The Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 is an Act of the Parliament of India, specifically Act No. 20 of 1963, enacted on May 10, 1963. Its primary purpose is to provide a framework for establishing Legislative Assemblies and Councils of Ministers for certain Union Territories (UTs).
The Act was created in the Fourteenth Year of the Republic of India to introduce a democratic pattern of governance in UTs, replacing the earlier Territorial Councils. It initially applied to UTs like Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, and Pondicherry (now Puducherry), with provisions coming into force on various dates, such as May 13, 1963, for parts of Pondicherry.
The Act's mechanism is detailed in its key provisions, such as Section 3, which mandates a Legislative Assembly for each UT covered by the Act. Section 3(2) specifies that the total number of seats to be filled by direct election shall be thirty, and Section 3(3) allows the Central Government to nominate not more than three non-government members. The Act also provides for the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Assembly under Section 3(4). A crucial provision is Section 21, which establishes that if a law made by the UT Legislative Assembly is repugnant to a law made by Parliament, the Parliamentary law shall prevail.
The Act connects directly to Article 239 of the Constitution, which governs the administration of UTs by the President through an Administrator (Lieutenant Governor). The legislative power of the UT Assembly is defined by the Act, allowing it to make laws on matters in the State List and Concurrent List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, subject to the Act's limitations. The UTs of Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Tripura were originally governed by this Act but later attained statehood. Today, the Act primarily governs the Union Territory of Puducherry, as the definition of "Union territory" in Section 2(h) was amended to mean the Union territory of Puducherry. The National Capital Territory of Delhi has a similar, but separate, legislative framework. The Act has been amended, for instance, to update the census reference for seat reservation to the 2001 census until the figures for the first census after 2026 are published.