The structural fragility of Union Territories (GS-2 Polity The Hindu Editorial)

25 Feb The structural fragility of Union Territories (GS-2 Polity The Hindu Editorial)

Issue:- U.T.s are governed by the administrator who works on the behalf of the president. If the U.T. has the legislature then Lt. Governor many times as an obstructor than the facilitator as seen in case of delhi and Puducherry.

Issue of Pudducheri

• Under Article 190 of the Constitution member of house can give resignation but the resignation should be voluntary or genuine

Constitutional provision:-

• Union territories are directly by the President through the administrators under Article 239 does not meet the democratic aspirations of the people.

The Constitution was amended and inserted a new article 239 AA

• • This provides provision of legislature and council of ministers headed by C.M.
  • It basically provides democratic setup but on the papers only.
  • Article 239A was originally brought in, in 1962, to enable Parliament to create legislatures for the UTs. 
  • This also provides nomination of members by president. In case of rajya sabha, there are specific fields from which these members are to be nominated but this is not true for puducherry.
  • Last year in Pudducheri vs union of india, when the Puducherry government filed a case on the issue of consultation from the puducherry government incase of member nomination. Here S.C. said the central government need not to consult with the Puducherry government on the issue.

• Article 239 AA(4)

• • • Provides power to the administrator to express his or her disagreement and refer the matter to the President and then take all actions he or she deems fit in the matter in total disregard of the elected government.
  • Same thing was in case of NCT of Delhi v. Union of India (2019)
    • The Supreme Court had said that the administrator should not misuse this power to frustrate the functioning of the elected government in the territory.
    • use president consultation after all methods have failed to reconcile the differences between him/her and the Council of Ministers.

• What is the way forward

• • Statehood to U.T. is the population is much as incase of delhi with some mechanism so that it should not hamper the work of central government.
  • Political parties must do value based politics.\

Download Link :The Hindu Zone Current Affairs 25 February

Swarn Singh

Plutus IAS Current Affair Team Member