UNION AND ITS TERRITORIES

Schedule Ⅰ ‒ Article 1 to 4

1. Article 1 ‒ Name and Territory of the Union

2. Article 2 ‒ Admission or Establishment of new states

   [ Article 2A ‒ Sikkim to be associated with the Union (Repealed)]

3. Article 3 ‒ Formation of new states and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing states

4. Article 4 ‒ Laws made under Articles 2 and 3 to provide for the amendment of the First and Fourth schedules and supplemental, incidental and consequential maters

 

Article 1 : Name and Territory of the Union

It deals with the name and territory of the Union. For choosing the name of the country there was no unanimity prevailed in the constituent assembly. Some members suggested the traditional name ‘Bharat’ while others suggested the modern name ‘India’. Hence the constituent assembly had decided to adopt a mix of both―‘India, that is, Bharat’.

➣Article 1 describes India―‘Union of States’ rather than a ‘Federation of States’ and it deals with name of the country and types of polity.

➣India is described as Union although its constitution is Federal in structure because of two reasons according to Dr B R Ambedkar, 1. Indian Federation is not made up of an agreement between the states like American Federation. 2. The States have no rights to secede from the federation.

Federation is an Union     ⟶      Indestructible

Territory of India can be classified into 3 categories:

1.Territories of the states

2.Union territories

3.Territories that may be acquired by the Government of India at any time.  

Territory of India ⟶  Wider expression(states + union territories)
Union of India ⟶ Only states

Union Territories + Acquired territories(in future) ⟶ Directly administered by central Govt

India can acquire Foreign territories according to the international law of modes:

1. Cession→  by Treaty, Purchase, Gift, Lease or Plebiscite

2. Occupation→ hitherto unoccupied by a recognised ruler

3. Conquest or Subjugation.  

Article 2 : Admission or Establishment of New States

1. It empowers Parliament to ‘admit into the Union of India or establish new states on such terms and conditions’.

2. Article 2 grants 2 powers to the parliament ; 

        1. The power to admit into the Union of India new states( already in existence)

        2. The power to establish new states( not in existence)

Article 3 : Formation of New States and Alteration

It empowers Parliament to;

1. Form new states (by separation or uniting from other states / part of the states)

2. Increase the area of any state

3.Diminish the area of any state

4. Alter the boundaries of any state

5.Alter the name of any state

To form new states and alteration Article 3 lays down two conditions:

1. A bill can be introduced in the Parliament only with the prior recommendation of the President

2. Before recommending the bill, The President has to refer the bill to the state legislature for expressing its views within a specified period.

          

The president has the decision-making power. Even after the consultation with the state legislature, he can accept or reject it. The president (parliament also) is not bound the views of the state legislature.

The constitution empowers Parliament to form new states or to alter any states or alter the areas, boundaries and names of the existing states without their consent. 

Ex: Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

Hence India is exactly described as ‘an indestructible union of destructible states’. On the other hand USA is described as ‘an indestructible union of indestructible states’.

Article 4 : Laws Made Under Article 2&3

Article 4 said that, any laws may be brought into effect without an amendment of the constitution. Laws made under Article 2 and Article 3 can be considered as an ordinary law which need not to be considered as amendments of the constitution under Article 368. Those laws can be passed by a simple majority and an ordinary legislative process.

To enact a law made under Article 3 does not require Article 368. But, Does cede a part of the country to the foreign country also include it?. This question was put forth before the Supreme Court in 1960 in a reference made by the President of India.

➣The Supreme Court held that, Parliament doesn't have power to cede the Indian territory to a foreign country under Article 3. It can ceded only by amending the Constitution under Article 368. This was stated by the Supreme Court in Berubari Union case,1960.Based on that, 9th Constitutional Amendment Act was enacted in 1960 and  transfered the Berubari Union to the neighbouring country Pakistan.

➣In 1969, Supreme Court again stated that, a settlement of a border dispute between India and another country does not require Constitutional Amendment Act. It can be done by executive action.

➣To resolve the border dispute between India and Bangladesh, the 100th Constitutional Amendment Act was enacted in 2015. It was enacted for India to acquire some territories from Bangladesh and to transfer certain territories to Bangladesh. Its protocol was entered between the two governments. Under this protocol, India transferred 111 enclaves to Bangladesh, while Bangladesh transferred 51 enclaves to India.

Evolution of States and Union Territories

In 1947(at the time of Independence), India consisted of two political units namely–The British provinces and the Princely states. At the time of partition three options were given to the princely states—joining India, joining Pakistan or remaining independent.

            Of the 552 princely states, 549 were annexed to India, while the remaining three (Hyderabad, Junagarh and Kashmir) refused to join. In course of time, those provinces also integrated with India—Hyderabad by means of police action, Junagarh by means of referendum and Kashmir by the Instrument of Accession.

              In 1950, The Constitution had a four-fold classification of states—Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D.

• Part A→ Governor's Provinces of British India(9 Provinces)
• Part B→ Princely States with Legislatures(9 Provinces)
• Part C→ Chief Commissioner's Provinces of British India and some of erstwhile Princely states(10 Provinces).Those Provinces were centrally administered 
• Part D→ Andaman and Nicobar Islands 

Territory of India in 1950: 

Part A	Part B	Part C	Part D
1.Assam	1.Hyderabad	1.Ajmer	1.Andaman and Nicobar Islands
2.Bihar	2.Jamu and Kashmir	2.Bhopal
3.Bombay	3.Madhya Bharat	3.Bilaspur
4.Madhya Pradesh	4.Mysore	4.Cooch-Behar
5.Madras	5.Patiala and East Punjab	5.Coorg
6.Orissa	6.Rajasthan	6.Delhi
7.Punjab	7.Saurashtra	7.Himachal Pradesh
8.United Provinces	8.Travancore-Cochin	8.Kutch
9.West Bengal	9.Vindhya Pradesh	9.Manipur
		10.Tripura

 

 

Reorganisation of States

A demand for reorganisation of states came from different regions of the country. Especially in south India, they put forth a demand on reorganisation of states based on the linguistic manner. In 1948, The Constituent Assembly had set up a Dhar Committee to reorganize the states based on linguistic basis.

The Committee submitted its report in December 1948 and recommended the reorganization of states on the basis of administrative convenience rather than linguistic basis.

              This created great discontent and led to the appointment of another Linguistic Provincial Committee by the Congress in December 1948. The committee consists of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallahbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramaiya. It is so called JVP Committee. The committee submitted its report in April 1949 and rejected reorganization of linguistic states.

First Linguistic State

         First Linguistic State  ⟶  Andhra Pradesh

Protests erupted demanding the separation of Andhra Pradesh from Madras Province as a separate state. Potti Sriramulu's 56-day hunger strike and death led to the formation of Andhra Pradesh. In October 1953, the area of Telugu speaking people from Madras Province has been separated and created Andhra state as First linguistic state.

Fazl Ali Commission

After the creation of Andhra state some other regions from the country also demanded states on linguistic basis. It leads to set up a Fazl Ali Commission  in December 1953. It is a three member states reorganisation commission under the chairmanship of Fazl Ali. The members of the committee were K M Panikkar and H N Kunzru.

It submitted its report in September 1955 and accepted the reorganisation of states on linguistic basis. Also it rejected the theory‒‘One language-One state’. The Fazl Ali Committee suggested four factors for reorganisation of states.

1. Preservation and strengthening of the unity and security of the country
2. Linguistic and cultural homogeneity
3. Financial, economic and administrative considerations
4. Planning and promotion of the welfare of the people in each state as well as of the nation as a whole.

Also the Fazl Ali committee suggested to abolish Four-fold classification. By the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1956, the states of part A, part B, part C were totally abolished and created new states. In November 1st 1956, the 14 new states and 6 union territories were created.

 India in 1956:

States	Union Territories
1.Andhra Pradesh	1.Andaman and Nicobar Islands
2.Assam	2.Delhi
3.Bihar	3.Himachal Pradesh
4.Bombay	4.Laccadive,Minicoy and Amindivi Islands
5.Jammu and Kashmir	5.Manipur
6.Kerala	6.Tripura
7.Madhya Pradesh
8.Madras
9.Mysore
10.Orissa
11.Punjab
12.Rajasthan
13.Uttar Pradesh
14.West Bengal

States	Separated and Merged Areas
Andhra Pradesh	Added Hyderabad state with Andhra state to create Andhra Pradesh
Bombay	Merged Saurashtra state and Kutch state into Bombay state
Kerala	Merged Travancore-Cochin state to create Kerala state and bifurcate Malabar district of Madras state and merged with Kerala
Madhya Pradesh	Merged Madhya Bharat state, Vindhya Pradesh state & Bhopal state into Madhya Pradesh
Mysore	Added Coorg state into Mysore state
Punjab	Added Patiala and East Punjab states into Punjab states
Rajasthan	Added Ajmer state into Rajasthan state
New Union Territory – Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands	The territory detached from the Madras State

 

New States and Union Territories After 1956 

Year	States	How it Created
1960	Maharashtra and Gujarat	Bombay state was divided into  two  states‒Maharashtra for Marathi speaking people and Gujarat for Gujarati speaking people.
1961	Dadra and Nagar Haveli	Portuguese ruled area till 1954. Later it was converted into Union Territory of India by 10th CAA,1961.
1962	Goa, Daman and Diu, Puducherry	Portuguese ruled area acquired by police action in 1961.By 12th CAA,1962 it was constituted as Union Territory. Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam were French establishments in India. Later it was handed over to India in 1954 as a acquired territory. By 14th CAA 1962, it was made as Union Territory of India.
1963	Nagaland	To satisfy the hostile Nagas, Nagaland was created. Nagaland was formed by splitting the Naga Hills and Tuensang region of Assam state.
1966	Haryana and Chandigarh	Punjab was bifurcated on the recommendation of demanding Punjabi speaking areas as unilingual state. Hence, Punjab was bifurcated into Haryana and Chandigarh as Union Territory.
1971	Himachal Pradesh	Himachal Pradesh got statehood through the Himachal Pradesh Act 1970.
1972	Manipur,Tripura and Meghalaya	The two Union Territories‒Manipur, Tripura and one sub-state Meghalaya got statehood.
1975	Sikkim	By 36th CAA,1975‒Sikkim became a full-fledged state of the Indian Union. The 36th CAA, added 1st and 4th Schedules and also added a new Article 371-F. It also repealed Article 2A and 10th  Schedule of the Constitution.
1987	Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa	The three new states came into existence in 1987. The Union Territory of Mizoram became a full-fledged state by Mizoram Peace Accord. The territory of Goa separated from the Union Territory of Goa, Daman&Diu and created as Goa state.
2000	Chhatttisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand	Three new states created out of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar respectively.
2014	Telangana	By The Andhra Pradesh reorganization Act of 2014, Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated into two states‒Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.