Union Territories: Article 239 to 241, and Delhi's Own Fight Over Services

Part VIII of the Constitution (Articles 239 to 241) governs Union Territories, administered directly by the Union rather than through their own elected state government. This chapter's exam value sits in three places: the exact current list, which changed materially in 2019; the sharp distinction between the handful of Union Territories that get their own legislature and the rest that do not; and Delhi's own special status under Article 239AA, which has produced one of the most live, still-unsettled disputes in the whole syllabus.

The current list: 8 Union Territories, not the older, larger count

Every Union Territory is administered by the President, acting through an Administrator appointed under Article 239(1), who is called a Lieutenant Governor in some Union Territories and simply an Administrator in others, though the substance of the office is the same regardless of title. Today's list of 8 Union Territories is a genuinely current fact, not a fixed historical number: it took its present shape on 5 August 2019, when the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 took effect, splitting the former state into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir (with its own legislature) and Ladakh (without one). The full current list: Delhi, Puducherry, Jammu and Kashmir (with a legislature), and Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Ladakh, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (without one), the last of these itself a 2020 merger of two formerly separate Union Territories under the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Act, 2019.

Only 3 of the 8 have their own legislature, and on two different constitutional bases

Puducherry gets its Legislative Assembly and Council of Ministers under Article 239A, inserted by the 14th Amendment Act, 1962, which lets Parliament create a body, wholly or partly elected, by ordinary law for a Union Territory; Parliament used this to enact the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963. Delhi is different in kind, not just in name: Article 239AA, inserted by the 69th Amendment Act, 1991, gives the National Capital Territory of Delhi its Legislative Assembly and Council of Ministers directly in the Constitution's own text, not through an ordinary Act of Parliament the way Puducherry's was created. Jammu and Kashmir received its own Legislative Assembly under the 2019 Reorganisation Act. The remaining five Union Territories are administered without any legislature of their own at all.

Article 239AA: Delhi's asymmetric federalism, and the fight over "services"

Article 239AA(3)(a) gives Delhi's Legislative Assembly the power to make laws for the National Capital Territory on any matter in the State List or the Concurrent List, except three specifically excluded subjects: public order, police, and land. This carve-out is the source of nearly every Delhi-specific dispute the chapter tests, since a matter can look like an ordinary state subject and still fall outside the Assembly's own competence if it touches one of these three.

The most consequential recent dispute concerned a subject Article 239AA(3)(a) does not name at all: "services," meaning control over the transfer and posting of administrative officers working under the Delhi government. In Government of NCT of Delhi v Union of India (2023) 5 SCC 1, a five-judge Constitution Bench held, unanimously, that the Delhi government has legislative and executive power over services, since services is not one of the three excluded subjects, striking down a 2015 Union notification that had handed this control to the Lieutenant Governor. The Union's response came quickly: the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2023 created a National Capital Civil Services Authority, a three-member body chaired by the Chief Minister, with the Chief Secretary and the Principal Home Secretary, both Union appointees, as the other two members, empowered to decide by majority vote, meaning the two Union-appointed officials can outvote the Chief Minister on the very body meant to exercise the power the Court had just recognised as Delhi's own. Delhi's government challenged this Act as effectively nullifying the judgment, and that challenge has been referred to a Constitution Bench; treat its final resolution as genuinely open rather than settled, and verify current status before citing an outcome.

Article 240: the President's regulation-making power for the legislature-less Union Territories

For Union Territories without their own legislature (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Ladakh), Article 240 empowers the President to make regulations for their peace, progress, and good government. Such a regulation has the same force and effect as an Act of Parliament, and may even repeal or amend an existing Act of Parliament applying to that territory, a genuinely unusual concentration of law-making power in a single office, justified by the absence of any elected legislature to make ordinary law in these territories instead. Article 240 does not apply to Puducherry once its own legislature is functioning, and does not apply to Delhi at all, both already covered by their own dedicated Article.

Article 241: High Courts for Union Territories

Parliament may, by law, constitute a High Court for a Union Territory, or declare a High Court of any state to be the common High Court for one or more Union Territories. Delhi has its own High Court; several smaller Union Territories share the jurisdiction of a neighbouring state's High Court instead of having one of their own.

Quick revision points

• 8 Union Territories since 5 August 2019: Delhi, Puducherry, Jammu and Kashmir (with a legislature); Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (without one).
• Administered by the President through an Administrator (called Lieutenant Governor in some, simply Administrator in others).
• Puducherry's legislature rests on Article 239A (an ordinary Act of Parliament, the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963); Delhi's rests directly on Article 239AA (69th Amendment, 1991), a constitutional provision, not a statute.
• Article 239AA(3)(a): Delhi's Assembly can legislate on State List and Concurrent List subjects except public order, police, and land.
• Government of NCT of Delhi v Union of India (2023): Delhi has legislative and executive power over services (not one of the three excluded subjects). The GNCTD (Amendment) Act, 2023 then created a National Capital Civil Services Authority (CM plus two Union-appointed officials, majority vote), challenged and referred to a Constitution Bench, status still pending.
• Article 240: the President may make regulations, with the force of an Act of Parliament, for Union Territories without their own legislature.
• Article 241: Parliament may constitute a High Court for a Union Territory, or extend a state's High Court to cover one.

Between the post-2019 list, the Article 239A/239AA distinction, and the still-open services dispute, this chapter rewards staying current more than most, a UPSC question testing "how many Union Territories" or "what can Delhi's Assembly legislate on" is testing whether the 2019 reorganisation and the 2023 judgment are both part of your working knowledge, not just the Constitution's original 1950 text.