India as a ‘Union of States’ sets the stage for Indian Federalism. Examine.
- Article 1 describes India, i.e. Bharat as a ''Union of States'' rather than a ''Federation of States''. The country is described as ''Union'' although its Constitution is federal in structure. According to Dr. BR Ambedkar, the phrase ''Union of States'' has been preferred to ''Federation of States'' for two reasons:
1) The Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement among the states like the American Federation.
2) The states have no right to secede from the federation.
- The federation is a Union because it is indestructible. The country is an integral whole and divided into different states only for the convenience of administration.
- Union of States is the democratic mechanism of how “India, that is Bharat” is constituted. India is a federation, because without the constituent States there would be no federation. So, one of the critics argued India was not a federation like the United States, where a civil war had to be fought to preserve the “nation”. There is an interesting historical background to the American constitutional history of federalism. Initially the 13 colonies were a confederation in 1776 when they fought against England, on the issue of “No taxation without representation”. That was the basis of America’s war of independence against Britain. America became a federation with closer ties when they adopted the Constitution in 1787.
- The Constitution of India being federal in structure, divides all powers (legislative, executive and financial) between the Centre and the states. Though the Centre and the states are supreme in their respective fields, the maximum harmony and coordination between them is essential for the effective functioning of the federal system.
India enjoys many federal features of the Constitution:
1) Dual Polity
2) Written Constitution
3) Division of Powers
4) Supremacy of the Constitution
5) Rigid Constitution
6) Independent Judiciary
7) Bicameralism
Besides the above features India also enjoys the following unitary or non-federal features:
1) Strong Centre
2) States not Indestructible
3) Single Constitution
4) Flexibility of the Constitution
5) Emergency Provisions
6) Single Citizenship
7) Integrated Judiciary
8) AIS (All India Services)
9) Parliament''s Authority over State List
10) Veto over State Bills
From the above its clear that India deviates from the traditional federal systems and incorporates a large number of unitary or non-federal features, tilting the balance of power in favour of the Centre.
- According to BR Ambedkar it is necessary to bear in mind the fundamental principle on which it rests. The basic principle of federalism is that the legislative and executive authority is partitioned between the Centre and the states not by any law to be made by the Centre but the Constitution itself.
- In Bommai Case (1994), the Supreme Court made it clear that though greater power is conferred upon the Centre vis-a-vis the states does not mean the states are mere appendages of the Centre. The fact that during emergency and some other eventualities their powers are overridden by the Centre is not destructive of the essential federal feature of the Constitution. Let it be said that the federalism in the Indian Constitution is not a matter of administrative convenience, but one of principle- the outcome of our own process and a recognition of the ground realities.
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