Legislatures in Union Territories

A Union Territory is administered by the Union, but some Union Territories also have an elected legislature and a Council of Ministers for local self-government. The Constitution provides differentiated arrangements: having a legislature does not convert a Union Territory into a State or remove Parliament’s legislative authority over it.

Constitutional basis of the distinction

Article 239 establishes the general rule that Union Territories are administered by the President through an administrator appointed by the President, unless Parliament provides otherwise by law.

• Article 239A enables Parliament to create a legislature, a Council of Ministers, or both for Puducherry. The legislature may be wholly elected or partly elected and partly nominated.
• Article 239AA directly provides for a Legislative Assembly and a Council of Ministers for the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
• The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 establishes a legislature for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and applies Article 239A to it.

Legislative powers and their limits

Union Territories with legislatures can make laws within their assigned fields, but their competence is not identical to that of State legislatures. Under Article 246(4), Parliament can legislate for Union Territories even on State List subjects.

• Delhi’s Assembly can legislate on applicable State List and Concurrent List matters, but public order, police and land, along with specified related entries, are excluded.
• Puducherry’s legislature derives its law-making powers from the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, covering applicable State List and Concurrent List matters.
• Jammu and Kashmir’s Assembly can legislate on applicable State List and Concurrent List matters, but public order and police are excluded.
• A Union Territory without a legislature has no territorial legislative assembly; its laws are made by Parliament or through other constitutionally authorised mechanisms.

Executive government and Union control

A legislature introduces representative and responsible government, but the administrator or Lieutenant Governor remains part of the Union Territory’s governing structure.

• In territories with legislatures, the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Assembly, while its executive role remains subject to constitutional and statutory limits.
• Delhi’s special arrangement under Article 239AA includes a procedure for referring differences between the Lieutenant Governor and Ministers to the President.
• Without a legislature, administration operates through the President’s administrator rather than an Assembly-accountable ministry.
• For specified Union Territories, Article 240 empowers the President to make regulations for their peace, progress and good government.