“The Indian Constitution is federal in form but unitary in substance”. Comment

Question: “The Indian Constitution is federal in form but unitary in substance”. Comment [UPJS 2003]

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Answer

A unitary system is composed of one central government that holds all the power, but a federal system divides power between national and local forms of government. Federalism is considered to be one of the most important aspects of modern constitutionalism. As it is democratic in nature and more suitable to a vast country like India, the framers of the Constitution accepted the federal form of Government. However, not once in the constitution is the word “federation” ever mentioned but Article I of the Constitution declares India as a “Union of States”.

The structure of the Indian polity is made federal and there is a dual polity and constitutional division of powers. An independent Judiciary is provided to interpret the Constitution and safeguard the rights of both the Centre and the States. Thus there are all federal features in our Constitution, but at the same time, the unitary spirit of the Constitution is not ruled out.

Following are certain features of the Indian Constitution that suggest its unitary nature:

1. Single Constitution: There are no separate constitutions for the States. In a true federation, there are separate constitutions for the union and the States.
2. Strong Centre: The central government has the unitary authority to the appointment of the Governors for various states. Governor is the representative of the central government and he is also the constitutional head of the state.
3. Single Citizenship: The constitution provides 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. It prescribed that all the Indian citizens owe allegiance to the Indian Union and not to the state also. Any citizen of the country enjoys civil and political.
4. Emergency Provisions: The provision of 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.
5. Unified judiciary: India has a unified or integrated judicial system. The Supreme Court is the highest court of justice in the country and all other subordinate courts are under it.
6. Centre’s control over States: The States have to respect the laws made by the central government and cannot make any law on matters on which there is already a central law.

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