Without any rationale: On the disbanding of the Justice Kurian Joseph Committee

By abruptly disbanding the Justice Kurian Joseph Committee on Union-State Relations and handing over its task to the Tamil Nadu State Law Commission, the C. Joseph Vijay government appears to have succumbed to the political impulse to reverse earlier decisions rather than being guided by any compelling rationale or necessity. This gains credence from the very grounds cited.

The committee executed its mandate with scholarly rigour, seen in Part I of its report that was submitted to the then M.K. Stalin government in February. Citing the Committee’s basic character of being a “non-statutory body” is unconvincing, particularly when the Law Commission itself is established only through “executive order”.

There is also no public evidence of State Law Commissions having examined or addressed issues concerning Union-State relations. The mandate “to suggest ways and means for the inter-State relations and Centre-State relations”, constitutes only one part of the broader terms of reference of the State Law Commission, reconstituted in August.