The constitution of any country is the primary document without which the country cannot function. There are countries like India and USA having a written constitution and on the other hand countries like the UK which does not have any written constitution. This, however does not mean countries not having any written constitution are functioning without the constitution; it simply means they are functioning on their unwritten constitution derived primarily from customs and conventions. In any constitution, whether written or unwritten, there is a clear provision giving a specific power to a specific authority. On the basis of this feature, constitutions globally are categorized into unitary and federal constitution.
A unitary constitution is the one having only one legislating authority which is the union. All the powers are granted to that authority and there is no concept of autonomy of constituent states or provinces. Contrary to this, there are federal constitutions which have a two-tier system of governance, the union and the states. In a completely federal structure like the USA and Canada, the states have complete autonomy having minimal intervention of union.
India follows a unique system opposed to both the structures. In India, there is a principle of quasi-federal structure, a term coined for the Indian constitution by K.C.Wheare. India follows the structure of federal constitution during ordinary times. But there is a provision of unitary structure during emergency where all the powers of the state legislature are directly exercised by the union legislature. Article 1 of the Indian Constitution states, ‘India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states. The word federation is not mentioned in the constitution purposely. The federal feature of the Indian constitution includes, seventh schedule having three lists, supremacy of the constitution and independence of the judiciary besides others. The unitary features of the Indian constitution are flexibility of the constitution, more powers to the parliament, unequal representation of states in parliament, emergency provisions, and single citizenship.
Though India does not follow the principle of federalism in its absolute rigidity, yet federalism is one of the most powerful pillars of the democratic system of India and it was rightly held by the hon’ble Supreme Court of India as a part of basic structure by a 13 judges bench in Kesavananda Bharti v. Union of India. Though the quasi-federal system dilutes the system of federalism, it is undoubtedly working smoothly for India and has been a very strong tool in balancing the union-state relations in India.