India's federalism dilemma: Cooperative model or competitive reality?

Much as India desires the existence of cooperative federalism, what it often witnesses is competition

Serious scholars studying and working on the Indian Union instinctively refer to it as “cooperative federalism”.  In this context, the observations made by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, who retired on November 10, in a lecture delivered in Mumbai on October 26, are interesting and warrant a relook at how we think about Indian federalism. 

 

While stating that “cooperative federalism” is at the core of democratic governance in India, he emphasised that it does not require states to toe the Union government’s policy line.  He referred to the 1977 Supreme Court ruling that the model of federalism in