Account for the legal and political factors responsible for the reduced frequency of using Article 356 by the Union Governments since mid 1990s.

Introduction

Article 356 permits President's Rule when a state government cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution. Invoked over 125 times — often to dismiss opposition-led governments — its use has fallen sharply since the mid-1990s owing to converging legal and political restraints.

Legal factors

• S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994) made the proclamation judicially reviewable: the Union must justify it with relevant material, a government's majority is tested only on the floor of the Assembly, and the Assembly cannot be dissolved before both Houses of Parliament approve the proclamation.
• Courts can restore dismissed governments — as happened in Arunachal Pradesh (Nabam Rebia, 2016) and Uttarakhand (2016) — making mala fide impositions legally futile and politically embarrassing.
• Judicial endorsement of the Sarkaria Commission's guidelines — last resort, prior warning to the state, exhausting all alternatives — converted advisory norms into operative standards, later reinforced by the Punchhi Commission.

Political factors

• End of single-party dominance: coalition governments at the Centre depended on regional parties, which resist the misuse of Article 356 against states because they govern states themselves.
• Assertive Presidents — K.R. Narayanan returned Cabinet advice recommending President's Rule in Uttar Pradesh (1997) and Bihar (1998), forcing reconsideration.
• A federalised polity, alert media and judicial-public scrutiny raised the electoral cost of subverting state mandates.
• The vocabulary of cooperative federalism made outright dismissal look like an aberration rather than routine statecraft.

Conclusion

Article 356 has moved from partisan instrument to genuine last resort. Vigilance is still needed, however, because discretion has migrated to the Governor's choices in hung assemblies and to the timing of floor tests — the new arenas of Centre–State friction.