Glossary

Glossary - Federalism in India

v Federalism: A political system in which powers are distributed between the central and State Governments through the Constitution.

v Rigid Constitution: A Constitution that can be changed only through a special or greater majority based amendment process in Parliament or by a Constituent Assembly. It cannot be changed easily.

v Flexible Constitution: A Constitution that can be changed through an ordinary legislative process. It can be changed easily.

v Distribution of Powers: The powers or subjects of governance will be Constitutionally divided between the central and State Governments in federal system.

v Co-operative Federalism: Granville Austin, the noted Constitutional scholar described the federalism of our Constitution as Co-operative Federalism. It promotes cooperation between the Centre and the States.

v Union List: The List I in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution contains the subjects that are exclusively allotted to the Union Government.

v State List: The List II in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution contains the subjects that are exclusively allotted to the States

v Concurrent List: The List III contains the subjects that are allotted to the joint jurisdiction of the central and State Governments. If there is a contradiction between the central and State Governments the law of the Union Government will prevail.

v Residuary List: Any subject that is not mentioned in the Union List ( List I) State List(List II) and Concurrent List( List III) will come under this category. The Union Government will have jurisdiction over these subjects.

v All India Services: The officers to these services are recruited by the Central Government and allotted to the State Governments. Any new All India Service can be created by a special majority, two third majority based resolution of the Council of the States as per the article 312 of the Constitution.

v Raja Mannar Commission: This commission on Centre-State relations was established by the Tamil Nadu government in 1968, whose report is an important landmark in the political history of States’ rights.

v Sarkaria Commission: The Central Government constituted in 1983 the Sarkaria Commission to provide recommendations on Centre-State relations.

v NCRWC: The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, otherwise known as the Venkatachaliah Commission was established by the Union Government in 2000 to study the Centre-State relations.

v Unitary Constitution: The Constitution that recognizes only one set of government (National government). There is no Constitutional recognition to the State or regional governments in this system.

v Judicial Review: The power of the Supreme Court to review the Constitutional validity of the laws of the Parliament and other legislature and acts of the Executive. It emerged in the Constitution of the United States and our Constitution provides limited Judicial Review powers to the Judiciary.

v Tribunals: The Constitution provides for the establishment of tribunals for the resolution of inter-State water disputes. Tribunal means a body established to settle certain kinds of disputes.