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Municipalities, Union Territories and special provisions

State and local government · Part 3 / 3 · Fact-checked on 17 October 2026 · how we check

Written with AI from the sources listed at the bottom of this page, then fact-checked by a separate AI.

The 74th Amendment and Part IXA (types of municipality, wards and ward committees, Twelfth Schedule, District and Metropolitan Planning Committees), co-operative societies and Part IXB after Rajendra N. Shah (2021), Union Territories under Articles 239–241, Delhi under Article 239AA and the NCT cases, the special provisions of Articles 371–371J, and Article 370.

Part 2 dealt with the village. This last part covers three settings where the Constitution adjusts the usual State pattern. Towns and cities come first: the 74th Amendment gave every municipality the constitutional footing that the 73rd gave panchayats, through Part IXA. Next come the areas the Union runs itself, each Union Territory, with Delhi a class of its own. Last come the States with special clauses in Articles 371 to 371J, and the story of Article 370. The common thread: one basic frame, bent to fit each place.

Before 1992 a State could supersede an elected municipal body and run it through an officer for years, holding elections when it chose. A 1989 bill to protect municipalities failed in the Rajya Sabha along with the panchayat bill. The 74th Amendment Act, 1992 inserted Part IXA (Articles 243P to 243ZG), in force from 1 June 1993. Article 243Q provides three kinds of municipality: a Nagar Panchayat for an area in transition from rural to urban, a Municipal Council for a smaller urban area and a Municipal Corporation for a larger one. The Governor assigns the category by public notification, weighing population, density, revenue, non-farm employment and economic importance. Where an industrial establishment provides or plans to provide municipal services, the Governor may declare the area an industrial township, and no municipality need be set up there.

Under Article 243R every seat in a municipality is filled by direct election from wards. State law may add people with special knowledge of municipal administration (without a vote), local MPs and MLAs, and chairpersons of ward committees. Article 243S requires ward committees in every municipality with a population of three lakh or more. Article 243T reserves seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population and at least one-third for women, including women of those groups; reserving chairpersons' posts and seats for backward classes is left to State law. The term is five years (Article 243U); a municipality must be heard before it is dissolved, and its successor must be elected within six months.

Article 243W lets State law give municipalities the powers they need as institutions of self-government, including planning for economic development and social justice and the matters in the Twelfth Schedule. That Schedule has 18 subjects, among them urban planning, regulation of land use, roads and bridges, water supply, public health and sanitation, fire services, slum improvement, urban poverty alleviation, burial and cremation grounds, registration of births and deaths, and street lighting and parking. A State may let municipalities levy and keep taxes, tolls and fees, and may give them grants (Article 243X). The State Finance Commission set up for panchayats also reviews municipal finances (Article 243Y), and the State Election Commission runs municipal elections (Article 243ZA).

Article 243ZD requires a District Planning Committee in every district to consolidate the plans of the panchayats and municipalities into a draft plan for the whole district. At least four-fifths of its members are elected by and from the elected members of the district panchayat and the municipalities, in proportion to the district's rural and urban population. Article 243ZE requires a Metropolitan Planning Committee for each metropolitan area, defined in Article 243P as an area with ten lakh or more people; at least two-thirds of its members are elected by the municipal members and panchayat chairpersons of the area. Part IXA, like Part IX, does not apply by itself to Scheduled Areas and tribal areas (Article 243ZC), and Article 243ZG bars courts in municipal election matters except through an election petition.

The 97th Amendment Act, 2011 added co-operative societies to the freedom of association in Article 19(1)(c), placed a Directive Principle in Article 43B asking States to promote their voluntary formation, autonomous working and professional management, and inserted Part IXB (Articles 243ZH to 243ZT). Part IXB caps a society's board at 21 directors, gives elected board members a five-year term and reserves board seats for Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes and for women. Co-operative societies, however, are a State List subject. In Union of India v. Rajendra N. Shah (2021) the Supreme Court held that an amendment reaching so deep into a State subject needed ratification by half the State legislatures under Article 368(2), which it never received. Part IXB was struck down for co-operatives within a State and survives only for multi-State co-operative societies.

A Union Territory is governed by the Union because it is too small to stand alone, strategically placed, culturally distinct or the national capital. Under Part VIII (Articles 239 to 241) the President administers each one through an administrator, styled a Lieutenant Governor or an Administrator. Article 239(2) lets the Governor of a neighbouring State serve as administrator, acting independently of his own State's council of ministers. Since 26 January 2020, when Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu were merged, there are eight: the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. With no State List to shield them, Parliament may make laws for them on any subject (Article 246(4)).

Article 239A (14th Amendment, 1962) lets Parliament create a legislature and a council of ministers for Puducherry, which it did through the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963; its administrator may issue ordinances when that legislature is not in session (Article 239B). The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 gave Jammu and Kashmir a legislature but not Ladakh. Under Article 240 the President makes regulations for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and such a regulation may even repeal or amend an Act of Parliament as it applies there. Article 241 lets Parliament give a Union Territory its own High Court: Delhi has had one since 1966, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh share one, and the rest use a neighbouring State's, such as Puducherry under Madras and Lakshadweep under Kerala.

Delhi is a special case. The 69th Amendment Act, 1991, which followed the Balakrishnan Committee's report, inserted Articles 239AA and 239AB and created the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Its elected Legislative Assembly may legislate on State and Concurrent List matters except public order, police and land. A council of ministers under a Chief Minister, no larger than ten per cent of the Assembly, is collectively responsible to the Assembly and advises the Lieutenant Governor, who may refer a difference of opinion to the President and act on the decision. Article 239AB lets the President suspend these arrangements if the constitutional machinery fails. The Supreme Court held in 2018 that the Lieutenant Governor is ordinarily bound by ministerial advice outside the excluded subjects and should refer differences only exceptionally, and in 2023 that the elected government controls services except those three subjects. Parliament then passed the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2023, creating a National Capital Civil Service Authority.

Articles 371 to 371J add special provisions for particular States, usually to protect a backward region, tribal customs or terms agreed when a territory joined India. Under Article 371 the Governor of Maharashtra or Gujarat may be given special responsibility for separate development boards for regions such as Vidarbha and Marathwada, or Saurashtra and Kutch. Under Article 371A (13th Amendment, 1962) no Act of Parliament on Naga religious or social practices, Naga customary law and procedure, civil and criminal justice decided under that law, or ownership and transfer of land and its resources applies to Nagaland unless its Assembly so resolves; Article 371G gives Mizoram a similar shield. The table sets out the remaining clauses, from Assam to Karnataka.

Article 370, headed a temporary provision, once set Jammu and Kashmir apart: most Union laws reached it only with the concurrence of its government, and it had its own constitution. A Presidential order of 5 August 2019 applied the whole Constitution of India there, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 split the State into two Union Territories from 31 October 2019, Jammu and Kashmir with a legislature and Ladakh without one. In In Re: Article 370 of the Constitution (11 December 2023) a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court upheld the order, holding that Article 370 was a temporary arrangement and that Jammu and Kashmir had no sovereignty separate from the Union. It recorded the Union's assurance that statehood would be restored and directed Assembly elections by 30 September 2024. Article 370 concerned one State's tie with the Union; Article 371 is a family of protections for several States.

Set the three parts side by side and a ladder appears. At the top are States with a Governor, an elected government and a legislature (Part 1), some with Article 371 clauses. Below them are Union Territories, of which Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir have elected legislatures with limited powers. At the base are panchayats (Part 2) and every municipality, all on one frame of five-yearly direct elections, reservation, a State Election Commission and a State Finance Commission, but dependent on State law for powers and money. A Union Territory has no State List shield, so Parliament can legislate on anything there; a State has one, and under Articles 371A and 371G the Assemblies of Nagaland and Mizoram decide whether certain Acts of Parliament apply.

Exam traps

• The 74th Amendment came into force on 1 June 1993; the 73rd on 24 April 1993. The Twelfth Schedule (municipalities) has 18 matters; the Eleventh (panchayats) has 29.
• A Nagar Panchayat is an urban body under Part IXA (an area in transition from rural to urban), not a village panchayat under Part IX.
• Ward committees are compulsory only in municipalities with a population of three lakh or more; a metropolitan area means ten lakh or more.
• In the District Planning Committee at least four-fifths of members are elected; in the Metropolitan Planning Committee at least two-thirds.
• Rajendra N. Shah (2021) struck down Part IXB only for co-operatives within a State; it still applies to multi-State co-operative societies.
• A Governor appointed administrator of a neighbouring Union Territory acts independently of his own State's council of ministers (Article 239(2)).
• Delhi's Assembly cannot legislate on public order, police or land, and its council of ministers is capped at ten per cent of the Assembly; for States the cap is fifteen per cent.
• Article 371A is Nagaland and 371G Mizoram (shield for customary law and land); 371J is Karnataka (98th Amendment, 2012), 371I Goa, 371H Arunachal Pradesh. Article 370 is a different provision, on Jammu and Kashmir.

Recap

• 74th Amendment (1992, in force 1 June 1993): Part IXA, Articles 243P–243ZG, Twelfth Schedule (18 matters).
• Three types (Article 243Q): Nagar Panchayat, Municipal Council, Municipal Corporation; industrial townships may be exempted.
• Direct election from wards; ward committees at three lakh or more; SC/ST seats by population, at least one-third for women; five-year term, re-election within six months.
• State Finance Commission and State Election Commission serve municipalities too (Articles 243Y, 243ZA).
• District Planning Committee (four-fifths elected) and Metropolitan Planning Committee (two-thirds elected, ten lakh or more).
• Part IXB (97th Amendment, 2011) on co-operatives survives only for multi-State societies after Rajendra N. Shah (2021).
• Eight Union Territories run by the President through administrators (Articles 239–241); legislatures in Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.
• Delhi (Article 239AA, 69th Amendment): Assembly without public order, police and land; NCT cases of 2018 and 2023; 2023 amendment Act.
• Articles 371–371J protect regions and tribal customs in particular States; Article 370 was upheld as abrogated in 2023.

Practice questions

Sources

• Constitution of India, Articles 19(1)(c), 43B, 239–241, 246(4), Part IXA (Articles 243P–243ZG), Part IXB (Articles 243ZH–243ZT), Articles 370–371J and the Twelfth Schedule — https://legislative.gov.in/constitution-of-india/
• Constitution (Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Sixty-ninth, Seventy-fourth, Ninety-seventh and Ninety-eighth Amendment) Acts; Government of Union Territories Act, 1963; Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019; Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Act, 2019; Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2023 — https://www.indiacode.nic.in
• Supreme Court of India: Government of NCT of Delhi v. Union of India (2018 and 2023); Union of India v. Rajendra N. Shah (2021); In Re: Article 370 of the Constitution (2023) — https://digiscr.sci.gov.in
• Statement of Objects and Reasons and Lok Sabha debates on the Constitution (Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Amendment) Bills, 1991–1992 — https://eparlib.nic.in