Zonal Councils
Statutory (Not Constitutional) Bodies
Zonal Councils are statutory advisory bodies, not constitutional bodies. They were established under Part III (Sections 15 to 22) of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, on the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's idea of grouping states into zones for cooperative planning. There are five Zonal Councils — Northern, Central, Eastern, Western, and Southern — each covering a defined group of states and Union Territories.
- Composition: the Union Home Minister is the common Chairman of all five Councils; the Chief Ministers of member states act as Vice-Chairman by rotation, each for one year; other members include Chief Ministers, two ministers nominated by each state, and Administrators/Lieutenant Governors of UTs in the zone.
- Advisers to each Council include the Chief Secretary of each member state and one nominee each of NITI Aayog (earlier the Planning Commission) and the Union government.
- The Southern Zonal Council comprises Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
- Zonal Councils are purely deliberative and advisory; their recommendations are not binding on member governments, unlike the binding directions of statutory tribunals such as river water tribunals.
● Tracked since August 19, 2026 · last seen August 20, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes
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