Laxmikanth Test: Union Territories - UPSC MCQ

• The term 'Federation' has nowhere been used in the Constitution. So, A is clearly wrong. In 5. R. Bommai v. UOI, 1994 AIR 1918, however, the Supreme Court laid down that the Constitution is federal and characterized federalism as its 'basic feature'. 

• Article 1, on the other hand, describes India as a 'Union of States' which implies two things: Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement by the states and no state has the right to secede from the federation.

Hence, the Indian Constitution has been variously described as 'federal in form but unitary in spirit', 'quasi-federal', 'bargaining federalism', 'cooperative federalism', etc.

• Notably, the 'Territory of India' is a wider expression than the 'Union of India' because the latter includes only states. At the same time, the former includes not only the states but also union territories and territories that may be acquired by the Government of India at any future time. 

• The states are the members of the federal system and share distribution of powers with the Centre. The union territories and the acquired territories, on the other hand, are directly administered by the Central government.

Being a sovereign state, India can acquire foreign territories according to the modes recognized by international law. 

1. Cession (following treaty, purchase, gift, lease or plebiscite) 

2. Occupation (hitherto unoccupied by a recognized ruler) 

3. Conquest or subjugation.

Both the statements are correct.

Even though all the union territories belong to one category, there is no uniformity in their administrative system. Every union territory is administered by the President acting through an administrator appointed by him. An administrator of a union territory is an agent of the President and not head of state like a governor.

 (a) form a new state by separation of territory from any state or by uniting two or more states or parts of states or by uniting any territory to a part of any state 

(b) increase the area of any state 

(c) diminish the area of any state 

(d) alter the boundaries of any state and 

(e) alter the name of any state.

• The Radcliffe Line was published on 17 August 1947 as a boundary demarcation line between India and Pakistan.

• Pakistan included the provinces of West Punjab, Sind, Balochistan, East Bengal, North-Western Frontier Province and the district of Sylhet in Assam.

• The then India took the help of a referendum to establish the total geographical area of Pakistan. The referendum in the North-Western Frontier Province and Sylhet was in favour of Pakistan.

• Accordingly, in June 1948, the Government of India appointed the Linguistic Provinces Commission under the chairmanship of S. K. Dhar to examine the feasibility of this. 

• The commission submitted its report in December 1948 and recommended the reorganization of states based on administrative convenience rather than a linguistic factor. 

• This created much resentment and led to the appointment of another Linguistic Provinces Committee by the Congress in December 1948 itself to examine the whole question afresh.

• As discussed earlier, three of contemporary stalwarts of Indian Politics were associated with this committee.

• It submitted its report in April 1949 and formally rejected language as the basis for a reorganization of states.

• However, in October 1953, the Government of India was forced to create the first linguistic state, known as Andhra state, by separating the Telugu speaking areas from the Madras state.

In 1967 in the case of Goa’s liberation:
1. In January 1967, the central government held a special ‘Opinion Poll’ in Goa asking people to decide it they wanted to be a part of Maharashtra or remain separate.
2. The majority was in favour of remaining outside of Maharashtra, thus Goa became a Union-territory.
3. Goa was granted statehood in 1987.

• In 1963, the State of Nagaland was formed by taking the Naga Hills and Tuensang area out of the state of Assam. This was done to satisfy the movement of the hostile Nagas. In 1972, the political map of Northeast India underwent a major change. 

1. two Union Territories of Manipur and Tripura 

2. sub- State of Meghalaya got statehood

3. the two union territories of Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh (originally known as North-east Frontier Agency-NEFA) came into being.

• Initially, the 22nd Constitutional Amendment Act (1969) created Meghalaya as an 'autonomous state' or 'sub-state' within the state of Assam with its own legislature and council of ministers.

• In 1974, Sikkim expressed its desire for greater association with India. Accordingly, the 35th Constitutional Amendment Act (1974) was enacted by the parliament. So, it gained statehood after Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh; statement 3 is wrong.