TN Govt. dissolves the High Level Committee on Union-State Relations

The committee submitted the highly regarded Part I of its report to the then Chief Minister MK Stalin on 16 February 2026.

The High Level Committee on Union-State Relations, which was set up under the erstwhile DMK regime in Tamil Nadu, has been dissolved by a Government Order (GO) dated 6 November 2026.

In April 2025, Chief Minister MK Stalin then announced in the Legislative Assembly the formation of a three-member high-level panel to review constitutional provisions, laws and policies relating to centre-state relations and recommend measures to strengthen federalism and state autonomy.

The committee was chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice Kurian Joseph, with former IAS officer K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty and former State Planning Commission vice-chairman M. Naganathan as members. The committee submitted the highly regarded Part I of its report to the then Chief Minister MK Stalin on 16 February.

However, the TVK-led government has now decided to dissolve the committee.

“The Tamil Nadu State Law Commission was re-constituted on 07-08-2026 and is entrusted with a broad mandate, inter alia, to examine and make recommendations on matters relating to state-centre relations along with other topics, to review existing laws and to improve the legal and institutional framework of the state,” the GO pointed out.

The Central Committee said: “The High Level Committee on Union-State Relations is a ‘non-statutory body’ which examines various issues relating to Union-State relations, having considerable similarity and overlap in the nature and scope of the functions conferred on the Tamil Nadu State Law Commission. Therefore, after careful consideration, the Government has decided to terminate the services of the High Level Committee with immediate effect.”

While the Central Committee emphasizes that the committee was a “non-statutory body”, the State Law Commission, which will now undertake this task, is also not a statutory body. It is an executive body established by government decree.

Published – November 6, 2026 10:51 PM IST