Laxmikanth Ch 5: Union and Its Territory (CAPF Digest)

The idea in one line

Articles 1 to 4 describe what India is made of and give Parliament a wide, simple-majority power to redraw the internal map, which is why "indestructible Union of destructible States" captures the design.

The four Articles

• Article 1: India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States. The territory of India comprises the territories of the States, the Union Territories, and any territories that may be acquired. The phrase "Union of States" was preferred over "federation" to stress that the Union is not the result of an agreement among States and that no State has the right to secede.
• Article 2: Parliament may admit into the Union, or establish, new States on such terms as it thinks fit (this deals with new States not already part of India).
• Article 3: Parliament may form a new State, increase or diminish the area of any State, alter its boundaries, or alter its name. Conditions: a Bill needs the prior recommendation of the President, and the President must refer it to the State legislature concerned for its views, but Parliament is not bound by those views.
• Article 4: laws made under Articles 2 and 3 are not deemed to be amendments of the Constitution under Article 368; they pass by a simple majority.

Why this matters constitutionally

Because boundaries can be changed by an ordinary law, no State has a guaranteed territory. India is therefore an "indestructible Union of destructible States", unlike the United States, where State boundaries cannot be altered without consent.

Milestones of reorganisation

• Dhar Commission (1948) and the JVP Committee (Nehru, Patel, Pattabhi Sitaramayya, 1948 to 1949) initially cautioned against purely linguistic reorganisation.
• Andhra State created in 1953 (the first State formed on a linguistic basis, after the death of Potti Sriramulu).
• Fazl Ali Commission (States Reorganisation Commission, 1953) led to the States Reorganisation Act 1956 and the 7th Constitutional Amendment, which reorganised India into 14 States and 6 Union Territories on broadly linguistic lines.
• Later creations: Maharashtra and Gujarat (1960, split of Bombay), Nagaland (1963), Haryana (1966), Himachal Pradesh as a State (1971), the north-eastern States (Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya in 1971 to 1972), Sikkim (1975, by the 36th Amendment), the trio of Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram as States (1987), the trio of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand (2000), and Telangana (2014).
• 2019: the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act bifurcated the State into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir (with a legislature) and Ladakh (without one), with effect from 31 October 2019. Verify the latest count of States and Union Territories.

CAPF angle: the examiner loves three points here. First, Article 3 needs only a simple majority and the State's views are not binding. Second, "indestructible Union of destructible States". Third, the security dimension: the 2019 reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir and the creation of Telangana are recent, testable facts. Border States and the deployment of central forces tie directly into human rights and internal security.