Article 4 is a foundational provision in the Constitution of India, adopted in 1950, which simplifies the process of altering the Union's territorial structure. Its purpose is to ensure that the creation of new states or changes to existing ones can be done through an ordinary legislative process, reflecting the Constitution's dynamic and adaptable nature. The provision was discussed as Draft Article 4 and adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 18, 1948.
The core mechanism of Article 4 is its declaration that any law made under Article 2 (admission or establishment of new states) or Article 3 (formation of new states, or alteration of areas, boundaries, or names of existing states) shall not be deemed an amendment of the Constitution for the purposes of Article 368. This is crucial because it allows Parliament to pass such laws with only a simple majority, bypassing the more rigid special majority procedure required by Article 368.
Article 4(1) mandates that any law under Article 2 or Article 3 must contain necessary provisions for the amendment of the First Schedule (which lists the States and Union Territories) and the Fourth Schedule (which allocates seats in the Rajya Sabha). This ensures constitutional consistency by automatically updating the schedules to reflect the territorial changes. Historically, this framework has been used for major reorganizations, such as the linguistic reorganization of states in the 1950s and the creation of Telangana in 2014. The text of Article 4 itself has not been recently amended, but its application remains central to the concept of the "Union of States".