States Reorganisation Act, 1956
No: 37 Dated: Aug, 31 1956
THE STATES REORGANISATION ACT, 1956
ACT NO. 37 OF 1956
An Act to provide for the reorganisation of the States of India and for matters connected therewith.
BE it enacted by Parliament in the Seventh Year of the Republic of India as follows:― PART I PRELIMINARY
1. Short title.―This Act may be called the States Reorganisation Act, 1956.
2. Definitions.―In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,―
(a) “appointed day” means the 1st day of November, 1956;
(b) “article” means an article of the Constitution;
(c) “assembly constituency”, “council constituency” and “parliamentary constituency” have the same meanings as in the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (43 of 1950);
(d) “corresponding new State” means, in relation to the existing State of Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, Mysore, Punjab or Rajasthan, the new State with the same name, and in relation to the existing State of Travancore-Cochin, the new State of Kerala;
(e) “corresponding State” means, in relation to the new State of Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, Mysore, Punjab or Rajasthan, the existing State with the same name, and in relation to the new State of Kerala, the existing State of Travancore-Cochin;
(f) “Election Commission” means the Election Commission appointed by the President under article 324;
(g) “existing State” means a State specified in the First Schedule to the Constitution at the commencement of this Act;
(h) “law” includes any enactment, ordinance, regulation, order, bye-law, rule, scheme, notification or other instrument having the force of law in the whole or in any part of the territory of India;
(i) “new State” means a State formed by the provisions of Part II; (j) “notified order” means an order published in the Official Gazette;
(k) “population ratio”, in relation to the successor States of an existing State, means such ratio as the Central Government may by notified order specify to be the ratio in which the population of that existing State as ascertained at the last census is distributed territorially among the several successor States by virtue of the provisions of Part II;
(l) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(m) “principal successor State” means—
(i) in relation to the existing State of Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, Madras or Rajasthan, the State with the same name; and
(ii) in relation to the existing States of Hyderabad, Madhya Bharat and Travancore-Cochin, the States of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala, respectively;
(n) “sitting member” in relation to either House of Parliament or of the Legislature of a State means a person who, immediately before the appointed day, is a member of that House;
(o) “successor State”, in relation to an existing State, means any State to which the whole or any part of the territories of that existing State is transferred by the provisions of Part II, and includes in relation to the existing State of Madras, also that State as territorially altered by the said provisions and the Union;
(p) “transferred territory” means any territory transferred from an existing State to another existing State or to a new State by the provisions of Part II;
(q) “treasury” includes a sub-treasury; and
(r) any reference to a district, taluk, tahsil or other territorial division of a State shall be construed as a reference to the area comprised within that territorial division on the 1st day of July, 1956.