Centre-State Relations of the Indian constitution.
Art. 245- Extent of laws made by parliament and by the Legislatures of states.
Art. 246- subject-matter of laws made by parliament and by the legislatures of the states.
Art. 247- power of parliament to provide for the establishment of certain additional courts.
Art 248- Residuary powers of legislation.
Art.249- power of parliament to legislate with respect to a matter in the state list in the national interest.
Art.250- power of parliament with respect to any matter in the state list if a proclamation of emergency is in operation.
Art.252- power of parliament to legislate for two or more state by consent and adoption of such legislation by any other state.
Art.253- legislation for giving effect to international agreements.
Art.254- Inconsistency between law made by the parliament and laws made by the legislatures of state.
Art.256- Obligation of state and the union.
Art.257- control of the union over state in certain cases.
Centre-state Relations.
The distribution of power is essential for federalism. the object for which a federal state is formed involves a division of authority between the National Government and the separate states. the one is not subordinate to the other in its own field, the authority of one is co-ordinate with that of the other. in fact, the basic principle of federation is that the legislative, executive and financial authority is divided between the centre and state not by any law passed by the centre but by constitution itself.
A.Legislative Relations.
The constitution of India makes two-fold distribution of legislative power;
1.with respect to territory
2.with respect to subject-matter.
concurrent list.
Our constitution makers followed the Canadian scheme and opted for a strong centre. however, our constitution makers added one more list i.e concurrent list. concurrent list is not found in most of the federal state because these are the items which should be in the state list. we have created the concurrent list to have uniformity of law throughout the country in these subjects. the concurrent list also serve as a device to avoid excessive rigidity to two list distribution.
Union list-100 items (foreign affairs, finance...)
State- 61 items
Concurrent -52 items.
Residuary power.
Art.248 vests the residuary in parliament, it says that parliament has exclusive power to make any law with respect to any matter not enumerated in state and concurrent list. this is a departure from other constitutions, i.e the US & Switzerland. this reflects the learnings of the constitution-makers for strong centre.
Principles of interpretation of lists.
The powers of centre and state are divided. they can't make laws, out side their allotted subjects. it is true that a scientific division is not possible and questions constantly arise whether a particular subject falls in the sphere of one or the other government. this duty in a federal constitution is vested in the supreme court of india. the supreme court has evolved the following principles of interpretation in order to determine the respective power of the union and the state under the three lists:
1. predominance of the inion list.
2.Each entry to be interpreted broadly .
3.pith and substance.
4.colourable legislation.
Parliament power to legislative on state subject.
Through in normal times the distribution of power must be strictly maintained and neither the state nor the centre can encroach upon the aphere allotted to the other by the constitution, yet in certain exceptional circumtances the above system of distribution is either suspended or the powers of the union parliament are extended over the subjects mentioned in the state list.
Article 249- Centre can legislate in state list or any matter inside the state list, when it is necessary or expedient in the national interest.
Article 250- During national emergency parliament shall have power to make laws on all matters in state list. such a law, however, shall cease to have effect on the expiration of six months after the proclamation of emergency has ceased to operate.
Article 252- if the legislature of two or more states request the centre to enact a common law for them on any matter in state list, the parliament is empowered to do that. but such a law can be repealed by parliament.
Article 253- parliament's power to legislate for giving effect to treaties and international agreement.
when Article 356 is imposed, state legislature is either suspented or dissolve. during 356 parliaent is empowered to makes law in the state list.
it is submitted that, these provision are merits rather than the demerits of the Indian constitution. they enabled the centre to legislate in exceptional circumstances on the state subject without amending the constitution and thus introducing a certain amount of flexibility in the scheme of distribution of powers.
apart from above,
Art.31-A
Art 31-B
Art 200
Art 288 and
Art 304.
these articles of the constitution are all related to centre's control over state legislation.
B. Administrative Relations.
The success and strength of a federal polity depends upon the maxim of cooperation and coordination between the governments. in fact, the adjustment of administrative relations between the union and the state is one of the complicated problems in a federal system of government. the framers of the Indian constitution, therefore, decided to include detailed provision to avoid clashes between the centre and the state in the administrative domain.
in USA, the federal and the state administration run parallel to each other and so no one has direct or indirect power over the other. but in India, the case is different. the constitution has a strong bias towards the centre to make it strong. the central administration prevails over the state administration.
1. the executive power of the state should be so exercised as to ensure compliance with the laws of the union parliament (Art 256) and not impede or prejudice the executive power of the union (art 257).
2. if the state does not comply with the directives of the centre, the latter may invoke Art.356 and take over the administration of the state to itself (President rule).
3. under Art.258(2), the parliament is given power to use the state machinery to enforce the union laws.
4. in case of any untoward happenings, officials of the All-India services (e.g IAS,IPS and IFS forest) can only be suspended by the state. the state cannot take more strongest actions.
5. the centre can deploy military and para-military forces in a state even against the wishes of the state government.
6.for coordination between states, the president is empowered under Art.263 to constitute a council to resolve the disputes and or to discuss subjects of common interest between the states as well as state and the union.
1. Appointment of Governors;
Governers of states, unlike the president of india, exercise few vital discretionary powers which have bearing on the existence of state government. despite this fact, state have not been given any role in the appointment of the governers. more often than not governers act as agent of the union government. their decisions and actions are often viewed with suspicion by state governments. therefore, in order to avoid clashes between the head of the government of state and the executive head of a state it is necessary that the union should appoint governers in state only after due consultation with the Chief minister of the concerned state government commission made a number of recommendations/guidelines in this regard. but such recommendations are hardly considered in real politic. earlier, even the administrative reforms commission had expressed the view that Raj Bhavans should not be a place of rehabilitation.
2. All India services;
state government are of the view that all India service AIS are no more relevant as the AIS officers spend most of their time in state and hence could not develop a national outlook. secondly, state governments cannot impose any major penalty on the AIS officers. any major penalty can be imposed only on the concurrence of the centre.
3. Deployment of paramilitary force in states;
As maintenence of law and order in a state subject, deployment of the paramilitary force should be made consultation with state.
C.Centre state financial relations and GST.
The constitution (one hundred and first Amendment) act, 2016, introduced a national Goods and services tax in India from 1 july 2017. this change the centre state financial relations drastically.
246A.(1) Notwithstanding anythingcontained in articles 246 and 254, parliament, and subject to clause (2), the legislature of every state, have power to make laws with respect to goods and services tax imposed by the union or by such state.
2. parliament has exclusive power to make laws with respect to goods and services tax where the supply of goods or of services, or both takes place in the course of inter-state trade or commerce.
269A. 1. Goods and services tex on supplies in the course of inter-state trade or commerce shall be levied and collected by the government of India and such tax shall be apportioned between the union and states in the manner as may be provided by parliament by law on the recommendations of the goods and services tax council.
279A. 1. the president shall, within sisty days from the date of commencement of the constitution (one hundred and first Amendment) Act 2016, by order, constitute a council to be called the Goods and services tax council.
After the amendment the provisions are;
- parliament and state legislatures will have concurrent powers to make laws on GST. only the centre may levy an integrated GST (IGST) on the inter state supply of goods and services, and imports.
-Alcohol for human consumption has been exempted from the purview of GST. GST will apply to five petrolum products at a later date.
-the GST council will recommend rates of tax, period of levy of additional tax, principles of supply, special provisions to certain states etc. the GST council will consist of the union finance minister, union minister of state for Revenue, and state finance ministers.
-the bill empowers the centre to impose an additional tax of upto 1% on the inter-state supply of goods for two years or more. this tax will accrue to state from where the supply originates.
-parliament may, by law, provide compensation to states for any loss of revenue from introduction of GST ,up to a five years period.
Finance commission (280)
in centre financial relations finance commission plays an important role. according to the constitution the president is empowered to set up a finance commission after every five years to make recommendations to him about the distribution of net proceeds of taxes to be divided between the centre and the state.
the commission is also required to suggest the principles on which grant-in-aid of the revenues should to be given to the state governments out of consolidated fund of India.
Grand-in-aid to the states.
According to the constitution state are to receive grant-in-aid from the centre out of central revenue. it is to be given with the approval of the parliament to a deserving state out of consolidated fund of India. the amount in each case is to be decided by the parliament.
D. Co-operative Federalism.
A federal constitution involves the sovereignty of units within their respected territorial limits, it is not possible to remain in complate isolation fron each other, federal constitution therefore generally provide certain rules for co-operation, which the units are expect to take into consideration while dealing with each other. this co ordination between state and centre is called co-operative fedealism.
E. Important provisions of the constitution;
a. consulative machinery;
under art.263, the president is empowered to constitute 'inter-state council' for resolving the dispute arising between the centre and states and between the state inter se, so as to avoid the needs to go through the judicial proceedings for the same.
b. Adjudicative mechanism;
under art.262, the parliament has passed the inter-state water disputes act, 1956 to adjudicate on any dispute or complaint with respect to use, distribution or control of the waters of inter-state river or river valleys.
c. Full faith and credit clause;
Art.261 lays down that the final judgments or orders delivered or passed by civil courts and not criminal courts of one state shall be equally enforceable in other states, if they wish so.
d. Delegation of executive functions;
under Art.258, the president is empowered to delegate some of the executive functions of the union to the state with its 'state' consent. under Art. 258A , similarly, the governer of the state may entrust,with the consent of the government of India, any of the executive functions which exclusively fall under the state jurisdiction.
Art. 285 says that the property of the union owned by the government company or statutory corporation do not come under this, and is exempted from state taxation, except if the parliament by law provides otherwise.
similarly, under Art.289, the state property and income is exempted from union taxation, except in case of trade or business carried out by the state government or on its behalf.
this is basically not only to avoid unnecessary conflicts but also to create space for mutual cooperation between the centre and the state.
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