. Co-operative Federalism The Indian Constitutional expert Granville Austin described (Granville Austin, renowned scholar of the Indian Constitution, described) Indian federal system as Co-operative Federalism designed to promote co-operation between the Centre and States. The concepts of co-operative federalism applies to those federal governments like the USA where the States have more or adequate powers and the formation of the union is based on “the indestructible union composed of indestructible States”. In a quasi federal State like India, the Union Government can very easily pull down any constituent State for non-cooperation or non-compliance or defiance of Union Government’s will through Constitutional provisions, especially through the emergency powers assigned to the President.
The Constitution does not permit States defiance to Centre. There are many provisions, institutions and bodies created in Indian political system to promote the co-operative functioning of the central and State Governments in India. They can be classified into Constitutional, statutory and political bodies and provisions. Constitutional Provisions and Institutions The Constitution itself has created a number of devices to promote cooperation and co-ordination.
( I) Inter-State Council The article of the Constitution says that the President of India can establish the Inter-State Council to serve public interests. There are three functions and duties assigned to the Inter-State Council a) To enquire into and advise upon disputes among the States b) To investigate and discuss the subjects that are common to the union and State Governments c) To make recommendations to the President for better co-ordination on any particular subjects among the State Governments. A number of councils have been created to promote cooperation on specific subjects in the past like the Central Council of Health, Transport Development Council, and Central Council of Local Self- Government. The holistic Inter-State Council was established in early nineties to deal with general cooperation among the units of Indian federal system on the recommendation of the Sarkaria Commission.
The Prime Minister functions as the chairperson of the council. The Chief Ministers of all the States and Union Territories with Legislative Assemblies, six cabinet ministers of the Union Government, administrators of the Union Territories without Legislative Assemblies and Governors of States under President’s Rule are its members. A Standing Committee consisting of the Union Home Minister, five other Cabinet Ministers and nine Chief Ministers also works as part of the Inter State Council to promote co-operation among the members of the federal system. II) Statutory Bodies There are certain bodies created through the statute of the parliament but not mentioned in the Constitution that function to promote cooperative federalism.
. Zonal Councils The Zonal Councils were established by the States Reorganization Act in to achieve cooperation and co-ordination among States. They were created in the backdrop of linguistic reorganization of India and the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru described their objective as to “develop the habit of co-operative working”. Originally five Zonal Councils were created and later on in one more Zonal Council was established for the North Eastern States.
They are . Northern Zonal Council . Southern Zonal Council Centre States Inter state Commission Zonal Councils NITI AAYOG Inter state river disputes Act