Section

Government & States

How India’s Constitution, Parliament, courts and finances work, and a profile of every state and union territory.

India Is a Union of States Under Article 1 Because Ambedkar's Drafting Committee Wanted No State to Have a Right to Secede, and Parliament Can Redraw Any State by Ordinary Law

The Constituent Assembly turned down 'Federal' and 'Pradesh' and kept 'Union of States'. Here is how that choice works in practice, with dated examples, court rulings and the two commissions that reviewed Centre-State relations.

Article 37 Says No Court Can Enforce the Directive Principles, Yet Judges and Parliament Have Built a Right to Education, Equal Pay Rulings and Pollution Orders on Them

A clause telling courts to stay out, a 1951 ruling that ranked these Parts below rights, and a 1980 judgment that put the two back in balance. What the unenforceable parts of the Constitution have done in practice.

India's Constitution Has Three Emergency Powers, Articles 352, 356 and 360, and Parliament Must Approve Each Within One or Two Months or It Lapses

Three articles, each with a parliamentary deadline, and one amendment that rewrote the rules in 1979. A plain walk through what each emergency power allows, who can stop it, and what the Supreme Court has said about the limits.

NALSA's Network Gave Free Legal Services to 20.08 Lakh People in 2025-26, and Its Four National Lok Adalats of 2025 Disposed of 14.84 Crore Cases

A farm worker, a woman, a prisoner without a lawyer: each can ask a district legal services authority for a free advocate. The entitlement, the settlement forums beside it, and the official numbers for 2025 and 2026.

India's Constitution Guarantees Six Groups of Fundamental Rights in Articles 12 to 35, and Article 32 Lets a Person Whose Right Is Violated Go Straight to the Supreme Court

Rights for non-citizens, rights against private persons, a right that was removed in 1979 and one that was found in 2017. A walk through Part III of the Constitution, article by article, with the court rulings that gave it shape.

A Bill Becomes an Act in India When Both Houses Pass It and the President Assents, and in July 2026 One Bill Went From Introduction to Assent in Four Days

From a ministry's file to the Gazette, the route has a fixed order but no fixed speed. A four-day passage in 2026, a criminal-law Bill that was withdrawn and reintroduced in 2023, and the three joint sittings Parliament has held to settle a dispute between its Houses.

Five Main Routes Lead a Case to India's Supreme Court, From Article 131 Suits Between Governments to Special Leave Petitions Under Article 136

Governments sue under one article, citizens petition under another, and a litigant who lost in a High Court asks for leave under a third. The route each kind of case takes, the 90 and 60 day limits, and what can still be tried after a loss.

India's States Budgeted ₹63.6 Lakh Crore of Spending for 2025-26, Raised 58 Per Cent of Their Revenue Themselves and Need the Centre's Consent Under Article 293 to Borrow the Gap

States pass their budgets under the same constitutional scheme as Parliament, but they carry the debt the Reserve Bank watches most closely. Here are the Assembly's powers, the sources of the money, the borrowing rules and the one question on them now before the Supreme Court.

India Has 784 Districts, and the Collector, the Police Chief and the Elected District Panchayat Each Hold a Different Part of the Power in Them

An inherited plot, a prohibitory order, a disaster and a police posting each reach a different office in the same district. This is who holds which power, under which section, and what NITI Aayog's 112-district scorecard found.

India's GST Raised Rs 2.04 Lakh Crore in September 2026 and Is Shared Between the Centre and the States Under a Council Where the States Hold Two-Thirds of the Vote

One tax, three names, and a Council where neither the Centre nor the states can pass a rate alone. The constitutional text, the money for September 2026, the compensation promise that ended, and what each side told the Sixteenth Finance Commission.

Five Senior Judges Recommend Who Joins India's Supreme Court, a System Built by Rulings of 1993 and 1998 and Kept When a Judicial Appointments Commission Was Struck Down 4 to 1 on 16 October 2015

One word in Article 124, consultation, carried four decades of argument from the Constituent Assembly to a five-judge collegium. Here is the procedure step by step, the commission bills that failed or fell, and the vacancy counts of 2026.

In 2022 an Electoral College of 4,809 Elected MPs and MLAs Chose India's President, With Votes Weighted From 7 for a Sikkim MLA to 700 for Each MP

A legislator in Uttar Pradesh casts 208 votes' worth and one in Sikkim casts 7, yet states and Parliament balance to the last few points. The arithmetic, the ballot and the one count that went to transfers.

The Constitution of India Sets Out No Procedure for Declaring War, and the 1961 Cabinet Rules Say a Declaration of a State of War Goes to the Cabinet, the Prime Minister and the President

The Constitution has no clause on who declares war. The answer sits in an executive order from 1961, a Seventh Schedule entry called war and peace, and two Supreme Court judgments on what the army may do at home.

India's Civil Courts Run on a 1908 Code of Civil Procedure, and a Suit for Compensation for a Broken Contract Has Three Years From the Breach

A plain walk from a signed agreement to a decree. Which Act governs what, which clocks run against a claimant, and where arbitration and mediation offer a way around a full trial.

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Replaced the 511-Section Indian Penal Code With 358 Sections on 1 July 2024, and Two Companion Laws Rewrote Criminal Procedure and Evidence

Zero FIRs, forensic visits to crime scenes, judgment deadlines and a certificate with a hash value for every phone video. A section-by-section look at what the three Sanhitas changed in practice, which old cases still run under the old laws, and what the courts have been asked.

Article 345 Lets Each State Choose Its Own Official Language, and the Laws Passed Since 1954 Name Odia in Odisha, Telugu and Urdu in Telangana, and English in Nagaland

A table of what 16 state laws say, then the school rules that reach families: which languages a child must study in five states, what the two national documents allow, and where Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra stand.

India's Election Commission Ran the 2024 Lok Sabha Poll for 97.97 Crore Registered Electors at 10.5 Lakh Polling Stations Using Powers Written Into Article 324

A step-by-step guide to the machinery behind an Indian election, from the commissioners and the voter list to the voting machine, the code of conduct and counting day, with the court rulings that shaped each part.

India Runs One Integrated Court System, From a Supreme Court of 38 Sanctioned Judges Through 25 High Courts to 30,868 District Judicial Posts

Who sits where, who appoints whom and where the 5.8 crore pending cases are. A plain map of the Indian judiciary with every figure dated.

India Has About 24 Lakh Elected Panchayat Members, Nearly Half of Them Women, and 5,050 Urban Local Bodies, All Run Under Two Constitutional Amendments in Force Since 1993

The average village panchayat serves 4,659 people, a metropolitan corporation serves millions, and both elect councillors on a five-year clock set by the Constitution. These are the articles, numbers and court rulings behind it.

India's Parliament Meets in Three Sessions a Year by Convention, While the Constitution Asks Only That No More Than Six Months Pass Between Sittings

Nothing in the Constitution names the Budget, Monsoon or Winter Session. A walk through the 2025 to 2026 parliamentary year shows how a President's summons, a ballot for questions and a committee of 22 MPs turn into a working calendar.

Article 53 Vests Supreme Command of India's Armed Forces in the President, While the Cabinet Committee on Security Takes the Decisions and a Chief of Defence Staff, a Post First Filled on 31 December 2019, Advises the Defence Minister

The President holds supreme command on paper, and the rules of government say who decides in practice. A walk through the committee, the ministry, the three chiefs and the post that took twenty years to create.

India Divides Lawmaking Between the Centre and the States Through Three Lists of 98, 59 and 52 Subjects in the Seventh Schedule, and Anything Left Off All Three Belongs to Parliament

Railways, police and schools each sit on a different list. Here is what the three lists hold, which law wins when they clash, the four routes by which Parliament can step onto a state subject, and what the Sarkaria and Punchhi commissions advised.

India's Constitution Has Been Amended 106 Times Under Article 368, Which Asks for Two-Thirds of the Members Voting in Each House and, for Federal Changes, Half the State Legislatures

The procedure was settled in the Constituent Assembly on 17 September 1949 and has been tested in court and in the Lok Sabha ever since. A walk through the three routes, the landmark Acts, and the 298 to 230 vote of April 2026.

Article 239AA, in Force Since 1 February 1992, Gives Delhi a Directly Elected Assembly of 70 Seats, and Supreme Court Rulings of 2018 and 2023 and an Act of 11 August 2023 Mark the Line Between the Elected Government and the Lieutenant Governor

A step-by-step account of who decides what in the national capital: the text of Article 239AA, the Court's reading of it, the Union's and the Delhi government's arguments over civil servants, and the record up to May 2025.

The Lok Sabha Has 543 Elected Seats and a Five-Year Term, and Its Speaker, Chosen by the Members, Presides, Keeps Order and Certifies Money Bills

A guide to India's lower house, from the 1971 census that still fixes each State's seat count to the 2024 vote that chose its Speaker, and the rule that can suspend a member for up to five consecutive sittings.

Article 78 Requires the Prime Minister to Report Council of Ministers Decisions to the President, and Three Presidents Between 1990 and 2006 Sent Back Two Bills, an Ordinance and a Cabinet Recommendation

The Prime Minister's paperwork duty to the Presidency fits in three clauses. Four dated episodes between 1986 and 2006 show what follows when a President reads the file closely.

India's Prime Minister Is Appointed by the President Under Article 75(1), and the Whole Council of Ministers Answers Together to the 543-Seat Lok Sabha

No article names the majority leader, and the Constituent Assembly chose not to write that rule down. A step-by-step look at the appointment, the oath, the 1996 resignation and the 1999 one-vote defeat, and the rules that give the Prime Minister control of the council.

The Rajya Sabha Seats 245 Members, Is Never Dissolved, Renews About One Third of Itself Every Second Year and Cannot Amend a Money Bill

Elected by state assemblies, renewed in thirds, and unable to touch a money bill beyond recommending changes. A walk through the upper house of Parliament, from the 1952 draw of lots to a Money Bill question referred to a seven-judge bench.

The Finance Act for 2026-27 Received the President's Assent 57 Days After the Budget Speech, With the Lok Sabha Voting the Spending on 18 March and the Taxes on 25 March

Articles 112 to 117 and the Lok Sabha's own rulebook set out each step. The 2026-27 Budget, from the 1 February speech to the 30 March assent, shows the clock running, along with a vote taken without debate on all but two ministries.

The Union Executive of India Runs 51 Ministries in the President's Name Under a Council of Ministers Capped at 15 Percent of the Lok Sabha

Who holds executive power on paper, who uses it, and which written rules decide whose desk a file lands on.

The UPSC Recommended 958 Candidates From 9,37,876 Applicants in March 2026, and Only Three All India Services Answer to Both the Centre and the States

Of 9,37,876 people who applied in the 2025 cycle, 958 were recommended. Behind those numbers sit a 1949 Constituent Assembly vote, a 14-week course in Mussoorie and a cadre roster that decides which state an officer serves.

India's Nuclear Command Authority Has Two Councils, and the Government's Statement of 4 January 2003 Says Only the Political Council Chaired by the Prime Minister Can Authorise Use of Nuclear Weapons

Official texts from 1999, 2003 and 2017 each describe where the decision sits. Set side by side, they agree on the highest political level and differ on the wording, and none describes the procedure.

India Has One Citizenship for the Whole Country, Acquired in Five Ways and Lost in Three Under Article 11 of the Constitution and the Citizenship Act of 1955

A step-by-step guide to the five legal routes into Indian citizenship, the three routes out, and the dated amendments of 1986, 2003 and 2019, using the text of the Constitution, the Act and the courts' own words.

Under Article 110 a Money Bill May Contain Only Tax, Borrowing and Consolidated Fund Matters, the Speaker Certifies It, and the Rajya Sabha Gets 14 Days to Recommend Changes the Lok Sabha Can Ignore

The Union Budget runs on two Money Bills. Here are the seven matters Article 110 allows, the word the Constituent Assembly refused to delete in 1949, and the seven-judge reference that the Supreme Court Observer lists as pending.

Article 72 Lets the President Pardon Any Death Sentence on the Ministers' Advice, and on 21 January 2014 the Supreme Court Commuted 15 of Them After Examining How Their Mercy Petitions Were Handled

A 1935 provision gave the Governor-General the last word on death sentences. Today ministers advise, the Home Ministry processes and judges step in at set points, each marked by a dated ruling.

Since 26 January 1950 Article 44 of the Constitution Has Asked the State to Work Towards One Family Law, and Marriage and Inheritance in India Are Still Governed by Different Personal Laws Depending on Religion

Which law governs a wedding or a will in India depends on who is marrying or dying. Here is how that system works, what the courts have said since 1985, and where the common-code debate stood in October 2026.

Article 356 Was Used 75 Times Between 1951 and 1987, and the Nine-Judge Bommai Judgment of 11 March 1994 Then Made Every Proclamation of President's Rule Open to Judicial Review and Moved the Count of a Majority to the Floor of the House

From a seven-judge ruling in 1977 that kept courts out, to a nine-judge ruling in 1994 that let them in, with the dated record of impositions and what the Sarkaria Commission asked Parliament to change.

The Supreme Court Heard a 1979 Petition for Bihar's Forgotten Prisoners That Rested on Two Newspaper Issues, and Public Interest Litigation Still Lets a Letter to the Chief Justice Start a Case

A prisoner's telegram, two professors' letter, a journalist's complaint and two issues of a newspaper have all been treated as writ petitions. Here is the rule that allows it, the screening a letter goes through today, and where the Court says the limit lies.

The Lok Sabha Takes Up to 20 Oral Questions a Day and Has Discussed 28 No-Confidence Motions Since 1963 as Members Hold the Government to Account

Ministries answer on a rota, one group of them for each weekday, and a ballot decides whose question is read out first. A walk through the devices, from the Rajya Sabha's first three oral questions in 1952 to the resignation in 1979.

Articles 25 to 28 Give Every Person in India the Right to Practise Any Faith, and Since 11 March 1994 the Supreme Court Has Held Secularism Part of the Constitution's Basic Structure

India has no state religion and no wall between state and faith. The text of four articles, a 1948 debate and six court rulings show where the line runs, and one case still being decided.

Twelve States Carry Their Own Constitutional Provisions in Articles 371 to 371J, From Naga Customary Law to a Job Quota for Karnataka's Hyderabad Region

Eleven articles in Part XXI single out twelve states, some to shield tribal custom, some to guarantee regional jobs and funds, some to fix the size of an Assembly. Here is what each says and what it has meant in practice.

India Lists 22 Languages in the Eighth Schedule, Names Hindi the Union's Official Language, and Keeps English in Use by Law Until Every Non-Hindi State Agrees to End It

One list says what the Union uses, another says which languages the Constitution recognises, and a 1963 law decides how long English stays. Here is who decides what, with the dates each language joined.

Since 1 March 1985 the Speaker Has Decided Whether an Indian Legislator Who Left Their Party Loses the Seat, a Power the Supreme Court Upheld 3 to 2 in 1992 and Now Reviews

A 1967 count of 438 defections in twelve months led to the Tenth Schedule. Here is who decides a case, what the courts can overturn, and how long Speakers have taken in Karnataka, Manipur and Telangana.

On 24 April 1973 Thirteen Supreme Court Judges Ruled 7 to 6 That Parliament Can Amend Any Part of India's Constitution Except Its Basic Structure

A Kerala monastery head, a land law and three constitutional amendments reached thirteen judges. What the bench held, who disagreed, and how the ruling was tested over the next four decades.

India Raised Its First Tri-Service Command on 8 October 2001, and a Parliamentary Committee Report of August 2026 Records the Defence Ministry Saying Its Final Report on Theatre Commands Is Still Under Consideration

Public documents show each link from the committee that met on 23 April 2025 to the commands in the field. They also show the one link still missing and the stage the file has reached.

India's Comptroller and Auditor General Can Be Removed Only the Way a Supreme Court Judge Can, and Every Audit Report Goes Before Parliament or a State Legislature

The office that checks whether public money was spent as the legislature voted it is older than the Republic and shielded by the Constitution. Here is what it audits, how a finding travels, and what became of two of its best-known reports.

Ten Elected Councils in Four Northeastern States Make Their Own Laws, Run Village Courts and Levy Taxes, and Ten Other States Give Governors Special Powers Over Scheduled Areas Under the Fifth Schedule

A paragraph-by-paragraph look at tribal self-rule in India, from a Governor's land regulations in Scheduled Areas to the Bodoland Territorial Council's 40 subjects and the 25 lakh forest titles issued by June 2026.

India's Sixteenth Finance Commission Kept the States' Share of Central Taxes at 41 Per Cent for 2026 to 2031 and Gave 10 Per Cent of the Split Between States to a New Test, Each State's Contribution to GDP

Every fifth year a constitutional body decides how much of the Union's tax money goes to the states and who gets what. The 2026-31 award leaves the headline share where it was and changes the weights behind each state's cheque.

The Indian Constitution Opened With 395 Articles, 22 Parts and 8 Schedules in 1950 and Now Runs to 25 Parts and 12 Schedules After 106 Amendment Acts

From Part I to Part XXII, from the Union List to the Twelfth Schedule: how the document is laid out, which amendments reshaped it, and the court rulings that limit them.

India's 85-Word Preamble Was Amended Once, in 1976, to Add 'Socialist', 'Secular' and 'Integrity', and the Supreme Court Declined to Remove Them on 25 November 2024

Eighty-five words, one amendment, and a court history that runs from a 1960 opinion calling the Preamble no part of the Constitution to a 2024 order leaving the 1976 additions in place.

A Six-Member Committee Raised India's Repo Rate to 5.50 Per Cent on 7 October 2026, Aiming at a 4 Per Cent Inflation Target the Government Has Renewed Until March 2031

Interest rates, the inflation goal, the rupee and the Reserve Bank's yearly payout each have a different decision-maker. The 1934 Act and its 2016 amendment say who, and the latest rate decision, review and payout show it at work.

Central Public Authorities Received 17,95,024 RTI Applications in 2024-25, and the Act Behind Them Lets Any Citizen Ask for a Rs 10 Fee and Expect an Answer in 30 Days

A request can be a one-page letter or an online form. What follows runs on the Act's own timetable, from the month an officer has to reply to the 90 days a refused applicant has to reach the Commission, and the Commission's tables show how often each step is used.

India's Constitution Has 12 Schedules That Fix 233 Rajya Sabha Seats, Divide Lawmaking Across Three Lists, Name 22 Languages and Set the Anti-Defection Rule

Four of the schedules came after 1950, and each is amended by a different route. A guide to what sits in each one, with the court rulings and dated changes that show them at work.

The Lok Sabha Speaker Is Chosen by the Members, Gives Up Party Ties by Convention, Controls What Reaches the Floor and Has Survived Four Removal Resolutions Since 1954

From a 394 to 55 vote in 1952 to a 12-hour debate in March 2026, a close look at the one member of the House who chairs it, rules on its rules and votes only when the count is tied.

India's Eight Union Territories Hold 19 Lok Sabha Seats Between Them, Only Three Elect Their Own Assembly, and Each Is Run Under Its Own Mix of Articles 239, 239A, 239AA and 240

A territory-by-territory comparison of who administers Delhi, Puducherry, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and under which law.

Articles 153 to 167 Make the Governor the Head of a State's Executive, Appointed by the President for Five Years, and Supreme Court Rulings From 1974 to 2025 Mark Where the Governor's Own Discretion Ends

From the Constituent Assembly vote of 31 May 1949 to the Supreme Court opinion of 20 November 2025, the dated steps that define a Governor's powers over ministers, the Assembly and state Bills.

The President of India Appoints the Prime Minister, Judges and Governors, Assents to Every Bill and Can Commute Death Sentences, but Article 74 Binds the President to the Council of Ministers' Advice With One Right of Reconsideration

From a Bill returned in 2006 to a mercy petition decided in three days in 2020, the dated cases that show where the President's own judgment ends and the ministers' advice begins.

Six of India's 28 States Have a Second House, From Uttar Pradesh's 100-Seat Legislative Council to Telangana's 40, and Article 169 Lets Parliament Add or Abolish One

From the Constituent Assembly vote of 6 January 1949 to the council polls fixed for 23 October 2026, a seat-by-seat look at the six state upper houses and the proposals still waiting in Parliament.