Salient Features of The Constitution 5

Federal Polity

India has adopted a federal structure. In a federation there are two distinct levels of
governments. There is one government for the whole country which is called the Union or
Central Government. Also there is government for each Unit/State. The United States of
America is a federation whereas the United Kingdom (Britain) has a unitary form of
government. In a unitary structure there is only one government for the whole country and
the power is centralised.
The Constitution of India does not use the term ‘federal state’. It says that India is a
‘Union of States’. There is a distribution of powers between the Union/Central Government
and the State Governments. Since India is a federation, such distribution of functions
becomes necessary. There are three lists of powers such as Union List, State List and the
Concurrent List. These lists have been explained in Lesson 8 in detail. On the basic of this
distribution, India may be called a federal system.
The supremacy of the judiciary is an essential feature of a federation so that the constitution
could be interpreted impartially. In India, the Supreme Court has been established to guard
the constitution. However, in case of Indian federalism, more powers have been given to
the Union Government in administrative, legislative, financial and judicial matters. In fact,
The Indian federal set up stands out with certain distinctive unitary features. The makers
of our constitution while providing for two sets of government at the centre and in the
states provided for division of powers favouring the Central Government, appointment of
the Head of the State government by the Central Government, single unified judiciary,
single citizenship indicate the unitary nature of our federalism. Therefore, it is said that
India has a quasi-federal set up.