Tanisha Rana
Published on: August 27, 2022 at 22:50 IST
A PIL has been filed before the Delhi High Court asking the Central government to replace the terms “Centre” or “Central Government” with “Union Government” in all laws and official communications.
The Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad of a division bench heard the plea and asked the counsel appearing on behalf of the Centre to obtain instructions on this issue.
Atmaram Saraogi, an 84-year-old social activist, had filed the PIL stating that under the Constitution, India is mentioned as a “Union of States” and thus, there cannot be any concept of “Central Government”. According to him, Central Government is a term that used to exist during the British Raj.
Advocate Hemant Raj Phalpher and Senior Advocate Gopal Sankarananrayanan were appearing on behalf of the petitioner. Senior Advocate Gopal Sankarananrayanan argued that the definition of Central government as defined in the General Clauses Act should be strike down as being ultra vires of the Indian Constitution.
The plea filed by the petitioner stated, “Article 1 of the Constitution of India used the words ‘The Union and its Territory’ and states that “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”. Interestingly, the terms ‘Centre’ or ‘Central Government’ have consciously not been used in any of the 395 articles divided in 22 parts and/or in eight schedules of the Constitution of India.”
The Court informed that the first references to the terms “Centre” or “Central Government” happened only in amendments that were enacted from 2012 onwards.
The petition further mentioned that according to the Constitution, the two terms “Centre” and “Union” are often used interchangeably.
The petition also argued that, according to the Constitution, ‘Centre’ as word signifies Centre of Authority, thus meaning that the State Governments are subordinate to the Central Government, which not the intention of the architects of the Constitution.
The petition stated that,“In other words, the word ‘Centre’ indicates a point in the middle of the circle giving a sense of a Federal Government, whereas ‘Union’ refers to the Whole Circle and denotes a sense of Unitary Government.”
The petition further added that, “That the term ‘Union Government’ has a unifying effect on the relationship of the Union and all the States, and would go a long way in defying the false impression that there is centralization of power in the Union Government and would further depict the right message in that regard.”
Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr. BR Ambedkar were also quoted and mentioned in the petition. The petition quoted that according to the founding fathers of the democratic India and the Indian Constitution, usage of ‘Union of States’ in law, legislation, acts and official communication would signify and rightly portray that ‘the federation is Union because it is indestructible’.