This is an excerpt from the webinar organized by the Saveetha School of Law, Chennai on 27.06.2020. The lecture is on Constitutional federalism in relation to Union Territories with legislature under Article 239A of the Constitution of India.
Though the Indian Constitution provides for a federal set up by dividing powers between the Union and the States, there are peculiar territories called the Union Territories to which such division of powers do not apply. These are territories administered by the President of India (read the Union) through an administrator. There is no legislature and hence no Council of ministers in the Union Territories. While the law and polity is clear with respect to States and Union Territories, practical problems arise in relation to certain Union Territories with respect to which Parliament is empowered to establish legislature & Council of Ministers under Article 239A of the Constitution.
When Parliament by law, establishes a legislature & Council of Ministers in those Union Territories and lays down the powers, functions, duties & responsibilities of the various authorities, the natural question is:
Is the power of the administrator (Lietuenant Governor) in relation to such legislature & Council of Ministers governed by the statute? Or is the administrator empowered to override any authority created under the statute in pursuance of the powers under Article 239?
Find the preliminary answer & basic law & polity in this lecture, the video link of which is here:
(There is a brief pause in the video at around 4.00 minutes due to certain technical glitches. You can continue watching as the video resumes in about a few seconds.)
The webinar was time bound and hence only the basics have been covered. Much more law including judgments of the Madras High Court & Supreme Court needs to be discussed. Hopefully, a second part of the discussion will fill in the gap. Moreover, the address was for students of law and hence the content is presented in a very subtle & simple language without going into the larger political and legal intricacies.
(The presenter, Nirmalkumar Mohandoss is available for comments & feedback at nirmalkumar.m.law@gmail.com. The author thanks Mr. Sundareswaran for helping with video editing.)
Comments