♤ Representation of Union Territories (UTs)

The representatives of UTs shall be chosen in such manner as Parliament may prescribe. Under this power, the Parliament has prescribed that the representatives of UTs to the Council of States shall be indirectly elected by members of an electoral college for that Territory, in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. Before the reorganisation of J&K, only 2 UTs, namely, Delhi and Pondicherry had representation in Council of States. The population of others was too small to have any representation.

NOTE – According to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 - On and from the appointed day, four sitting members of the Council of States representing the existing State of Jammu and Kashmir shall be deemed to have been elected to fill the seats allotted to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Rajya Sabha thus reflects a federal character by representing the Units of the federation. The distribution of seats in the Rajya Sabha to the states is provided in the IVth Schedule. However, it does not follow the American principle of equality of state representation in the Second Chamber. In India, the number of representatives of States to the Rajya Sabha varies from 1 (Nagaland) to 31 (Uttar Pradesh). In USA, each state has a representation of 2 in the Senate. Various committees/commissions, including “Punchhi Commission on center-state relations”, have recommended for providing equal representation to all the states, as in the US senate.