IMPORTANT POINTS:
- The country is described as ‘Union’. According to Dr B R Ambedkar, the phrase ‘Union of States’ has been preferred to ‘Federation of States’ for two reasons: one, the Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement among the states like the American Federation; and two, the states have no right to secede from the federation.
- The names of states and union territories and their territorial extent are mentioned in the first schedule of the Constitution.
- At present, there are 29 states and 7 union territories. The provisions of the Constitution pertaining to the states are applicable to all the states (except Jammu and Kashmir) in the same manner.
- However, the special provisions (under Part XXI) applicable to the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunanchal Pradesh and Goa override the general provisions relating to the states as a class.
- Further, the Fifth and Sixth Schedules contain separate provisions with respect to the administration of scheduled areas and tribal areas within the states.
- Notably, the ‘Territory of India’ is a wider expression than the ‘Union of India’ because the latter includes only states while the former includes not only the states but also union territories and territories that may be acquired by the Government of India at any future time.
- The states are the members of the federal system and share a distribution of powers with the Centre.
- The union territories and the acquired territories, on the other hand, are directly administered by the Central government.
- India can acquire foreign territories according to the modes recognised by international law, i.e., cession (following treaty, purchase, gift, lease or plebiscite), occupation (hitherto unoccupied by a recognised ruler), conquest or subjugation.
- Parliament can redraw the political map of India according to its will. Hence, the territorial integrity or continued existence of any state is not guaranteed by the Constitution. Therefore, India is rightly described as ‘an indestructible union of destructible states’.
- The Union government can destroy the states whereas the state governments cannot destroy the Union.
- The Supreme Court held that the power of Parliament to diminish the area of a state (under Article 3) does not cover cession of Indian Territory to a foreign country. Hence, Indian Territory can be ceded to a foreign state only by amending the Constitution under Article 368. Consequently, the 9th Constitutional Amendment Act (1960) was enacted to transfer the said territory to Pakistan.
- On the other hand, the Supreme Court in 1969 ruled that, settlement of a boundary dispute between India and another country does not require a constitutional amendment. It can be done by executive action as it does not involve cession of Indian Territory to a foreign country.
