Authored by Yukti Kohli, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Jagran Lakecity University
Abstract
Federalism is the separation of powers between the union government and the state government, i.e. delegation of authorities to different sectors. The concept of federalism in the Indian constitution is taken from the constitution of Canada. India cannot be considered as a federal state completely as it has features of both unitary form of government and a federal form of government.
In the Indian constitution, we can see the features of a union government as well as that of unitary form of government. For example, Bicameral legislation, where there are two houses, the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha represents the state and Lok Sabha represents the people in the country. Also features like Supremacy of judiciary, Separation of powers between the governments at different levels, written constitution and its supremacy indicates that India is a federal country. But there are features like single citizenship, central government control over the state government’s powers, emergency proclamations etc showcase that India is not a federal country. Therefore, it is known as quasi-federal form of government.
As per Schedule VII of the Indian constitution, we can clearly see the separation of powers between the union government and state government under different lists mentioned, like, Union List, State List, and Concurrent List.[1] Where the union government (Parliament) has the power the legislate on the subject matters mentioned in the union list, the state government has the power the legislate on the entries mentioned in the state list and the both union government and the state government have the power to legislate on the subject matters of the concurrent list, although the laws legislated by the union will prevail over state government laws.
So, the debate is still on to understand the concept of the Indian Federation and through this paper, I will try to think through the notion of the Indian Federation.