Federalism not diluted by using 'Central govt' instead of 'Union': Delhi HC

Federalism forms part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitution and it cannot be said it is diluted or violated by the use of the expression Central government instead of Union government the Delhi High Court has said while dismissing a public interest litigation PIL seeking to replace the term Central government with Union or Union government in all orders notifications and correspondencesA bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan said Central Government Union of India as well as Government of India have been used vastly in various statutes and connote the government of the country in interchangeable expressions and the petitioners statement that the use of the expression Central Government implies that state governments are subordinate to it is totally unacceptableThus when the Constitution as well as other Statutes have applied various expressions to connote the Government of the country this Court will not enter into the arena of legislation which is not within the domain of this Court the bench also comprising Justice Mini Pushkarna said in the order passed on the PILThe Federal Structure of the Constitution of our country is one of the essential and basic features of the Constitution Federalism which is the basic structure of our Constitution cannot be said to be diluted or violated in any manner by use of the expression Central Government Basic structure of our Constitution is the foundation on which the governance of our country is rootedThe contention of the petitioner that use of the expression Central Government gives the wrong impression that State Governments are subordinate to the Union Government is totally unacceptable the court addedAlso read Bihar Cabinet decides to give govt employee status to around 35 lakh contractual teachersThe court had dismissed the PIL on December 19 but a detailed order was uploaded on its website laterAtmaram Saraogi an 84yearold Kolkata resident had moved the high court earlier this year seeking a direction to the Union of India through the Ministry of Law and Justice to use the expression Union Union government or Union of India instead of Central government Centre or any other similar referenceThe petitioner sought striking down the definition of Central government as defined under Section 38b of the General Clauses Act 1897 as being ultra vires the ConstitutionUnder our Constitution India is a Union of States and there cannot be any conceptualisation of a Central government as existed under the British Raj However this archaic phraseology continues to be employed wholly contrary to our system of governance the plea saidThe present PIL has only been filed by the petitioner being 84 years of age with a genuine concern to correct this continued error of usage of terms which has the potential to denude the relationship and ties between the Union government and the State governments thereby shake the very edifice of our Constitution the plea addedDuring a hearing held on December 19 the court had rejected the PIL and said it would pass a formal written order on issueThe counsel for the petitioner had contended that the term Central government found no place in the Constitution of India and even a parliamentary committee favoured the usage of Union government The court had then responded that the committee only made a recommendation and that in spite of being referred to as the Supreme Court the top court was also called the Apex courtThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever