Centre State Relations in India

Prof. Uday Shankar

Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Week 01: Centre-State Relations: Nature of Indian Constitution

Lecture 03: Constitutional Provisions Relating to Centre-State Relations

Welcome learners. Today, we will discuss how Centre-State Relations are described in
different constitutional provisions. So, these are the points which we will cover today.
We will cover constitutional provisions how assembly debates have discussed it, how the
framers have deliberated on the Centre-State Relations. Along with that we will also
discuss the legislative relations, administrative relations and financial relations. Here at
this stage we will be just giving you a snapshot because these are going to be discussed in
detail at the later point of time.

Now, when I look at the Constituent Assembly Debates, we observe that there has been
an intense discussion on the structuring of Centre-State Relations in India. You find that
more than 75 times the framers they have used it. They have used this term while
deliberating on the possible structuring which the new country should have adopted or
new country should have you know looked into. So, in this what you find that 75 time it
has been mentioned by 13 people in the 299 member body and where you find that one
of them Mr. Brijeshwar Prashad who is a member from Gaya, he used this word
federalism for good 35 times. So, they discussed it they discussed the term federalism,
but then they avoided using this term in the Indian Constitution and the reason why they
have avoided they were not very willing to adopt the traditional understanding, traditional
meaning of federalism as it has been understood in United States or other classic federal
country. That is what when you look at the statement of Dr. Ambedkar, he made the point
that the Constitution should avoid using the term federalism. So, that conceptual
understanding should be brought in from the functioning of the Indian Constitution and
from the experience of the Centre-State relation which is very country specific which is
very connected with the people of this country and should not be seen from what kind of
model prevalent in other jurisdictions of the world.

Now, there was a discussion that how the Centre-State relationship should go in India.
What shall be the power structuring done and it is a known fact that when they started
debating on the Centre-State relations they were of the opinion that sufficient autonomy
is to be given to the States. So, that they do governed on the subject matters which are
exclusively assigned to them and on those subject matters there shall be minimal
interference by the State. But then literature indicates that partition played a very
significant role in changing the approach of the framers of the Constitution on the matter
of Centre-State relation and how it was done what kind of influence it played that it gave
prominence to the idea of maintaining unity and integrity of the country and it placed a
prime responsibility upon the Centre to maintains unity and integrity. And that is how
you find a provisions are there where the State, the federal structuring, the division of
power between the Centre-State all this takes a shape of unitary structuring where the
sole responsibility to govern the territory is given to the State government during
emergency rule. So, though the framers started discussing and debating on this aspect
with the idea of giving more autonomy to the State, but they were careful of one fact
they were very much concerned of this very fact that when it comes to maintaining the
Constitution when it comes to ensuring that the country runs as per the Constitution the
prime responsibility shall be there with the Central government and that is how you find
the language of Article 355 which says that it shall be the responsibility of the Central
government to see that the provinces are being run as per the Constitution.

And that is how you find the leading members of the Constitutional Assembly for
example K.M Munshi he advocated that let the Constitution be in the form of quasi
federal and we should have a kind of significant provisions of making unitary
government as and when it is required. K.M Panikkar proposed the basic principles of
the Constitution should be unitary, but devolution of large powers to the provincial
government. So, the statements of the members of the Constitutional Assembly clearly
indicate that what kind of thought process was going on in the mind of the framers of the
Constitution when they were discussing the power between the Centre and the States.
They were of the opinion that there should be autonomy given to the provinces, but then
the when the matter comes of unity, when the matter comes of integrity, when the matter
comes of maladministration in the province, maladministration in a sense of not
following the constitutional values then the Centre should step in and take over the
governance of that State. That is how you find the Constitutional Assembly they have
discussed it. Now, as I have discussed in the last session that when we start describing the
federal or Centre-State relation in India, Article 1 plays a significant role where Union of
a State has been described and it says Union of a States and obviously the term Union of
States symbolizes that States they do have their identity, but their identity is not
sacrosanct and they cannot decide on their territorial autonomy it is the Parliament which
has been given the power and given the necessary you know provisioning where they can
very well alter the boundaries, they can add to the boundary all these powers are there.
And then at the beginning you would find that the country was divided into not purely on
States and the Union government structuring. There is a Part A government, Part B
government and Part C government which was based on the way this territory was being
ruled by the British where territories which were directly ruled by the British, territories
where the Commissionerate was you know defined by the British or the Princely States
which were given a kind of autonomy to rule the territory or tribal areas which were
given a kind of special status that is how it was done.

But then in 1954 reorganization was done of the States and those reorganization was done
based on largely based on the factor of language, language became a prominent reason
for reorganizing the boundaries of the State and that is how you find that the
constitutional provisions which are there in the Indian Constitution they provide for two
set of governments, one set of government for the entire country and then you do have a
regional government for the province. And then there is a clear demarcation of power
between the Centre and the State, List I describes the subject matters on which Centre can
make law, List II describes the subject matter on which State can make law as I said and
this division is there in all the domains legislative domain, executive domain and the
financial domain. Obviously, when it comes to judiciary we have a unitary structure in
the judiciary that is how you find. On the matter of Centre and State relations the
responsibility is given upon the judiciary to resolve the dispute there is an original
jurisdiction with the judiciary where any matter related to the dispute within Centre in the
States or inter State should be directly taken up before the Supreme Court for resolution.
So, this is how you find the Centre-State relations which is been governed in India where
we have divided into three parts legislative relations, administrative relations and
financial relations.

We will be discussing all these three relations separately as we move on with the course.
Here I am going to give you a snapshot that how these relationships are governed in
different provisions of the Constitution. For example, Part IX of the Constitution it is
basically related with you know legislative and administrative relations where you find
Chapter I deals with legislative relations from Article 245 to Article 255 and then you
have administrative relations and Chapter II we deals with Article 256 to Article 263.
Now in India you would find very unique kind of set up where all legislative relationship
you find that the Centre has been given a kind of supremacy or upper hand when it comes
to conflict between the central law and the State Law on the matter of Concurrent List.
But when you look at the administrative relation you would find that in India there is a no
parallel bureaucracy to implement the Central law in the States.

So, for that matter the Central government heavily depends upon the State bureaucracy
for the implementation of the Central Laws because in India we do not have like other
federal countries where there is a parallel bureaucracy one for the Centre other for the
State. In India either we have all India Service or we have a State Service or we have a
Central Service, but then we do not have a separate kind of Services where central
bureaucracy is been created for implementing Central Laws at the State level. So, that is
what kind of structuring which is there then we have Part XII of the Constitution which
deals with financial relations and how the distribution of revenue takes place. Then there
is a provision also on Services under the Indian Constitution which is Part XIV of the
Constitution and this provisions they affect the Centre-State relationship they deal with
the Centre-State relationship in detail which will be discussing. When we discuss when
we look at the how the legislative relationship are structured Article 245 talks about the
extent of laws made by the Parliament and State Legislature that what shall be the
applicability of such laws.

Article 246 talks about the subject specific limitations of the Central government and the
State government or the Parliament and the State Legislature where what is the subject
matter jurisdiction of the Parliament to make law and the State Legislature to make the
law. And then we also have a provision of a residue power there again an experiment has
been done under the Indian Constitution where you would find that residue power unlike
traditional federal set up where residue power is been left on the State to exercise in India
it is the Union government it is the Parliament which exercise the residue power. And
then there is a formula given of resolving the conflict between the Central Law and the
State Law on a matter of Concurrent list which is there under Article 254 which talks
about giving prominence or precedence to Central Law unless and until the State Law has
got a prior sanction from the President. Now, we have administrative relation which is
dealt under again Part XI from Article 256 to Article 263. Article 256 mandates that the
executive actions of the State must comply with the laws made by the Parliament there
where you find that there is an obligation on the State that they do have an obligation to
comply with adhere with the laws made by the Centre they cannot overlook it they cannot
you know ignore it they cannot defile such laws and then Article 257 talks about the
control of the Union over the State in military railways national highways and national
waterways matter particularly it relates to the issues subject matters which are of national
importance where pan India kind of supervision is required and that is why very aptly this
power has been given to the Central government. Then you have Article 258 which
grants the power to the Union government to give necessary power to the Union
executive on the matters where there is a kind of monitoring is required by the Union
government on uncertain subject matters that is what Article 258 says.

Then you have financial relations which is given in Part XII of the Constitution where
there is a clear distribution of power on the financial matter between the Centre and the
States. Obviously, this has got a newer framework under GST framework prior to GST
framework there was a clear division on revenue generation power between the Centre
and the State which again as I said we will be discussing in detail when we will discuss
financial relation in detail. So, you have Article 269A where it says that levy and
collection of goods and service tax by the Union of India and then you have Article 279A
which establishes GST Council which decides on what kind of tax lab should be made
applicable on goods and services and this is been done through 101st Constitutional
Amendment. Article 266 talks about Consolidated Fund of India and these are the
references for this lecture. Thank you very much.