Article 356 can be invoked when the President is satisfied that:
Correct answer: (B) A situation has arisen in which the government of a state cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution.
Article 356 applies when the President is satisfied, on a Governor's report or otherwise, that a State government cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution.
Explanation
Article 356 is the Constitution's failure-of-constitutional-machinery provision for States. Its trigger is specific: the President must be satisfied, after receiving the Governor's report or from other material, that a situation has arisen in which the State government cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution. That wording matters because the test is constitutional breakdown in the State, not the mere difficulty of holding elections, not war or external aggression, and not financial instability. The given explanation also flags S.R. Bommai (1994), which matters because it placed limits on misuse of this power.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The inability to hold State elections, by itself, is not the Article 356 ground; the constitutional test is whether the State government cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution.
- (C) War or external aggression belongs to National Emergency under Article 352, not President's Rule under Article 356.
- (D) A threat to financial stability is dealt with under Article 360, whereas Article 356 concerns failure of constitutional machinery in a State.
Concept
This tests Emergency provisions and the separation between Articles 352, 356 and 360. It recurs in RAS because President's Rule is a core Centre-State relations topic and is often tested through close constitutional wording.