Union & Territory (Articles 1–4)

📖 Article 1: "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States"

Deliberately, the Constitution calls India a "Union of States", not a "federation of states." Dr. Ambedkar explained this choice was intentional — states cannot secede from the Union, and the Union did not come into being by an agreement among the states, unlike, say, the United States.

🗺️ Articles 2, 3 and 4

• Article 2 — Parliament may by law admit new states into the Union, or establish new states, on such terms as it thinks fit.
• Article 3 — Parliament may by law form a new state, alter the boundaries, area or name of an existing state — by a simple majority, not a constitutional amendment.
• Article 4 — Laws made under Articles 2 and 3 are not treated as constitutional amendments under Article 368, even though they change the First Schedule.

Before introducing such a bill, the President must refer it to the affected state legislature(s) for their views — but this is only consultative; the state's consent is not required, and Parliament is not bound by the state's opinion.

🔄 In practice

This power has been used repeatedly — most notably in the linguistic reorganisation of states following the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, and more recently for the creation of Telangana (2014) and the reorganisation of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories (2019).