Inter-State Relations

Inter-State Relations

» Art. 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.
» 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)}.

» Six Zonal Councils have been established to discuss and advise on matters of common interest. These are :
  ★ The Central Zone : Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh.
  ★ The Northern Zone : Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, and the Union Territories of Delhi & Chandigarh.
  ★ The Western Zone : Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and the Union Territories of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu.
  ★ The Southern Zone Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
  ★ The Eastern Zone Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha.
  ★ The North - Eastern Council : Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim.

» 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.
»