Union territories and special arrangements

The first principle

States share sovereignty with the Union; Union territories do not. A Union territory is governed by the President through an administrator, so its people's power to govern themselves exists only to the extent that Parliament grants it. The whole debate over Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir is about how much a legislature elected by the people of a territory can do when the final authority, through the Lieutenant Governor (LG), still belongs to the Union.

The core

Part VIII of the Constitution

• Article 239. Every Union territory is administered by the President through an administrator, whose designation (LG, Administrator or Chief Commissioner) the President decides. Under Article 239(2), the Governor of an adjoining state may be made administrator, as the Governor of Punjab is for Chandigarh.
• Article 239A. Added by the Fourteenth Amendment (1962), it lets Parliament create a legislature and a council of ministers for Puducherry by law, which it did through the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963. Such a legislature can be shaped and reshaped by ordinary law, without amending the Constitution.
• Article 240. The President may make regulations, with the force of an Act of Parliament, for territories such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

Delhi under Article 239AA

• The Sixty ninth Amendment (1991). On the report of the Balakrishnan Committee, Article 239AA made Delhi the National Capital Territory with an elected Assembly and a council of ministers headed by a Chief Minister. The Assembly can legislate on State and Concurrent List subjects except public order, police and land, but Parliament can override it on any subject.
• The difference proviso. If the LG and the ministers differ on "any matter", the LG may refer it to the President and, in urgency, act meanwhile. This clause is the source of most disputes.
• Government of NCT of Delhi v Union of India (2018). A five judge bench held that Delhi is not a state, but that the LG is bound by the aid and advice of the council of ministers on matters within the Assembly's power and has no independent power to decide. "Any matter" does not mean "every matter": references to the President are for exceptional cases, not routine disagreement.
• Government of NCT of Delhi v Union of India (2023). After a split verdict on services in 2019, a Constitution Bench held that the Delhi government controls services except those tied to public order, police and land. It reasoned from a triple chain of accountability: civil servants answer to ministers, ministers to the Assembly, and the Assembly to the voters.
• The 2023 Act. Within days an ordinance, then the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2023, created the National Capital Civil Service Authority of the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary and the Principal Home Secretary. It decides postings and discipline by majority, so the two officers can outvote the Chief Minister, and the LG has the final word where he differs. A challenge to it is pending before a Constitution Bench.

Did the 2018 judgement settle the tussle?

• It settled the principle, not the conflict. It ended the claim that the LG was the real executive, but it left services undecided, which took another five years. Parliament then changed the field twice: the 2021 amendment of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991 defined "Government" in Assembly laws as the LG and required his opinion before specified executive action, and the 2023 Act reversed the services ruling.
• Why it persists. The tussle is structural, since Parliament can always amend the 1991 Act by simple majority, and political, since it was sharpest when different parties ruled Delhi and the Centre. After the 2025 Assembly election brought the same party to power in both, open conflict subsided, though the legal questions remain.

Dimensions

Jammu and Kashmir: from Article 370 to a Union territory

• The old arrangement. Article 370 limited Parliament's power over Jammu and Kashmir to subjects agreed with the state, and Article 35A, inserted by a 1954 Presidential Order, let the state define permanent residents and reserve land and jobs for them.
• August 2019. A Presidential Order of 5 August 2019 applied the whole Constitution to the state, and a second order of 6 August, after a resolution of Parliament, declared all clauses of Article 370 inoperative except the first. Article 35A ceased with it. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 split the state into the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, with a legislature on the Article 239A model, and the Union territory of Ladakh, without one.
• In Re Article 370 (December 2023). A five judge bench unanimously upheld the abrogation. It held that Article 370 was a temporary provision, that the state had no internal sovereignty distinct from other states, and that the President could apply the whole Constitution without the state's concurrence. It did not rule on the conversion of a state into a Union territory, recording the Union's assurance that statehood would be restored at the earliest, and directed that Assembly elections be held by 30 September 2024. It upheld the creation of Ladakh.

The Assembly of the Union territory

• Composition. The Delimitation Commission's final order (2022) fixed 90 elected seats, 43 in the Jammu division and 47 in the Kashmir division, with seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and, for the first time, Scheduled Tribes. Twenty four seats for Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir stay vacant. The LG may nominate two women if they are under represented, and the Reorganisation (Amendment) Act, 2023 added two Kashmiri migrants, one of them a woman, and one displaced person from Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
• Elections. The first Assembly was elected in September and October 2024, the first since 2014, and a council of ministers took office in October 2024.
• Powers. The Assembly can legislate on any State List subject except public order and police, and on Concurrent List subjects as they apply to Union territories, while Parliament's laws prevail. A Money Bill or financial Bill needs the LG's recommendation, and the LG acts in his discretion on matters outside the Assembly's powers, the All India Services and the Anti Corruption Bureau. Amendments to the Business Rules in July 2024 widened the LG's role over police, officers and prosecution sanctions.
• Nature. The Assembly is closer to Puducherry's than to a state's: it has a five year term and a council of ministers no larger than a tenth of its strength, but no Legislative Council and no final say over the bureaucracy or police.

In practice

Special provisions for states

• Article 371 to 371J. Special provisions for particular states sit between the general federal scheme and full autonomy. Some create development boards for backward regions (Maharashtra and Gujarat under Article 371; the Hyderabad Karnataka region under Article 371J, added in 2012). Others protect customary law, land and religious practices (Nagaland under Article 371A, Mizoram under Article 371G), give the Governor special responsibility (law and order in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, the hill areas of Manipur), or guarantee regional fairness in jobs and education (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana under Article 371D).
• Sixth Schedule. Autonomous district councils in tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram make laws on land, forests and customs; it is the main template for those seeking more autonomy, including groups in Ladakh.
• Why asymmetry works. These provisions let the Union accommodate distinct histories without weakening it, and the North East shows that tailored guarantees can reduce conflict. The removal of Article 370 shows the other side: an asymmetric arrangement exists at the will of Parliament and can be ended by it.

Issues and way forward

• Elected but not empowered. In Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, voters elect governments that do not control the officers who carry out their decisions. Clear statutory lists of what the LG decides, and conventions of consultation, would reduce litigation more than another round of amendments.
• Statehood for Jammu and Kashmir. The Union has promised restoration at the earliest, and the Supreme Court recorded that promise. A timeline, with a clear division of policing during the transition, would turn the promise into policy.
• Ladakh. Demands for statehood and Sixth Schedule protection led to protests in 2024 and 2025; talks between the Union and Ladakh's representatives on safeguards for land, jobs and culture offer a middle path short of statehood.
• Puducherry. The Assembly has long demanded statehood and financial autonomy, since it depends on Union grants and has little room in its own budget.

Common confusions

• Article 239A and 239AA. Article 239A only enables Parliament to create a legislature for Puducherry by ordinary law; Article 239AA itself creates Delhi's Assembly in the Constitution.
• Article 370 and Article 371. Article 370 limited the Union's legislative reach into a state; the Article 371 series keeps the Union's reach intact but adds protections and duties inside a state.
• LG of Delhi and Governor of a state. A Governor heads a state that shares sovereignty; the LG is the President's administrator in a Union territory, so the LG can refer differences to the President, which a Governor cannot.

For the exam

• Keyword bank: Article 239, Article 239A, Article 239AA, Sixty ninth Amendment, Lieutenant Governor, "any matter is not every matter", triple chain of accountability, National Capital Civil Service Authority, Article 370, Article 35A, Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, In Re Article 370, delimitation, Article 371, asymmetric federalism.
• Practise the previous year questions on this topic →
• Use in an answer:
  • Introduction with data: "The Assembly of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, elected in 2024 for the first time since 2014, has 90 elected seats under the 2022 delimitation, but legislates without power over police and public order."
  • Introduction with a judgement: "In 2018 the Supreme Court held that the LG of Delhi is bound by the aid and advice of the elected government and has no independent power to decide, because 'any matter' does not mean 'every matter'."
  • Conclusion: "Union territories with legislatures sit uneasily between a state and a district; durable peace between the LG and elected ministers needs clear rules and conventions rather than repeated litigation."
  • Conclusion: "India's asymmetric arrangements, from Article 239AA to the Article 371 series, show that the Union can accommodate difference, provided that the people of each territory see their elected representatives exercising real power."