Chennai, February 16 The Justice Kurian Joseph committee on Centre-State relations submitted its first report to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday.
The high-level committee, comprising the retired judge of the Supreme Court, was constituted by the Chief Minister on April 15, 2025, to conduct a detailed examination of contemporary federal challenges and submit "concrete and actionable" recommendations aimed at restoring the federal balance and strengthening genuine cooperative federalism within the constitutional framework.
"The high-level committee on Union–State Relations submitted part I of its report to the Chief Minister at the Secretariat, in both English and Tamil, comprising ten chapters. Two more parts, each comprising ten chapters, are currently being prepared," the government said in a release here.
Conceived as a non-partisan exercise, this initiative marked the fourth major national-level review of union–state relations and the second undertaken by Tamil Nadu, which earlier led the discourse through the Rajamannar Committee (1969–71).
At the national level, the Sarkaria Commission (1983–88) and the Punchhi Commission (2007–10) examined Union–State relations and made significant recommendations. The passage of time since those inquiries, along with substantial constitutional, fiscal, and institutional developments, necessitated a fresh and comprehensive review, the government said.
The three-member committee, headed by Justice Kurian Joseph, comprises former Vice-Chancellor of Indian Maritime University, Chennai, K Ashok Vardhan Shetty, and former Vice-Chairman of Tamil Nadu Planning Commission M Naganathan.
A distinctive feature of this initiative is that "open access" has been granted to the Tamil version of the report, a first in the country. The Tamil version will be uploaded on the official website of the state government after the report is presented to the Legislative Assembly.
Efforts are also underway to translate part I into major Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Odia, Punjabi, and Assamese, to facilitate wider national engagement. It has been proposed to extend "open access" to these language versions once they are finalised.
"The submission of part I marks an important milestone in Tamil Nadu’s continuing engagement with the evolution of India’s federal structure. The objective is not to weaken the Union, but to appropriately structure it, enabling it to focus on genuinely national responsibilities while restoring to the states the autonomy essential for effective governance and aligning authority with responsibility," the release said.
A Union that diffuses its energies across functions better performed by states and local bodies risks distraction from the larger national challenges that only it can address, the government said and expressed the hope that this report would stimulate informed dialogue and contribute to a more balanced and cooperative federal order.