Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has dissolved the High-Level Committee on Union-State Relations headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Kurian Joseph, by a Government Order (GO) dated November 6, 2026, issued by the Public (Law & Order, F) Department, according to reports by The Hindu and LiveLaw.

Source: The Hindu

The GO states that the committee is a non-statutory body whose work has, in its words, a considerable similarity and overlap with the functions entrusted to the Tamil Nadu State Law Commission, and that the government has therefore decided to discontinue the services of the committee with immediate effect. The Law Commission was re-constituted on August 7, 2026, with a mandate that includes examining Centre-State relations, reviewing existing laws and improving the state's legal and institutional framework.

Source: LiveLaw

What the panel had recommended

The three-member committee — Justice Kurian Joseph as chair, with former IAS officer K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty and former State Planning Commission vice-chairman M. Naganathan as members — was formed in April 2025 to review constitutional provisions, laws and policies on Centre-State relations and recommend measures to strengthen federalism and state autonomy. In Part I of its report, it recommended mandatory timelines for Governors to act on State Bills and a categorical rejection of the 'One Nation, One Language' approach, and proposed structural changes covering constitutional amendments, territorial reorganisation, elections, education, health, delimitation and the GST regime.

Source: LiveLaw

The government has directed the secretary and committee officer of the dissolved panel to hand over all records and relevant papers to the Tamil Nadu State Law Commission immediately and report compliance. Reporting on the GO noted that the Law Commission, which will now undertake this task, is also not a statutory body.

Source: The Hindu

CPI(M) criticises the decision

Tamil Nadu CPI(M) state secretary P. Shanmugam criticised the TVK government led by Chief Minister Joseph Vijay for dissolving the committee, speaking at the party's November Revolution anniversary event in Chennai on November 7. He questioned whether it was right to end the committee when, he said, several important questions about Centre-State relations were not answered, and said the government should have allowed the committee to continue working rather than dissolve it.

Source: ANI via Saptashwa TV