A
state of emergency in India refers to a period of governance under an altered
constitutional setup that can be proclaimed by the
President of India, when he/she perceives grave threats to the nation from internal and external sources or from
financial situations of crisis. Under the advice of the cabinet of ministers and using the powers vested in him/her largely by Part XVIII of the
Constitution of India, the President can overrule many provisions of the constitution, which guarantee
fundamental rights to the
citizens of India and acts governing devolution of powers to the states which form the
federation. In the history of independent India, there were three periods during which a state of emergency was deemed to have existed.