Nature Of The Indian Federal System

The lexical meaning of the word, Federal is- “having a system of Government in which the individual states of a country have control over their own affairs, but are controlled by a central government for national decisions”. But, there is not a general consensus among the political scientists regarding the true meaning of the word, Federation. Sometimes, it is substituted with the word, Union. It is because of Article 1(1) of our Constitution that states- “India that is Bharat, shall be a union of states.” It is correct to a great extent.

It is important to note here that the word, Federation is not mention in the Indian constitution. However, India is a federation. A federation is characterized by some certain essential features. The Indian constitution has those essential features.
There are two levels of government – the Central Government and the State Government- in India. The powers and functions of the Central Government and the State Government are clearly defined in the Indian constitution. Both the Governments are autonomous within their respective areas of working. The Central Government has jurisdiction over 97 subjects whereas the State List includes 66 subjects. Also, there is a Concurrent List consisting of 47 subjects over which both the governments have concurrent jurisdiction. Disputes regarding the powers and functions of the Central Government and the State Governments are decided by an independent judiciary under the Constitution. Hence, Indian Constitution provides India the federal form.

A federal state represents a group of several states. Each state is not only an agent of the federal government but also draw its authority from the Constitution. Beside it, states have no rights to secede from the federation at its will. As a federal state derives its powers and existence from the Constitution, there is the supremacy of the Constitution in a federal state. The courts have a final power to interpret the Constitution and every power – either executive or legislation or judicial. In other words, the Constitution is the supreme law in a federal system. We observe that there is a division of legislative and administrative powers between the Union and the State Governments and the Supreme Court stands at the head of our judiciary.

Our Constitution serves both the Union and the States with the same fullness and precision but since some of the states of the federation differed in their historical origins and their political development, special provisions for different classes of the units had to be made. The State of Jammu and Kashmir was accorded a special status and was allowed to make its own State Constitution. Even all the other provisions of the Constitution of India did not directly apply to J & K but dependent upon an order made by the President in consultation with the Government of that state for which provision had to be made in Article 370. After the inauguration of the Constitution special provisions have been inserted [ Arts. 371,372 I], to meet the regional problems and demands in certain states such as Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Andhra Prasad, Maharastra, Gujarat etc. The Constitution provides an extraordinarily powerful Central Government. Article 249 gives power to Parliament to enact legislation on any subject in the State List, provided the Rajya Sabha by a two-thirds majority needs it to do so. Under Article 312, Parliament is allowed to create new all India services common to the Centre and the States provided that the Rajya Sabha passes a resolution to this effect by a two- thirds majority. Article 256 places a State Government under an obligation to exercise its executive power so as to ensure compliance with the laws made by Parliament. Article 257 places the states under the control of the Central Government in certain cases.
Further, Article 200 and 201 empower the Governor who is a presidential appointee, to reserve a bill passed by the State Legislative Assembly for the consideration of the President who has the power to veto it without giving reasons. The powers of the Central Government became dominant in times of emergency. The Union functions as a unitary state when the security of the country is in peril or when there is failure of the constitution in a state or when there is the financial unstable in the state.

Indian federation gives the states a temporary identity because Article 3 of the Constitution states that the Parliament may form a new state by law or may increase or diminish the area of any state. It may alter the boundaries or the name of any state. An Indian federal system differs from the typical systems of the world. It has some peculiar features especially in terms of the mode of formation, position of the states and nature of the polity. The Government of India Act, 1935 introduced the federal concept for the first time. Under this system the Indian provinces derived their authority directly from the British Crown. Interestingly, this system is not the outcome of any agreement but has been framed by the people of India.

In certain conditions Parliament can legislate on state subjects. They are discussed below: (a) According to Article 249 of the Constitution if the Rajya Sabha passes any of the subjects of the State List with two-thirds majority of the present and eligible voters of the House, declaring the subjects to have national importance, on that subject Parliament acquires the power to legislate i.e. to make laws. This can be implemented for one year. This can also be increased to one more year. (b) According to the 7th Schedule of the Constitution, Parliament makes laws if in any way states are related to this law or any state has implemented laws on the same subjects, then the laws by the Parliament will be implemented. (c) According to Article 353 of the constitution if in the whole country or in any part of it, emergency is declared (Art. 352(1)) then Parliament acquires the power to make laws regarding the subjects mentioned in all the list including State Lists for the whole of the country or a part of it, the same arrangements are implemented when emergency is declared under Art. 356.

A foreign critic Prof. K C Wherare in his book ‘Federal Government (1951)’ has written that the Indian Constitution provides a system of government which is quasi-federal ....... a unitary state with subsidiary federal features rather than a federal state with subsidiary unitary features. Prof. C H Alexandrowioz in his book ‘Constitutional Developments in India (1957)’ has expressed same views. He stated that the Constitution of India is neither purely federal nor purely unitary but it is a combination of both. It is a Union or composite state of a novel type. It enshrines the principle that in spite of Federalism the national interest ought to be paramount. Some other scholars in India have agreed on this point. Actually, the parliamentary form of government is federal in structure with unitary features.