Article 370 Case : Live Updates From Supreme Court [Day 8]

Singh: The point here is that right from the 1919 Act, the progression has consistently been towards greater self governance in the form of statehood

The bench refers to the Constitution as it existed on 26 Jan 1950.

Singh: Himachal Pradesh with its 30 states still was not viable. So it was still Part C state.

Singh: Part C States also included indian states which were not able to be merged into a viable unit. For instance, Himachal Pradesh consisted of 30 Indian states. But because the province of Punjab came almost to the edge of Shimla and they automatically went as Part A state...

CJI: ...part C States that were the erstwhile Chief Commissioner's provinces and Part D states that were the other states.

CJI: Would be correct to say that when the Constitution was adopted on 26 Jan 1950, the territories were comprised of Part A states which consisted of erstwhile governor's provinces, Part B states which were Indian states that acceded to India, Part C States...

CJI: How were the provinces distributed in the Government of India act?

Singh: Please see Sec 5

CJI: One thing is very clear. UTs came into being with the seventh amendment in 1956. That abrogated the distinction between Part A, B, C States and brought the entirety of India into states and UTs.

Singh: Yes, I'll show you the progression.

CJI: So we must look at what was the position in the Government of India Act, how that transformed into the Constitution. That will give us an idea of how the UTs were created.

Singh underlines the history of the exercise of converting a state into UT by referring to Government of India Act 1919.