The Government of India (GoI) is the federal government created by the Constitution of India as the legislative, executive and judicial authority of the union of 29 states and seven union territories of a constitutionally sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic, constitutionally called the Republic of India. It is located in New Delhi, the capital of India.
Effecting the Westminster system for governing the state, the federal government is mainly composed of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, in which all powers are vested by the Constitution in Parliament, the Prime Minister and the Supreme Court. The President of India is the Head of State and the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces while the elected Prime Minister acts as the chief executive (of the executive branch) and is responsible for running the federal government. There is a bicameral Parliament with the Lok Sabha as a lower house and the Rajya Sabha as an upper house. The judicial branch systematically contains an apex Supreme Court, 24 high courts, and several district courts, all inferior to the Supreme Court.
Governments have been classified into Unitary and Federal based on distribution of power between national and regional governments. In a federal set up there is a two tier of Government with well assigned powers and functions. In this system the central government and the governments of the region act within a well defined sphere, co-ordinate and at the same time act independently.
The federal polity, in other words, provides a constitutional device for bringing unity in diversity and for the achievement of common national goals. Hence, India was made a Federal system of government.
Features of Indian Federalism
Features of Indian constitution that makes it federal are listed in the following points:
- Written Constitution: The most important feature of a federation is that it should have a written constitution, so that both the Union Government as well as the State can refer to that whenever conflict arises. The Constitution of India is a written and most elaborate Constitution of the world.
- Supremacy of Constitution: The constitution is the supreme because both the union and the states are given powers by the Constitution as to be independent in their spheres of governance. Both make laws conforming to the provisions of constitution otherwise they can be declared invalid by the supreme court through its power of judicial review.
- Rigid Constitution: The procedure of amending the Constitution in a federal system is normally rigid. Indian Constitution provides that provisions regarding the federal attributes can be amended by a special majority,i.e. such an amendment has to be passed by majority of total members of each house of the Parliament as well as, by two-thirds majority of the members present and voting there. Also, in addition to this process, such amendments must be approved by at least 50% of the states. After this procedure the amendment is signed by the President.
- Division of Powers : In our Constitution, there is a clear division of powers so that none violates its limits and tries to encroach upon the functions of the other and functions within own sphere of responsibilties. There are three listsenumerated in the Seventh Schedule of constitution, – the Union list, the State list and the Concurrent List. TheUnion List consists of 100 subjects of national importance such as Defence, Railways, Post and Telegraph, etc. The State List consists of 61 subjects of local interest such as Public Health, Police etc. The Concurrent List has 52 subjects important to both the Union and the State. such as Electricity, Trade Union, Economic and Social Planning, etc.
- Supremacy and Independence of the Judiciary: A very important feature of a federation is an independent judiciary to interpret the Constitution and to maintain its sanctity . The Supreme Court of India has the original jurisdiction to settle disputes between the Union and the States. It can declare a law as unconstitutional, if it contravenes any provision of the Constitution.
