Centre Vs Union - The Hindu - 11/01/23

Context:
Since the Tamil Nadu government shunned the usage of the term ‘Central government’ in its official communications by replacing it with ‘Union government’, it has erupted the Union Vs Centre Debate.
Relevance:
GS2
About:
->Constitutionality of the Term Union/Centre:
-There is no mention of the term ‘Central government’ in the Constitution of India because the Constituent Assembly did not use the term ‘Centre’ or ‘Central government’ in all of its 395 Articles in 22 Parts and eight Schedules in the original Constitution.
-There are only references of the ‘Union’ and the ‘States’ with the executive powers of the Union wielded by the President acting on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister.

->Intent of the Constituent Assembly:
-Article 1(1) of the Constitution of India says “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
-On 13th December, 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the aims and objectives of the Constituent Assembly by resolving that India shall be a Union of territories willing to join the “Independent Sovereign Republic”.
-The members of the Constituent Assembly were very cautious of not using the word ‘Centre’ or ‘Central government’ in the Constitution as they intended to keep away the tendency of centralizing of powers in one unit.

->Difference Between Union & Centre:
-According to constitution expert Subash Kashyap, from the point of the usage of the words, 'center' indicates a point in the middle of a circle, whereas 'Union' is the whole circle.
-Both the Union and the States are created by the Constitution, both derive their respective authority from the Constitution.
-The judiciary is designed in the Constitution to ensure that the Supreme Court, the tallest court in the country, has no superintendence over the High Court.

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