Article 239A is a provision of the Indian Constitution that empowers Parliament to create a local Legislature or a Council of Ministers, or both, for certain Union Territories. This provision was not part of the original 1950 Constitution; it was inserted by the Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Act, 1962. The amendment was necessitated by the political and social aspirations for democratic representation in newly integrated territories, such as the former French colony of Pondicherry (now Puducherry), which were previously administered directly by the Central Government under Article 239.
The mechanism of the Article is detailed in Clause (1), which grants Parliament the power to establish, by law, a legislative body that can be wholly elected or partly nominated and partly elected, along with a Council of Ministers. A key feature is Clause (2), which specifies that any law made under this Article is not considered an amendment of the Constitution for the purposes of Article 368. This allows Parliament to adapt the governance structure without the stringent process required for a constitutional amendment.
While the Article initially applied to territories like Goa, Daman and Diu, and Mizoram, most have since attained statehood, leaving Puducherry as the primary Union Territory governed under its framework. The concept of a Union Territory with a legislature, pioneered by Article 239A, paved the way for the later, more complex structure of the National Capital Territory of Delhi under Article 239AA, which was inserted by the Sixty-ninth Amendment Act, 1991. The core principle of balancing central oversight with local self-governance remains unchanged.