Article 1: Name and territory of the Union
Article 2 Admission or establishment of new States Parliament may by law admit into the Union, or establish, new States on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit.
Article 2a Sikkim to be associated with the Union
Article 3 Formation of new States and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing States Parliament may by law -
Provided that no Bill for the purpose shall be introduced in either House of Parliament except on the recommendation of the President and unless, where the proposal contained in the Bill affects the area, boundaries or name of any of the States, the Bill has been referred by the President to the Legislature of that State for expressing its views thereon within such period as may be specified in the reference or within such further period as the President may allow and the period so specified or allowed has expired.
Explanation I: In this article, in clauses (a) to (e), “State” includes a Union territory, but in the proviso, “State” does not include a Union territory.
Explanation II: The power conferred on Parliament by clause (a) includes the power to form a new State or Unionterritory by uniting a part of any other State or Union territory to any other State of Union territory.
Article 4 Laws made under articles 2 and 3 to provide for the amendment of the First and the Fourth Schedule and supplemental, incidental and consequential matters
While discussing certain facts about India it is necessary to mention about the Indian states and the union territories which stands as an integral and inseparable parts of the country called India. There are 28 Indian states, eight union territories including a National Capital territory. The 28 states have their own government and the union territories are under the rule of the central government of India. Each state is further sub divided into districts and further the districts are divided into tehsils and villages.
Each state has its own administrative, judicial and legislative capital city or town. The place from where the executive government operates is called the administrative capital, the city where the legislative assembly stands is called the Legislative capital of the state and the city where the territorial high court of the state is situated is called the judicial capital of the state With a difference, Pondicherry though a union territory it has a government of its own. The national capital of India, Delhi still stands different from the rest as it is categorized as a special region which is neither a state nor a union territory and has an elected government of its own
The Constitution of India is set in a way where there is an unbiased distribution of legislative powers between the state legislatures and the Parliament. The boundaries of Indian states were reorganized as per the States Reorganization Act of 1956. Before the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1953, the Union consisted of States which were classified into three main Categories— Parts A, B and C of the First Schedule. In addition to these there were territories specified in Part D of The First Schedule. Thus there were four categories in all.
Thus at the time of the commencement of the Constitution (Seventh amendment) Act, 1956, the Union of India consisted of 10 Part A States, 8 Part B States, 9 Part C States and 1 Part D State. In 1956 the states were roughly divided on linguistic lines and as per the opportunity of amendment in the Indian Constitution, the primarily segmented three types of states were joined into a single type of state. Several changes in the state boundaries have occurred since the Independence of India in the year 1947.
Recently former state of Jammu & Kashmir lost it's statehood and in November 2000, three new states were introduced, which were cut out from Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and the new states were respectively known as, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal.
While discussing facts about India, the Indian states and the union territories needs a special mention. The union of lndia is a federal Union, with a distribution of powers, of which the judiciary is the interpreter, Although there has been considerable controversy whether India is or is not a federation and although some writeres have called it quasi federal, still it would seem to suggest that Indian Constiution is Federal,Special Reference of 19561)
Article 4 of the Constitution directs the Parliament, in case it makes a law under Article 2 or Article 3, to include therein necessary provisions for amendment of the First and Fourth Schedules of the Constitution. The First Schedule specifies the States which are the members of the Union and their respective territories. The Fourth Schedule specifies the number of seats to which each State is entitled to in the Council of States (i.e. the upper house of the Parliament, Rajya Sabha). Article 4 further states that such an amendment is not a constitutional amendment and so it can be passed by a simple majority, like an ordinary bill.