Plea before Delhi High Court to replace 'Central Government' with 'Union Government' in laws, official communications

A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed before the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Central government to replace the terms ‘Centre’ or ‘Central Government’ with ‘Union Government’ in all acts and legislations as well as official communications [Atmaram Saraogi v Union of India]..A Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad heard the matter on Friday and asked the counsel appearing for the Central government to obtain instructions on the matter.The plea will now be considered after four weeks..The plea filed by an 84-year-old social activist, Atmaram Saraogi said that under the Constitution, India is a "Union of States” and there cannot be any conceptualisation of a ‘Central Government’ as it existed under the British Raj.The plea, filed through advocate Hemant Raj Phalpher and argued by Senior Advocate Gopal Sankarananrayanan, also sought striking down the definition of Central government as defined in the General Clauses Act as being ultra vires of the constitution.“Article 1 of the Constitution of India used the words ‘The Union and its Territory’ and states that “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”. Interestingly, the terms ‘Centre’ or ‘Central Government’ have consciously not been used in any of the 395 articles divided in 22 parts and/or in eight schedules of the Constitution of India,” the plea stated.The first references to 'Centre' or 'Central Government' happen only in amendments made from 2012 onwards, the Court was told. .The petition said that as per the Constitution, the two words ‘Centre’ and ‘Union’ have been used interchangeably in common parlance.But from a Constitutional perspective, the usage of the word ‘Centre’ signifies that the ‘Central Government’ is the Centre of authority giving the wrong impression that the State Governments are subservient or subordinate to the Union Government which was not the intention of the framers of the constitution, the PIL argued. .“In other words, the word ‘Centre’ indicates a point in the middle of the circle giving a sense of a Federal Government, whereas ‘Union’ refers to the Whole Circle and denotes a sense of Unitary Government,” the petition read.It added,“That the term ‘Union Government’ has a unifying effect on the relationship of the Union and all the States, and would go a long way in defying the false impression that there is centralization of power in the Union Government and would further depict the right message in that regard.".The petition also quoted Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr BR Ambedkar to state that according to our founding fathers, usage of ‘Union of States’ would signify and rightly portray that ‘the federation is Union because it is indestructible’.

Plea before Delhi High Court to replace 'Central Government' with 'Union Government' in laws, official communications

Prashant Jha

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