How single citizenship, uniform rights, centrally appointed judges, and the basic structure doctrine give India's federal Constitution a unitary tilt.
At a glance
Constitutional mechanisms — single citizenship, uniform rights, centralised judicial appointments — that tilt India's federal Union toward the Centre.
Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973) established the basic structure doctrine, checking how far centralising amendments can go.
Article 124 requires Supreme Court appointments on the recommendation of the Chief Justice of India, a single nationwide process.
It explains why India is described as federal in form but unitary in spirit, and how the basic structure doctrine keeps that balance in check.
Unitary features federalism in the Indian Constitution refers to the design choices that tilt the working of an otherwise federal Union toward the Centre. India's Constitution declares the country a "Union of States," and it does divide subjects between the Union and the states and maintains an independent judiciary — features that are genuinely federal. But layered onto this structure are several mechanisms that pull power and uniformity toward the Centre rather than leaving them to individual states, and it is these mechanisms that are described as its unitary features.
Single Citizenship Across a Federal Union
Articles 5 to 8 of the Constitution fixed who became a citizen of India when the Constitution commenced on 26 January 1950 — covering persons domiciled in India, migrants who had come from territory that became Pakistan, migrants who had gone to Pakistan but later returned to India for resettlement, and persons of Indian origin residing abroad. What matters for the unitary character of the Constitution is that this citizenship is single and all-India: there is no separate citizenship of an individual state, unlike some federations where a person can hold both a national and a state-level citizenship. Every Indian citizen carries an identical civic status no matter which state they live in.
This single-citizenship framework was later extended, in a limited way, to the diaspora through Overseas Citizenship of India. Persons of Indian origin can be registered by the Central Government as OCI cardholders, which entitles them to a multiple-entry lifelong visa to India and exemption from registering with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office — though an OCI cardholder does not get equality with citizens in public employment or eligibility for constitutional offices.
Uniform Rights That No State Can Dilute
Because citizenship is unified, the Constitution also guarantees every citizen the right to reside and settle in any part of Indian territory, regardless of which state they belong to. This guarantee has come under real strain at times: during the Assamese agitation, attempts to forcibly oust non-Assamese residents from the state ran directly counter to this constitutional promise — a reminder that the all-India, unitary character of citizenship can clash with regional pressure for local preference.
Article 15 reinforces the same nationwide standard by barring the State from discriminating against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth, and by specifically guaranteeing that no citizen can be kept out of shops, restaurants, hotels, wells, or bathing ghats anywhere in the country. A state government cannot carve out a lower standard of non-discrimination for its own territory — the floor is set uniformly by the Constitution itself.
A Representation Formula Set Centrally, Applied Everywhere
Unitary bias also shows up in how political representation is standardised across the country rather than left to each state to decide for itself. The Constitution reserves Lok Sabha seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population — 84 seats for SCs and 47 for STs out of a House of 543 — and this same reservation formula is extended to state legislative assemblies and to local bodies, alongside a one-third reservation of seats for women in rural and urban local government. Because this scheme is written into the Constitution rather than left to individual state legislatures, every state ends up applying an identical representational template handed down from the Centre.
A Centrally Anchored Judiciary
The composition of the higher judiciary follows the same pattern of a single, Centre-anchored process rather than separate state-by-state arrangements. Under Article 124, appointments to the Supreme Court must be made on the recommendation of the Chief Justice of India. When Parliament tried to change this process by creating the National Judicial Appointments Commission, a five-judge Supreme Court bench struck the law down, holding that it violated the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers — both treated as core, non-negotiable features of the Constitution. The episode shows how deeply the Constitution's judicial-appointments machinery is built around a single national process rather than state-level control.
The Basic Structure Doctrine as a Counterweight
The same body of case law that entrenches a centrally supervised judiciary also places a limit on how far centralising change can go. In Kesavananda Bharati vs. State of Kerala (1973), the Supreme Court held that Parliament's power to amend the Constitution under Article 368 is not unlimited: certain essential features of the Constitution are so fundamental that they cannot be abrogated even through a constitutional amendment. This basic structure doctrine cuts both ways — it does not stop the Constitution from carrying unitary features such as single citizenship or centralised judicial appointments, but it does mean that the underlying federal balance and the Constitution's core identity cannot simply be legislated away by a parliamentary majority.
UPSC Relevance
Prelims
- Lok Sabha reservation split: 84 SC + 47 ST seats out of 543; the same formula extends to state assemblies and local bodies, with one-third seats reserved for women in local bodies.
- Article 124 — Supreme Court appointments on the recommendation of the Chief Justice of India; the NJAC Act (2014) was struck down by a five-judge bench.
- Articles 5 to 8 — the four categories of persons who became citizens of India at the commencement of the Constitution; Article 15 — grounds on which the State cannot discriminate.
- Kesavananda Bharati vs. State of Kerala, AIR 1973 SC 1461 — origin of the basic structure doctrine.
Mains
- Discuss how unitary features — single citizenship, a nationally uniform rights and representation framework, and centrally anchored judicial appointments — coexist with the federal division of powers, and how the basic structure doctrine operates as a judicially enforced check on centralising change. Useful for GS2 answers on the nature of Indian federalism and Centre-state relations.
FAQ
Q1. Is India a federal or a unitary state? The Constitution establishes India as a "Union of States" with genuinely federal features, such as the division of subjects between the Union and the states and an independent judiciary. But it also carries several unitary features — like single citizenship and centrally anchored judicial appointments — that tilt the balance toward the Centre.
Q2. What is single citizenship, and why does it count as a unitary feature? Single citizenship means there is only one, all-India citizenship rather than a separate citizenship for each state, so every citizen has identical civic status nationwide. States cannot create or withhold citizenship on their own, which keeps this power concentrated at the level of the Union.
Q3. How does Article 124 illustrate a unitary tendency? Article 124 requires Supreme Court appointments to be made on the recommendation of the Chief Justice of India through a single, nationally uniform process, rather than through separate mechanisms controlled by individual states.
Q4. What did the Kesavananda Bharati case decide? It held that Parliament's amending power under Article 368 cannot be used to alter or destroy the Constitution's "basic structure" — certain essential features remain beyond the reach of an ordinary constitutional amendment.
Q5. Does the right to reside anywhere in India ever create friction with states? Yes — the Assamese agitation, where attempts were made to forcibly oust non-Assamese residents, illustrates how regional pressure can clash with the constitutional guarantee that every citizen may reside and settle in any part of Indian territory.
Quick Revision
- India is a "Union of States" — federal in form, with several unitary features layered in.
- Single citizenship (Articles 5-8): no separate state citizenship, unlike some other federations.
- OCI cardholders get a lifelong multi-entry visa but not equality in public employment or eligibility for constitutional offices.
- Article 15 bars discrimination on religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth; guarantees access to public places nationwide.
- Lok Sabha: 84 SC + 47 ST reserved seats of 543; same formula extends to state assemblies and local bodies; one-third seats reserved for women in local bodies.
- Article 124: Supreme Court appointments on the CJI's recommendation; the NJAC Act, 2014 was struck down.
- Kesavananda Bharati (1973): the basic structure doctrine limits Parliament's amending power under Article 368.
Sources
- The Constitution of India — Articles 5-8, 15, 124, 368 — legislative.gov.in
- Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, AIR 1973 SC 1461 — Supreme Court of India
- Supreme Court of India judgment striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014
Further Reference
For deeper reading on this topic and the wider polity syllabus, these standard works are recommended:
- M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity (McGraw Hill) — the standard UPSC handbook.
- D.D. Basu, Introduction to the Constitution of India (LexisNexis) — authoritative constitutional-law treatment.
- The Constitution of India — Bare Act — the official text.
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Constitutional provisions
Fixed single, all-India citizenship for persons domiciled in India, Partition migrants, and persons of Indian origin abroad.
Bars State discrimination on religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth; guarantees access to public places nationwide.
Supreme Court appointments made on the recommendation of the Chief Justice of India.
Parliament's amending power, held in Kesavananda Bharati to be limited by the Constitution's basic structure.