates on the government and legislature of a State. A Financial Emergency (Article 360) operates only on the financial machinery — the money the Union and the States spend, and the terms on which persons in public service are paid.
Application — what Article 360 itself authorises. Once a Proclamation under Article 360 is in force, the executive power of the Union extends to giving directions to any State to observe such canons of financial propriety as may be specified. Article 360(4) then names the specific directions the President may issue:
reduction of the salaries and allowances of all or any class of persons serving in connection with the affairs of a State, or of the Union;
reduction of the salaries and allowances of the Judges of the Supreme Court and of the High Courts — the one situation in which judicial pay may be cut;
reservation of all Money Bills and other financial Bills passed by a State Legislature for the consideration of the President.
The direction that the President can issue during a Financial Emergency is therefore the reducing of the salaries and allowances of government employees.
Cross-check — where the other measures actually come from. Each of the remaining measures belongs to a different provision, which is why none of them can be issued as a Financial Emergency direction:
Measure | Governing provision |
|---|---|
Dissolution of a State Legislative Assembly | Articles 174(2)(b) and 356 — the Governor’s dissolution power; President’s Rule |
Suspension of Fundamental Rights | Articles 358 and 359, on an Article 352 Proclamation |
Amendment of the Constitution | Article 368 — Parliament’s constituent power |
Cut in pay of public servants; reservation of State Money Bills | Article 360 — Financial Emergency |
Worth remembering: a Financial Emergency has never been proclaimed in India. Article 352 has been invoked three times (1962, 1971, 1975) and Article 356 many times, but Article 360 has never been used — which is why the exam tests its contents rather than its history.