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248. The preamble of the Constitution is an integral part of the Constitution. Democratic form of Government, federal structure, unity and integrity of the nation, secularism, socialism, social justice and judicial review are basic features of the Constitution."

(emphasis supplied) Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy, writing separate Judgment (for himself and on behalf of S.C. Agrawal, J.) concluded in Paragraph 276 thus:

"The fact that under the scheme of our Constitution, greater power is conferred upon the Centre vis-`-vis the States does not mean that States are mere appendages of the Centre. Within the sphere allotted to them, States are supreme. The Centre cannot tamper with their powers. More particularly, the Courts should not adopt an approach, an interpretation, which has the effect of or tends to have the effect of whittling down the powers reserved to the States. must put the Court on guard against any conscious whittling down of the powers of the States. Let it be said that the federalism in the Indian Constitution is not a matter of administrative convenience, but one of principle the outcome of our own historical process and a recognition of the ground realities. . enough to note that our Constitution has certainly a bias towards Centre vis-`-vis the States (Automobile Transport (Rajasthan) Ltd. v. State of Rajasthan, (1963) 1 SCR 491 at page 540 : (AIR 1962 SC 1406). It is equally necessary to emphasise that Courts should be careful not to upset the delicately crafted constitutional scheme by a process of interpretation.
"Yet another angle which the Constitutional Courts would advisedly do better to keep in view while dealing with a tax legislation, in the light of the purported conflict between the powers of the Union and the State to legislate, which was stated forcefully and which was logically based on an analytical examination of constitutional scheme by Jeevan Reddy, J. in S.R. Bommai and others v. Union of India [(1994) 3 SCC 1], may be touched. Our Constitution has a federal structure. Several provisions of the Constitution unmistakably show that the Founding Fathers intended to create a strong centre.."

249); the power of the Parliament to provide for creation and regulation of All India Services common to Union and the States in case there is a Resolution of the Council of States supported by not less than two-third majority (Article 312); there is only one citizenship namely the citizenship of India; and, perhaps most important, the power of the Parliament in relation to the formation of new States and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of States (Article 3). This Court in the case of State of West Bengal v. Union of India [(1964) 1 SCR 371 at 396], has observed that our Constitution is not of a true or a traditional pattern of federation. In a similar vein are other judgments of the Court, like State of Rajasthan & Ors. v. Union of India Etc. Etc. [(1978) 1 SCR 1 at pages 4G and 33F], that speak of the conspectus of the provisions that whatever appearance of a federal structure our Constitution may have, judging by the contents of the power which a number of provisions carry with them and the use made of them, is in its operation, more unitary than federal.

It has been argued that if by electing a person as a Member of the Council of States by a particular State Assembly itself made that person a 'representative' of that State then it was unnecessary to enact Section 3 of the RP Act. Therefore, according to the argument, it has to be concluded that the Provisional Parliament (which had also drafted and enacted the Constitution), when enacting Section 3 of the RP Act, had thought it necessary to define the "representative of the State", with reference to his residence "in that State". The above mentioned argument to the extent founded on the principle of basic structure need not detain us any further as it is the same argument as dealt with in the context of federal structure, albeit with a slightly different shade. Moreover, the link factor is retained by the impugned amendments inasmuch as the candidate for the election to the Council of States is now required to be an elector for Parliamentary constituency. Therefore, the linking factor is made broad based.