SECTION IV
PROVINCIAL AUTONOMY
CHAPTER 1
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT IN RELATION TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
It is evident that the responsibility of the Executive would be of very little consequence if the Provincial Executive instead of being subordinate to the Provincial Legislature is subordinate to any other body outside the Province or if the Provincial Legislature instead of being supreme within its field is made subject to some other authority in the matter of the exercise of its powers. In other words responsible government must also be autonomous government. To render Provincial Government autonomous it is necessary to demarcate clearly the spheres of operation of the Provincial and Central Governments.
Prior to 1919 a Provincial Government was required under Section
45 of the Government of India Act, 1915, to obey the orders of the GovernorGeneral in Council, and keep him constantly and diligently informed of its proceedings and of all matters which ought, in its opinion, to be reported to him, or as to which he requires information, and is under his superintendence, direction and control in all matters relating to the government of its province. This meant that the Provincial Governments had no acknowledged authority of their own in any of the matters which they administered; that whatever powers they exercised were powers which were delegated to them by the Central Government in the same way as a principal delegates his authority to his agent. By the Act of 1919 this relation of the Provincial to the Central Government was made subject to its provisions and rules made thereunder. Section 45 ( 1 ) ( b ) of the Act of 1919 provided “for the devolution of authority in respect of provincial subjects to local governments, and for the allocation of revenues or other moneys to those governments,” while Section 45 ( 3 ) laid down that “the powers of superintendence, direction, and control local governments vested in the Governor-General in Council under this Act shall, in relation to transferred subjects, be exercised only for such purposes as may be specified in rules made under this Act, but the Governor-General in Council shall be the sole judge as to whether the purpose of the exercise of such powers in any particular case