Importance Of Inter-State Council

Inter-State Council :The Constitution of India Act, 1950 article 263 empowers the President to establish an Inter-State Council (ISC) and define its membership and powers with a view to : “(a) inquiring into and advising upon disputes which may have arisen between States; (b) investigating and discussing subjects in which some or all of the States, or the Union and one or more of the States have a common interest; or (c)making recommendations upon any such subject and, in particular, recommendations for the bettercoordination of policy and action with respect to that subject” (Bakshi, 2006, pp.229-30). The Council having only mandates (b) and (c) above, with Prime Minister, six Union Ministers , Chief Ministers of the States and Territories

India is the largest democratic country as also the largest federal and the largest pluralist country of the world. While democracy provides freedom to everybody, federation ensures that governance is distributed spatially and a strong central government enables that the 'unity amidst diversity ' is maintained and the country mobilizes all its resources to maintain its harmony and integrity and marches ahead to progress. A strong Centre in India is therefore necessary for strong States and vice versa. This is the essence of cooperative federalism. So long as the central and governments were ruled by the same political party, the cooperative framework worked very well. Since the seventies when different political parties are in power in the centre and the states and more recently when coalition governments of national and regional parties are in power in the Centre, there are signs of stresses and tensions in intergovernmental relations between the Centre and the States. (Cooperative

The genesis of the article can be traced directly to Section 135 of the Govt. of India Act, 1935 provided for establishment of Inter-Provincial Council with duties identical with those of the Inter-State Council. At the time of framing of section 135 of the Government of India Act, 1935, it was felt that "if departments or institutions of coordination and research are to be maintained at the Centre in such matters as Agriculture, Forestry, Irrigation, Education and Public Health and if such institutions are to be able to rely on appropriations of public funds sufficient to enable them to carry on their work, the joint interest of Provincial Governments in them must be expressed in some regular and recognized machinery of Inter-Governmental consultations." It was also intended that the said Council should be set up as soon as the Provincial autonomy provisions of Government of India Act, 1935 came into operation. In the Constituent Assembly debate held on 13 June 1949, the article on Inter-State Council was adopted without any debate. (Cooperative