Union and Its Territory

Part-I of the Constitution deal with the Union and its territory (Articles 1 to 4).

• Article 1 - India, that is, Bharat as a ‘Union of States’ rather than a ‘Federation of States’.

  Three categories of India territory:

  • 1. The states
  • 2. Union territories
  • 3. Territories that may be acquired by the Government of India in future. (Now 28 states and 8 union territories)
• Article 2 - Admission or establishments of new states into the Union of India that are not part of the Union of India.. In this regard Parliament has the complete power.
• Article 3- the formation of or changes in the existing states of the Union of India (internal re-adjustment).

Under Article 3 the Parliament can do the following,

• Form a new state by separation of territory from any state or by uniting two or more states or parts of states or by uniting any territory to a part of any state.
  • Increase / diminish the area of any state
  • Alter the boundaries / the name of any state

Note: The prior recommendation of the President is necessary. Before recommending, the President has to refer to the state legislature concerned. But, the views of the state legislature will be either accepted or rejected.

States and Union Territories (In 1950):

• The Constitution contained a four-fold classification of the states and territories.
• Part A - comprised nine erstwhile governor’s provinces of British India.
• Part B - states consisted of nine erstwhile princely states with legislatures.
• Part C - states consisted of erstwhile chief commissioner’s provinces of British India and some of the erstwhile princely states.
• Part D territories - The Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• The Indian Independence Act (1947) created two independent and separate dominions of India and Pakistan.
• 549 princely states situated within the geographical boundaries of India, joined India.
• Other three Princely states annexed through the following manner
  • Hyderabad by means of police action
  • Junagarh by means of referendum
  • Kashmir by the Instrument of Accession

State Re-organization Committees: Dhar Commission (1948):

• The Government of India appointed the Linguistic Provinces Commission under the chairmanship of S.K. Dhar to examine the feasibility of this.
• Recommended the reorganisation of states on the basis of administrative convenience rather than linguistic factor.

JVP Committee (1948):

• It consisted of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallahbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya.
• Rejected language as the basis for reorganisation of states.

Fazl Ali Commission (1953)

• A three member States Reorganisation Commission under the chairmanship of Fazl Al (other two members were K.M. Panikkar and H.N. Kunzru).
• Accepted language as the basis of reorganisation of states.
• But, it rejected the theory of ‘one language-one state’.

The States Reorganisation Act (1956):

• The States Reorganisation Act (1956) and the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act (1956) distinguished Part A and Part B states. Part C states were abolished.
• As per this act 14 states and 6 union territories were created on November 1, 1956.