Indian Polity Revision Test Part 4 in English

Federalism refers to a political system that possess constitutionally provided and guaranteed distribution of powers between a national government and several regional governments.

Usually in countries where there is diversity of people federalism will be followed. If regions in a country are distinct in terms of ethnicity, language, religion etc the ideal form of government will be the federal system. Democratic federalism is the best instrument to ensure ‘Unity in diversity’.

In fact, the constituent states enjoy quasi sovereignty, whereas the federal state enjoys ultimate sovereignty. This federal system is based a distribution of powers between the federal or central or union government and the constituent states.

The thirteen British colonies in America revolted and liberated themselves from the British yoke. Thereafter they constituted themselves into a federal state. Thus, in the modern world, the United States of America became the first federal state.

The trilingual Switzerland similarly adopted a federal form of government. The European Union today another example of federal formation on a voluntary basis.

The beginnings of federalism in modern India could be traced in the Regulating Act of 1773, which brought the three regions in India under East India Company’s authority (Madras, Calcutta and Bombay) under the supervisory control of the governor general at Calcutta.

The Nehru Committee Report in 1928 and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s first proposals of a constitution favoured a federal structure with more powers for the constituent states.

The creation of Pakistan and consequent human tragedies changed the views of the constituent Assembly resulting in weak state governments and an over centralized union government, but the whole of the Princely state of Jammu and Kashmir became a district state within the Indian Union. The constitution of independent India establishes federalism through its Part VI provisions.

The Seventh Schedule of the constitution contains the three lists relating to the distribution of powers between the centre and states.

Federalism requires a written constitution. There are many governments in any federal system and for their smooth and friction free functioning their powers must be stated in crystal clear terms. The constitution must be the supreme political document in the country. All governments must follow the terms, conditions, provisions and procedures contained in the constitution. No government can claim powers over and above the constitution.

The distribution of powers between centre and states is the cardinal principle of any federal system. Indian constitution distributes powers between the two levels of governments in a comprehensive scheme.

There are three lists of power distribution in India unlike in the classical federalism of American constitution where there is only a single mode of distribution.

The federal constitutions provide for bicameralism. It refers to parliaments having two houses. Indian Parliament is bicameral as it consists of two houses.

The upper house is called Rajya Sabha or Council of States. The Council of States is the guardian of state rights and it consists of the representatives of the states. All over the world the upper house is deemed to be the protector of state rights and interests.

Indian Supreme Court acts as the umpire of the federal system and protector of the constitution. It possess powers of interpretation and adjudication. If any disagreement or contradiction arises among the central and state

The constitution endows the Supreme Court with Original Jurisdiction. It means that the Supreme Court alone possesses the exclusive powers to resolve any federal dispute between union government and state governments or among state governments. If a problem arises between Tamil Nadu and union government or between Tamil Nadu and any other

There are important differences between Union of States and Territory of India. Union of State refers to the twenty nine states and central government. Territory of India means: 1. Twenty Nine States 2. Seven Union Territories 3. Acquired Territory (Any territory acquired by India like Pondicherry, Daman Diu after they became part of India and before they were made Union Territories)

India possesses only one national constitution that caters to the needs of administration both in the centre and states. There is no concept of state constitutions.

A constitution is called a flexible one if it prescribes ordinary legislative process not only for making laws but also for amending the constitution. Indian Constitution is partially flexible. Some of the provisions of the constitution can be carried out by a simple majority in the Parliament, and such amendment are not referred to approval of States legislatures. In the United States has both American citizenship and the citizenship of the state where he lives.

A constitution is called a flexible one if it prescribes ordinary legislative process not only for making laws but also for amending the constitution. The constitution of United Kingdom is a flexible constitution.

In contrast the Supreme Court of the United States has delivered a judgment stating that the states there have a fundamental right to existence. It has described the American federation as “the indestructible Union Composed of Indestructible States”. The states cannot destroy the Union and similarly the national government cannot destroy the states in the United States.

There is no equality principle followed in the distribution of seats in the Council of States. The seats are distributed on the basis of population of the individual states. The most populous state of Uttar Pradesh has 31 seats whereas the smaller states like Nagaland have only one seat. But in any ideal federalism there should be equality of seat distribution in the upper house as seen in the United States where all the fifty state have two seats each in the upper House the Senate of the Congress (Parliament)

Article 243 of the constitution enables the Rajya Sabha to transfer a subject from the State List to Union list for the purpose of legislation by parliament on grounds of national interest

Article 243 says that the Council of States can pass a resolution for the transfer of power from state to centre supported by a special majority, that is two third majority of members present and voting and a simple majority of the total membership of the House.

The transfer of subject by Rajya Sabha is valid for only one year. The Rajya Sabha can again pass the resolution if the same circumstances continue. Many critics and states have criticized this article as violative of state rights.

Article 312 of the constitution provides power to Rajya Sabha to create new All India Services by passing a resolution supported by a two third majority of the members present and voting and a simple majority of the total membership of the House. All India Services are recruited by the union government but deployed in the states. The ultimate control over the officers of the All India Service rests with the union government.

Indian constitution envisages distribution of powers only in legislative and administrative domains and it establishes a single, integrated and hierarchical judiciary. The Supreme Court is the apex judicial institution and the High Courts and the Subordinate Courts function under its supervision and power. There is no federalism in judiciary in India.

The Election Commission of India is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering election processes in India at national, state and district level. The body administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, state Legislative Assemblies, state legislative Councils, and the offices of the President and Vice President of the country.

State Election Commission is not part of the federal system in India. It conducts elections to Panchayat Bodies and Urban Local Bodies in accordance with 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments.

India follows a unified auditing system for both the centre and state governments. The Comptroller and Auditor-General as mentioned in article 148 of the constitution controls the entire financial system of the country and there is no specific or separate auditing mechanism for states in Indian federalism.

The powers are distributed between the union and state governments territorially. The union government possess the powers over the entire territory of India while the states have jurisdiction over their own territories. The central government has extra territorial jurisdiction that means that its laws govern not only persons and property within India but also Indian citizens and their properties located in any corner of the world. The territorial jurisdiction of Parliament of course, is subject to certain limitations imposed by the constitution especially with regard to union territories and scheduled areas.

List I (Union List) contains the subjects and powers exclusively allotted to the union parliament. There are 100 subjects here including defence, foreign affairs, banking, currency

List II (State List) contains the subjects that are exclusively allotted to the state governments. There are 59 items including public order, and police, public health, local government, agriculture, forests, fisheries.

List III (Concurrent List) contains 52 items including Criminal law and procedure, Civil Procedure, marriage, education. This list is called as Concurrent List. Both the union and state governments have powers over these subjects. But when there occurs a clash between the union and state governments the law of the parliament will prevail.

There is also another category called residuary powers. Any subject not mentioned in the above three lists will automatically come under the jurisdiction of the union government.

Our constitution broadly follows the legislative distribution of powers provided in the Government of India Act 1935 enacted during the British colonial era.

The power of the Union Parliament will be expanded and concomitantly the powers of the state legislatures will be diminished.

After the declaration of article 356 emergency in a state the President can declare that the parliament will enact on state list subjects for that state

When the President of India declares National Emergency the union parliament acquires the powers to legislate over the subjects in the State List. The emergency is declared by the president to tackle problems like war, external aggression and armed rebellion that pose a danger to the existence of our nation. When two or more states agree that their mutual interests will be served better if there is common law on a particular subject and request the union government to enact the needed law, the Parliament can enact a common law for the desiring states on that subject even if it falls in the List II (State List).

Succinctly it can be stated that the executive powers over the subjects in the Concurrent List is ordinarily with the state governments. Nevertheless, the union government retains powers to issue directions to the state governments in the execution of executive functions both in normal times and during emergencies

The union government even without the getting the consent of the state government can entrust its executive function to the state government but with the consent of the parliament.

Indian constitution distributes financial powers between the union and states in a comprehensive arrangement that is broadly modelled on the 1935 Government of India Act

Certain taxes like Corporation tax and Custom tax are exclusively allotted to the central government.

There are five important ways in which the tax revenues are distributed between the union and state governments. Certain taxes like sales tax are exclusively allotted to the states

Certain taxes are levied by the Union but collected and appropriated by the concerned states and the examples are stamp duties on Bills of Exchange and Excise duties on medicinal and toilet preparations containing alcohol.

Certain taxes are levied and collected by the union government but the proceeds are assigned to the states in which they are levied like the taxes on the sale of advertisements in newspapers.

Certain taxes are levied and collected by the state governments and are distributed between the union and state governments in a certain proportion like the tax on income other than an agricultural income.

There are five important ways in which the tax revenues are distributed between the union and state governments.

The union government gets its revenue from the receipts from commercial and industrial undertakings relating to central subjects like Industrial Finance Corporation. It gets its revenue from Railways, Posts and Telegraphs, Broadcasting etc

The state governments get revenue from the receipts of commercial enterprises and industrial undertakings allotted to them. The sources among others include forests, irrigation, electricity, road transport.

The constitution understands the greater financial needs of certain states and therefore the article 275 asks the union government to provide Grants-inAid to states especially the state of Assam keeping in mind the imperative of the development and welfare of the tribal population.

The president of India has the right of constituting finance commission and he/she will constitute a Finance Commission once in five years.

The article 280 of the constitution describes the composition of the Finance Commission.

Finance Commission will have one Chairman and four other members. The Chairman will be a person with experience in public affairs and the members will have experience in financial administration, special knowledge of economics, special knowledge of public accounts and government finances, and one member will have experience of a High Court judge.

Finance Commission will provide recommendations in the following manner 1. for the distribution of net proceeds of taxes between the centre and states 2. Principles governing grants-in-aid 3. Measures needed to increase the Consolidated Fund of India or states to supplement the resources the Panchayat Bodies 4. measures needed to increase the Consolidated Fund of India or states to supplement the resources the Urban Local Bodies.

The American Constitutional expert Granville Austin described Indian federal system as Cooperative Federalism designed to promote cooperation between the centre and states.

The article 263 of the constitution says that the President of India can establish the Inter-State Council to serve public interests.

To serve public interests, there are three functions and duties assigned to the Inter State Council.

The functions and duties assigned to the Inter State Council a) To enquire into and advise upon disputes among the states b) To investigate and discuss the subjects that are common to the union and state governments c) To make recommendations to the President for better co-ordination on any particular subjects among the state governments.

The holistic Inter State Council was established in early nineties to deal with general cooperation among the units of Indian federal system on the recommendation of the Sarkaria Commission.

The Prime Minister functions as the chairperson of the council. The Chief Ministers of all the states and Union Territories with Legislative Assemblies, six cabinet ministers of the union government, administrators of the Union Territories without Legislative Assemblies and Governors of states under President’s Rule.

A Standing Committee consisting of the with union Home Minister, five other cabinet ministers and nine Chief Ministers also works as part of the Inter State Council to promote cooperation among the members of the federal system.

The Zonal Councils were established by the States Reorganization Act in 1956 to achieve cooperation and co-ordination among states.

Zonal Councils were created in the backdrop of linguistic reorganization of India and the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru described their objective as to “develop the habit of cooperative working”.

Originally five Zonal Councils were created and later on in 1971 one more Zonal Council was established for the North Eastern States.

The 6 Zonal Councils are: 1. Northern Zonal Council 2. Southern Zonal Council 3. Eastern Zonal Council 4. Western Zonal Council 5. Central Zonal Council 6. North Eastern Zonal Council

The Union Home Minister will be the common Chairperson of all the Zonal Councils. Additionally, each Zonal Council will consist of the Chief Minister and two other Ministers of each state and the Administrator of the Union Territory in the zone.

The Zonal Councils will discuss and suggest measures to promote cooperation among the members in areas like economic and social planning, border disputes, inert-state transport etc.

The River Boards Act, 1956 establishes River Boards to provide advice to the concerned governments for the regulation of an interstate river or river valley.

The inter State Water Disputes Act 1956 was enacted in accordance with the article 262 of the constitution that mandated that all interstate river disputes should be resolved through negotiations.

The union government created the National Commission for Transforming India after dissolving the Planning Commission in 2015

The Prime Minister is the ex officio chairman and the first meeting of NITI Aayog was chaired by Narendra Modi on 8 February 2015.

The permanent members of the governing council are all the Chief Ministers of all the states, Chief Ministers of the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry and the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The Cauvery dispute involving Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry Union Territory

Inter State River Water Disputes play a crucial role in the evolution of federalism in Indian politics. Vamsadara River dispute involving Andhra Pradesh and Odisha

Sutlej dispute involving Punjab, Haryana, Mahadayi river dispute involving Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka are the major ones

Empowered by the article 262 of the constitution the parliament enacted inter – state river water dispute act, 1956. This act enables the union govt. to establish a Tribunal for the adjudication of an interstate river water dispute.

When the union govt. decides to constitute a Tribunal the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India will nominate a person to head it.

The Tribunal will always consist of one person only. Later on, this provision was amended to include more members.

The Chief Justice will choose from the sitting or retired Judge of the Supreme Court and High Courts. The decision of the Tribunal shall be published in the in the official Gazette and there after that decision shall be final and binding on the parties to the dispute.

Neither the Supreme Court nor any other court shall have jurisdiction over any inter-state water dispute referred to a tribunal under the act. No tribunal can be constituted for any dispute that has been placed for arbitration under the river water board act – 1955.

The Madras Presidency and the Princely Sate of Mysore signed an agreement in 1924 for sharing the waters. After being in operation for fifty years the agreement lapsed in 1974.

The Inter State River Water Disputes Act 1956 allows for the formation of a tribunal for resolving the river water disputes. The Cauvery River Water Tribunal was established in 1991 to solve the issue.

The Cauvery River Water Tribunal gave the final Award in 2007. It provided a distress formula to share the waters in years when rainfall is low allowing for proportionate sharing of the available water.

The Cauvery River Water Tribunal stipulated a monthly release of water from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu across the border in Biligundlu. It fixed the share of each state from Cauvery River.

The Tribunal provided a Cauvery Water Management Board to manage the tricky problem of sharing the water.

The Cauvery Water Management Authority and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee were established in 2018 to implement the Award of the Tribunal as modified by the Supreme Court

At present Tamil Nadu is entitled to get 177.25 tmcft of water from Karnataka as measured in Biligundlu border.

The total share for Cauvery water allotted to Tamil Nadu is 404.25 tmcft. Karnataka is entitled to get 284.25 tmcft

Kerala’s share is 30 tmcft and the fourth disputant Puducherry will get 7 tmcft.

Punchhi Commission had three more members and a Secretary and presented its report in 2010.

The Governor of a state has discretionary power to reserve a bill of the state legislature for the consideration of the President. Whenever a money bill of the state legislature is reserved by the Governor the President may either declare or withhold his assent.

All India Services are created under article 312 of the constitution. The officers to these services are recruited by the union government and posted in the states. The state governments have powers of posting, transfer while the central government alone has powers to dismiss them.

As the ultimate control over the All India Services are with the central government the state governments have sought changes in the system and the Rajamannar Commission of Tamil Nadu government suggested a complete revamping in the structure and position of All India Services

The First Administrative Reforms Commission was formed in 1966 initially under the leadership of Morarji Desai and later on K. Hanumanthaiah.

The Tamil Nadu government established the Rajamannar committee to analyse and provide recommendations for restructuring the centre-state relations in our constitution

Rajamannar committee submitted its report to the government in 1971 marking a great milestone in the history of autonomy debate in the country.

The union government in the backdrop of many reform demands in federal domain to review the centre state relations constituted a commission under the chairmanship of Justice R.S. Sarkaria in 1983.

e union government constituted a commission under the leadership of Justice Madan Mohan Punchchi, the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 2007.

The National Commission to review the working of the Constitution (NCRWC) also known as Justice Manepalli Narayana Rao Venkatachaliah Commission was set up by a resolution of the NDA Government of India led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 22 February 2000 for suggesting possible amendments to the Constitution of India.

Punchhi Commission wanted to introduce changes in articles 355 and 356 so that insurgency or problem afflicted areas or districts in a state rather than the entire state can be brought under emergency as a strategy to localize emergency and efficiently handle insurgency or troubles.