Unitary and Federal Features of The Indian Constitution

Sambhav
Day 5: What do you understand by federalism? Is India a true federal country. (150 words)
14 Nov 2022 | GS Paper 2 | Polity & Governance
Approach / Explaination / Answer
Start your answer by giving a brief about Federalism.

Discuss federal features as well as unitary features of India constitution by giving illustrations.
Conclude suitably by emphasizing on quasi federal nature of Indian constitution.
Introduction
Federalism is derived from the Latin word foedus, which means agreement. In fact, a federation is
an agreement between two types of governments sharing power and controlling their
respective spheres. Thus, a federation is a system of national and local governments, combined under a
common sovereignty with both national as well as federating units having autonomous spheres assigned
to them by the constitution.
India’s constitution does not refer to the country as a federation. Article 1 of the Constitution, on the
other hand, refers to India as a “Union of States.” This signifies that India is a union made up of
many states that are all equally important. The Indian Union is unbreakable.
Body
Federal features of Indian constitution:
Division of Powers - The Seventh Schedule of the Constitution contains three lists of subjects
which show how division of power is made between the two sets of government.
Written Constitution - The Constitution of India is written Every provision of the Constitution is
clearly written down and has been discussed in detail.
Supremacy of the Constitution unlike British setup where Parliament is supreme.
Independent judiciary - The Supreme Court of India is the highest court of justice in India.
Bi-cameral legislation - The Indian Parliament i.e., the legislature has two houses - the Lok
Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Unitary Features of Indian Federalism:
These are some unitary features in the constitution by which we can say that India is a quasi-federal
country in nature, and not a pure federal in nature.
Strong Centre: Constitution provides under article 355 that the central government is duty-bound
to ensure that there is no failure of constitutional machinery in the state and the states are
protected from internal disturbance, external aggression and war. By which to enforce that duty,
article 356 provides to the central government to impose Presidential rule and it is the duty of the
governor of the concerned state to make a report to the center about the constitutional failure of
the machinery of the state for political or any other reasons.
Single Citizenship: The constitution provides a single and uniform citizenship for the whole of the
country. However, in a federal state like the United States of America, there is dual citizenship in
which citizen firstly owes the duty to the states and then to the union. But in the case of India,
there is single citizenship even though it also a federal country.
Integrated Judiciary: In India, the Supreme Court at apex defined the Unified Judiciary which
opposed to the federal system of the country having a dual system of courts. In our unitary judicial
system, the Supreme Court occupies the highest place. We know that the decisions and verdicts of
the Supreme Courts are binding on an inferior court in India.
Appointment of the Highest Position Machinery: All the appointment on the highest positions
is made by the Union Government such as the Chief Election Commissioner, the Comptroller and
Auditor General and All India Services such as IAS and IPS have been created which are kept under
the control of the Union.
No Equality of State Representation: Representation in the legislature in a federal state is on
an equal basis, which is also not applicable in the case of India. The Representation of the States in
Rajya Sabha is not on an equal basis and it depends on state to state and regulated by the centre
which is basically a unitary feature of the state.
Emergency Provisions: The provision of the article 356 provides that the proclamation can be
made and once such proclamation is made, the state government can be either dismissed or the
Assembly can be kept in suspended animation.
Conclusion
India is not a federation in the traditional sense. It combines the characteristics of a federal government
with those of a unitary government, which are referred to as non-federal characteristics. As a result, India
is classified as a semi-federal state. It is described as a "quasi-federal state" by Prof. K.C Wheare.
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Sambhav

14 Nov 2022 | GS Paper 2 | Polity & Governance

Approach / Explaination / Answer

Start your answer by giving a brief about Federalism.

Federal features of Indian constitution:

Unitary Features of Indian Federalism:

PDF Refernece URL: https://www.drishtiias.com/sambhav-daily-answer-writing-practice/papers/2023/gs-pa

Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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