RAS question
The satisfaction of the President for proclaiming Emergency under Article 352 is:
Correct answer: (C) Subject to judicial review after the 44th Amendment (Minerva Mills confirmed this).
The President's satisfaction for proclaiming an Emergency under Article 352 is subject to judicial review after the 44th Amendment, and Minerva Mills confirmed that courts may examine it on limited grounds.
Explanation
The point is that Article 352 does not make the President's satisfaction wholly immune from courts. The earlier 38th Amendment had tried to make that satisfaction non-justiciable, but the 44th Amendment reversed that position. Minerva Mills explains the practical limit: the court does not sit as a political authority deciding whether the facts were adequate, but it can test whether the legally required satisfaction existed at all. If the satisfaction is mala fide, absurd, perverse, or based on a wholly extraneous and irrelevant ground, it is treated as no satisfaction in law. That is why the proclamation is reviewable, but only on narrow constitutional grounds rather than on ordinary merits.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Judicial review is not confined to the Chief Justice of India personally; it is exercised by courts on recognised constitutional grounds.
- (B) The 38th Amendment's non-justiciability position was reversed by the 44th Amendment, and Minerva Mills rejects complete immunity from judicial scrutiny.
- (D) Parliamentary approval is a constitutional check, but it is not the only check because courts may also review whether the Article 352 satisfaction existed in law.
Concept
This tests emergency provisions under Article 352 and the constitutional control of executive satisfaction. It recurs in RAS because Emergency powers link constitutional amendments, judicial review, and landmark cases in one high-yield topic.