Inter-State Relations

Inter-State Relations

• Article 131 provides for the judicial determination of disputes between states by vesting the Supreme Court with exclusive jurisdiction in the matter, while Art. 262 provides for the adjudication of one class of such disputes by an extra judicial tribunal.
• Art. 263 provides for the prevention of inter State disputes by investigation and recommendation by an administrative body (i.e, Inter-State Council).
• Under Art. 262 Parliament has constituted the Inter-State Water Disputes Tribunal for adjudication of disputes between States for the waters of any inter-State river or river valley.
• Inter-State river water disputes are excluded from the jurisdiction of all Courts including the Supreme Court.

• An Inter-State Council has been constituted for co-ordinating in Inter-State disputes. [Ref. Art. 263 (a)]
• Inter-State Council was constituted through a Presidential Order dated May 28, 1990 under Art. 263.
• Inter-State Council consists of Prime Minister, 6 Union Cabinet Ministers, the Chief Ministers of all the States and administrators of all UTs.
• The Sarkaria Commission recommended the constitution of a permanent Inter-State Council for co-ordination among States and with the Union. (Justice R.S. Sarkaria died in 2007.)
• Inter-state Council is chaired by the Prime Minister and it meets thrice a year.

Five Zonal Councils have been established to discuss and advise on matters of common interest. These are:

1. The Central Zone: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh.

2. The Northern Zone: Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

3. The Western Zone: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and the Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu.

4. The Southern Zone: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

5. The Eastern Zone: Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha.

• The North Eastern States: Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalava and Nagaland are not included in the Zonal Councils and their special problems are looked after by the North Eastern Council, set up under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972. Later on Sikkim has been included in it on 23rd Dec. 2002.

• Each Zonal Council consists of the Chief Minister and two other Ministers of each of the States in the Zone and the Administrator in the case of a Union Territory.
• The Union Home Minister has been nominated to be the common chairman of all the Zonal Councils.