The Constitution of India has deviated from the traditional federal systems like US, Switzerland and Australia and incorporated a large number of unitary or non-federal features, tilting the balance of power in favour of the Centre. This has prompted the Constitutional experts to challenge the federal character of the Indian Constitution. Thus, KC Wheare described the Constitution of India as ‘quasifederal’.

He remarked that ‘Indian Union is a unitary state with subsidiary federal features rather than a federal state with subsidiary unitary features’.

According to K Santhanam, the two factors have been responsible for increasing the unitary bias (tendency of centralisation) of the Constitution.

These are:

(i) The dominance of the Centre in the financial sphere and the dependence of the states upon the Central grants; and

(ii) The emergence of a powerful planning commission which controls the developmental process in the states. He observed: “India has practically functioned as a unitary state though the Union and the states have tried to function formally and legally as a federation.”

Source: Indian Polity by Laxmikanth