Strengthening India's Cooperative And Competitive Federalism Through Inter-State Council

Strengthening India’s Cooperative And Competitive Federalism Through Inter-State Council 

- CBP Srivastava

B.R. Ambedkar once described India and its states as “one integral whole, its people a single people living under a single imperium derived from a single source”. With this approach the Constitution provided for a Union of States under Article 1 making its character federal and the spirit unitary. Any federal polity is essentially based on the principle of separation of powers, either vertical (between the Union and States) or, horizontal (between states) or both.

The Constitution of India prescribes for both, despite being established on the principle of fusion of powers between the Legislature and the Executive protecting its unitary spirit. The vertical separation of powers is provided through the three lists of the subjects for law making as enshrined in Article 246 whereas, horizontal separation between the Executive and judiciary is incorporated in Article 50. Moreover, such separation of powers is also done indirectly in Articles 121 and 122 by restricting the Parliament and the Judiciary to intervene into each other’s affairs unless required by the Constitution. On the other hand, by making a provision for the Council of Ministers to be collective responsible to Lok Sabha in Article 75(3) it institutionalizes the principle of fusion of powers. The most interesting part is that none of these terms have been explicitly used in the Constitution to accommodate both the concepts without any possible conflicts.