Revision summary
Recent Centre–State shifts: GST compensation end, cess and surcharge, centrally sponsored schemes, NITI replacing plan bargaining, Governor delays on Bills, Article 370, simultaneous-election talk. The Supreme Court in the Punjab Bills case limited pocket-veto use of Articles 200–201. GST Council remains a federal bargain; CBI consent and cadre rules remain sore. Sarkaria and Punchhi asked for an Inter-State Council, consultation, less cess, and a non-partisan Governor. Trust is procedural — calendars, terms of reference, devolution — not a communiqué. Cooperative federalism is minutes and transfers, not a chapter in a brochure.
Model answer
Introduction
Indian federalism is bargaining inside a strong Union. In recent years the Union has used money, Governors and framework laws more loudly. States have used the Supreme Court and the GST Council. The question asks what changed, and how to put trust back into a structure that still has Article 3 and a single Constitution.
Body
Fiscal recasting
The purse has moved faster than the Seventh Schedule.
- Peg: The five-year GST compensation guarantee ran out; the Union leaned more on cess and surcharge, which do not enter the divisible pool.
- Peg: Centrally sponsored schemes still steer a large part of State budgets; the Fifteenth Finance Commission used 2011 population figures and attached conditions to some grants.
- Peg: NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission: more a think-tank, less a table at which States bargained plan money.
Institutional and administrative recasting
Offices that were meant to be a buckle have been read in State capitals as a bit.
- Peg: Governors in several Opposition-ruled States sat on Bills; in State of Punjab the Court read Articles 200 and 201 as not allowing a pocket veto.
- Peg: Union terms of reference to Finance Commissions, and the Kovind simultaneous-election design, are read as an attempt to set the political calendar from Delhi.
- Peg: The 2019 reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 was a federal shock of another kind.
- Peg: Several States withdrew general consent for the CBI; All India Services cadre rules and “one nation” platforms for ration and identity leave States as implementers more than designers.
Measures for trust
Sarkaria and Punchhi already wrote the homework.
- Peg: A living Inter-State Council (Article 263), consultation before Bills that eat into the State list, and Governors who are not extra Chief Ministers.
- Peg: A Finance Commission whose terms of reference are not a Union manifesto; less cess, more devolution; centrally sponsored schemes that States can opt and adapt.
- Peg: Opposition-ruled States in the room — GST rate talks, service postings, disaster money — without treating dissent as anti-national.
- Peg: Codify Bill timelines as a convention so the Union does not need a mandamus to forward a file; let the GST Council’s dispute mechanism work before the Court is the first stop.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD U[Union] --> M[Cess CSS NITI] U --> G[Governor Bills] S[States] --> SC[Supreme Court] S --> GST[GST Council] ISC[Inter-State Council] --> T[Trust] M --> T
Conclusion
Recent years tightened Union money and gubernatorial delay, then the Court pushed back on Bills. Trust will return through Inter-State Council habit, cleaner devolution and Governors who sign — not through another slogan about cooperation.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
Explain the reasons for the growth of public interest litigation in India. As a result of it, has the Indian Supreme Court emerged as the world's most powerful judiciary ?
Next question in the 2024 paper (Q14). View answer →
-
Did GST end federalism?
It pooled tax power. It did not end States. Cess outside the pool is the sharper recent grievance.
-
Is a strong Union un-federal?
The text is a strong Union. Federalism here is fair process inside that text, which Sarkaria already assumed.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2025 · Q14 · GS II · 15 marks
Examine the evolving pattern of Centre-State financial relations in the context of planned development in India. How far have the recent reforms impacted the fiscal federalism in India? -
2023 · Q15 · GS II · 15 marks
Explain the significance of the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act. To what extent does it reflect the accommodative spirit of federalism? -
2021 · Q11 · GS II · 15 marks
The jurisdiction of the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) regarding lodging an FIR and conducting probe within a particular state is being questioned by various States. However, the power of States to withhold consent to the CBI is not absolute. Explain with special reference to the federal character of India. -
2019 · Q4 · GS II · 10 marks
From the resolution of contentious issues regarding distribution of legislative powers by the courts, 'Principle of Federal Supremacy' and 'Harmonious Construction' have emerged. Explain. -
2016 · Q1 · GS II · 12 marks
Discuss the essentials of the 69th Constitutional Amendment Act and anomalies, if any, that have led to recent reported conflicts between the elected representatives and the institution of the Lieutenant Governor in the administration of Delhi. Do you think that this will give rise to a new trend in the functioning of the Indian federal politics? -
2016 · Q7 · GS II · 12 marks
Did the Government of India Act, 1935 lay down a federal constitution? Discuss. -
2015 · Q2 · GS II · 12 marks
The concept of cooperative federalism has been increasingly emphasised in recent years. Highlight the drawbacks in the existing structure and extent to which cooperative federalism would answer the shortcomings. -
2015 · Q4 · GS II · 12 marks
Khap panchayats have been in the news for functioning as extra - constitutional authorities, often delivering pronouncements amounting to human right violations. Discuss critically the actions taken by the legislative, executive and judiciary to set the things right in this regard.
More from this paper
Q1 · UPSC Mains 2024 · GS II · 10 marks
Examine the need for electoral reforms as suggested by various committees, with particular reference to "one nation - one election" principle.
Indian Constitution
Tarkunde, Goswami, Law Commission 170/255 and the Election Commission have long asked for ceilings on party spend, faster petitions, and inner-party democracy. Candidate spend is capped; party spend is not, which is why money still dominates the poll. ADR disclosure and Lily Thomas reduced opacity and the conviction cushion; they did not end criminalisation. ONOE, as framed by the Kovind committee, promises one Model Code freeze, lower cost and less policy freeze. Federal cost: truncated Assemblies, President’s Rule risk, and nationalisation of State polls. Simultaneity is not a substitute for audited party finance and a statutory Code. Reform that works is a package, not a single polling date.
Q2 · UPSC Mains 2024 · GS II · 10 marks
Explain and distinguish between Lok Adalats and Arbitration Tribunals. Whether they entertain civil as well as criminal cases?
Separation of Powers
Lok Adalat is a Legal Services Authorities Act forum: conciliation, award as a decree, generally no appeal. It hears civil matters and compoundable criminal cases, not non-compoundable crime. Arbitration is contractual under the 1996 Act: civil-commercial disputes, Section 34 challenge, no criminal trial. Booz Allen and Vidya Drolia mark what cannot be sent to a private tribunal. Permanent Lok Adalats for public utilities are a statutory hybrid, still not private arbitration. The working distinction is public compromise at little cost versus paid private adjudication.
Q3 · UPSC Mains 2024 · GS II · 10 marks
"The growth of cabinet system has practkally resulted in the marginalisation of the parliamentary supremacy." Elucidate.
Parliament and State Legislatures
Articles 74–75 keep the Cabinet responsible to the Lok Sabha; that is the legal core of parliamentary government. Whips and the Tenth Schedule, ordinances and money-bill classification have moved real initiation to the Cabinet. This is practical marginalisation of the floor, not a legal repeal of Parliament. PAC, standing committees, Rajya Sabha and the floor test still bite. Keisham Meghachandra pressed Speakers to decide disqualification on a clock. A narrower anti-defection law would restore some of the supremacy the quote says is lost. The examiner’s misspelling does not change the demand: show practice squeezing text, not text dying.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.