It has become fashionable for statesmen and politicians in India to state that the ‘States’ as they are called under the new Constitution — they were formerly known as ‘Presidencies’ and ‘Provinces’ under the Government of India Act, 1919 and as ‘Provinces’ under the 1935 Act—are autonomous units. Last year, Mr. Kala Venkata Rao, as Finance Minister of Madras, in the course of the debate on Zamin Abolition Bill, roundly declared that the State Legislature was a sovereign’ Legislature. Some time back she present Finance Minister told the Assembly that the ‘autonomy’ enjoyed by the State under the 1935 Act had been whittled down a great deal under the present Constitution. It is true, in one sense, that the ‘State’ is an ‘autonomous unit and that the State Legislature is ‘sovereign’, but such an expression can be legitimately used only in the same sense that, for example, a Muni ....