Chennai: The Tamil Nadu govt has entrusted the task of completing the second report of Justice Kurian Joseph committee on ‘Union-State Relations’ to the state law commission.The committee, which was constituted by the previous DMK govt, was working towards completing its second and final report by May 2027. The panel members pointed out that assigning the task to the law commission at this stage was “a politically motivated move”.“The govt’s decision to involve the state law commission is aimed at making the committee irrelevant,” said a senior member of the committee. The member said though it was “understandable” due to change in govts, there was no clarity on how the existing committee, its research work and the material prepared for the second report will be integrated with the law commission’s work.The second report covers subjects including legislative, administrative and financial relations between Union and states, national security, state autonomy and inter-state water disputes. The first part of the report, commissioned by Tamil Nadu govt in April 2025 to examine Union-state relations and submitted in Feb this year, dealt with delimitation, GST and the role of governors.“We are clueless about the next course of action. We have not been told how the work will be taken forward or what will happen to the research completed by the committee,” said a member. However, former IAS officer Ashok Vardhan Shetty, who is also a member of the committee, said there was “no such communication” from the govt on handing over the task to the state law commission.The move is seen as yet another sign of giving a silent burial to the committee, say its members. The first sign was when the contracts of three office assistants and an accountant, which ended on Aug 31, were not renewed. Further, the tenure of committee officer K Kamarajan, the sole Tamil translator, is due to expire in Oct. Four research officers are also due to complete their tenures by Nov, leaving only one research officer whose tenure runs till April next year.
