Section 6 of the Government of India Act, 1935, which provides for the accession of Indian States, runs as follows:
6. “Accession of Indian States. – (1) An Indian State shall be deemed to have acceded to the Dominion if the Governor General has signified his acceptance of an Instrument of Accession executed by the Ruler thereof whereby the Ruler on behalf of the State:-
(a) declares that he accedes to the Dominion with the intent that the Governor-General the Dominion Legislature, the Federal Court and any other Dominion authority established for the purposes of the Dominion shall by virtue of his instrument of accession, but, subject always to the terms thereof, and for the purposes only of the Dominion, exercise in relation to the State such functions as may be vested in them by order under this Act ; and
(b) assumes the obligation of ensuring that due effect is given within the State to the provisions of this Act so far as they are applicable therein by virtue of the Instrument of Accession.
(2) An Instrument of Accession shall specify the matters which the Ruler accepts as matters with respect to which the Dominion Legislature may make laws for the State, and the limitations, if any, to which the power of the Dominion Legislature to make laws for the State, and the exercise of the executive authority of the Dominion in the State, are respectively to be subject.
(3) A Ruler may, by a supplementary Instrument executed by him and accepted by the Governor-General, vary the Instrument of Accession of his State by extending the functions which by virtue of that Instrument are exercisable by any Dominion authority in relation to his State.
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(5) In this Act a State which has acceded to the Dominion is referred to as an Acceding State and the Instrument by virtue of which a State has so acceded, construed together with any supplementary Instrument executed under this section, is referred to as the Instrument of Accession of that State . . . . “
A supplementary Instrument executed under subsection (3) by the Ruler and accepted by the Governor-General is, by virtue of sub-section (5), therefore, to be considered a part of the Instrument of Accession of that State. The supplementary Instruments signed by the four States only bring within the scope of discussion those supplementary Instruments on the footing that they were a part of the Instrument of Accession.
