Page:White Paper on Indian States (1950).pdf/125



Under the new Constitution, all the constituent units, both Provinces and States—the latter term includes non-acceding States—have been classified into three classes, viz:

The new Constitution effects the territorial integration of States by means of a two-fold process. Firstly, Article 1 of the Constitution defines the territories of India to include the territories of all the States specified in the First Schedule, including Part B States. This is an important departure from the scheme embodied in the Act of 1935 in that, while section 311(1) of that Act defined India to include British India together with all territories of Indian Rulers, the Act did not define the territories of the Indian Federation. Secondly, with the inauguration of the new Constitution, the merged States have lost all vestiges of existence as separate entities. This will be clear from the position set out in the paragraphs which follow.

225. Provincially merged States.—As has been stated before, by virtue of an Order under Section 290A of the Government of India Act, 1935 these States were being administered as if they formed part of the Province concerned. Even after the application of the statutory Order under Section 290A to these States, they did not form part of the Provinces but retained their separate entity, however, otiose it might have been. The First Schedule to the new Constitution provides that the territory of each of the States specified in Part A, shall include the territories which by virtue of an Order under section 290A of the Government of India Act, 1935, were, immediately before the commencement of the Constitution, being administered as if they formed part of the Province. The effect of this provision is that with the enforcement of the new Constitution, the process of merger of States, which was carried a step forward by the statutory Order under section 290A, has been completed; the provincially merged States will not now merely be administered as if