THE DIVISION OF FUNCTIONS
The first duty of Mr. Feetham’s Committee was to consider what were the services to be appropriated to the provinces, all others remaining with the Government of India. The Committee proceeded on the basis that there is to be no such statutory demarcation of powers as to leave the validity of Acts passed to be challenged in the Courts. In other words, no alteration is proposed in the system under which the All-India Legislature as regards British India, and each of the Provincial Legislatures as regards its own province, have in theory concurrent jurisdiction over the whole legislative field.
In framing the lists the Committee have treated as All-India subjects certain large general heads, such, for instance, as commerce and laws regarding property, but have taken out of these and allotted to the provinces important sections—e.g., in the case of the first Excise, and in the case of the second laws regarding land tenure. Any matter included in the provincial list is to be deemed to be excluded from any All-India subject of which otherwise it would form part. Subjects not expressly included in either list are regarded as All-India subjects, but the Governor-General in Council may add to the provincial list “matters of merely local or private interest within the province.” It is claimed that the scheme has been devised on such a basis as to leave the way open for the process of development.
The list of subjects to be transferred to Indian Ministers is on the whole more extensive than the suggested list attached to the Joint Report. With certain reservations University education is to be transferred, as well as primary, secondary, and technical, on the ground that the educational system must be regarded as an organic whole. But European and Anglo-Indian education, which is organized on a separate basis is excluded from the transfer.
The decision of the functions of the Provincial Government, popularly known as diarchy, has been criticized as likely to lead to friction, and sometimes to deadlock. To mitigate these difficulties, the Committee propose important changes in the relations of the Governor with both sections of the Government. It is to be the duty of the Governor in Council in the case of reserved departments, and of the Governor and Ministers in the case of transferred departments, to take care that the administration is so conducted as not to prejudice or occasion undue interference with the working of any department falling in the other category. The Governor has to decide whether a particular matter falls within the scope of a reserved or a transferred department, and to take care that any order given by the Governor-General in Council is complied with by the department concerned.