The Supreme Court on Thursday, in its judgment, took note of the bitter tug-of-war between the Centre and the Opposition-ruled States over various issues, from constitutionally mandated Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation for State governments to interest rates, when it said the GST Council was an “avenue” for “political contestation” across party lines.
The court said political slugfest in the Council is a given for two reasons.
Firstly, the unequal voting structure — the Union’s vote counts as one-third, while the States’ votes have a weightage of two-thirds of the total votes cast. The decisions of the Council are not “unanimous”, but based on a three-fourth majority of the members present and voting. The court pointed out that the voting pattern was deliberately made unequal so that neither the Union nor the States enjoy dominant power over the other.
