State / UT
Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu
Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu is a Union Territory of India formed on 26 January 2020 by merging two previously separate Union Territories, both of them former Portuguese possessions taken into the Republic in the early 1960s. It is one of the smallest units of the Union — roughly 603 sq km of non-contiguous enclaves scattered across Gujarat and Maharashtra, with about 5.87 lakh people at the 2011 Census — yet it sends two members to the Lok Sabha. Structurally, it is defined by what it does not have: no legislative assembly, no council of ministers and no Chief Minister, so it is run directly by an Administrator appointed by the President under Article 239, with the President legislating for it by regulation under Article 240. Its economy is an artefact of that constitutional position: decades of Union tax and excise concessions turned Silvassa and Daman into migrant-labour manufacturing belts, producing the most male-skewed sex ratios recorded anywhere in India.
Updated
- Capital
- Daman (Silvassa is the largest city and the administrative seat for the Dadra and Nagar Haveli district)
- Formed
- 26 January 2020, by merger of the UTs of Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1961) and Daman and Diu (1987)
- Legislature
- None — no legislative assembly; administered under Article 239 by an Administrator, with the President empowered to make regulations under Article 240
- Lok Sabha seats
- 2 (Dadra and Nagar Haveli; Daman and Diu). No Rajya Sabha seat.
- Rajya Sabha seats
- 0
- Population (2011 Census)
- 586,956 — Dadra and Nagar Haveli 343,709; Daman 191,173; Diu 52,074
- Districts
- 3 — Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman, Diu
- Area
- ~603 sq km — Dadra and Nagar Haveli 491 sq km, Daman 72 sq km, Diu 40 sq km
- High Court
- Bombay High Court
- Sex ratio (2011 Census)
- 774 F/1000 M in Dadra and Nagar Haveli; 618 F/1000 M in Daman and Diu — the lowest recorded in India
Role
Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu is the Republic’s clearest working example of a Union Territory without a legislature. Under Article 239 the territory is administered by the President acting through an Administrator, and under Article 240 the President — not any local assembly — holds the power to make regulations having the force of an Act of Parliament for it. There is no Vidhan Sabha, no council of ministers and no Chief Minister; the functions that a state government would exercise over land, police, health, education, agriculture and excise are discharged by 43 departments of the Administration answering upward to the Ministry of Home Affairs, and by three district administrations at Silvassa, Daman and Diu. The territory’s electoral life at the Union level is narrow — two Lok Sabha seats, no Rajya Sabha representation — so its democratic weight is concentrated in local bodies: a District Panchayat in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and municipal councils in Daman, Diu and Silvassa. Judicial supervision runs to the Bombay High Court, a continuity the 2019 merger legislation deliberately preserved rather than disturbed.
Its distinctiveness is otherwise geographic and economic. The territory is not a place so much as four non-contiguous enclaves — the Dadra and Nagar Haveli block wedged between Gujarat and Maharashtra, the two Daman pockets on the Gulf of Khambhat coast, and the island of Diu off Saurashtra — none of them touching another, all of them former Portuguese possessions that entered the Union between 1954 and 1961 and were governed as separate Union Territories until 26 January 2020. That merger, effected by the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Act, 2019, makes it the only Indian UT formed by consolidating existing UTs rather than by reorganising a state. Because the Union sets its fiscal regime directly, the territory has long carried tax and excise treatment unavailable in the surrounding states, and the consequence is visible in its census returns rather than in any legislature: an industrial belt of thousands of manufacturing units drawing male labour from across western India, decadal population growth over 50% in Daman and Diu between 2001 and 2011 against a falling rural count, and sex ratios of 774 and 618 females per 1,000 males — the most skewed recorded anywhere in India. The territory’s political character, in short, is that its economy is a Union policy instrument and its governance is a Union department.
Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.
Timeline since 1947
- reference
Dadra and Nagar Haveli taken from Portuguese rule
Volunteer groups ended Portuguese administration of the enclaves. The territory then existed as a de facto independent state, Free Dadra and Nagar Haveli, administered by a Varishtha Panchayat with Indian support, for seven years before formal accession.
- official
Dadra and Nagar Haveli accedes to India as a Union Territory
The Constitution (Tenth Amendment) Act incorporated the enclaves into the Union as a Union Territory with effect from 11 August 1961. The district administration records the date as the point at which it 'became a part of the India and was announced to be a Union Territory'.
- reference
Daman and Diu taken into the Union with Goa
Indian military action ended Portuguese rule over Goa, Daman and Diu. The three were constituted as a single Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, leaving Daman and Diu administratively tied to Goa for the next 26 years.
- reference
Goa becomes a state; Daman and Diu becomes a separate Union Territory
On Goa's elevation to statehood, Daman and Diu were separated and constituted as a Union Territory in their own right — without a legislature, unlike the state they had been attached to.
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Census records the most male-skewed populations in India
Dadra and Nagar Haveli returned 343,709 people with a sex ratio of 774 females per 1,000 males and 76.24% literacy; Daman and Diu returned 243,247 people with a sex ratio of 618 and 87.10% literacy. Daman and Diu's population had grown 53.76% in the decade while its rural population fell 40.12% — a demographic signature of in-migration to tax-concession industry rather than natural growth.
- reference
Merger Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha
The Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Bill, 2019 was tabled and passed by both Houses within a week. It preserved Bombay High Court jurisdiction over the merged territory, amended the Representation of the People Act to give the merged UT two Lok Sabha seats, provided for existing staff to serve the merged UT provisionally, and authorised an advisory committee for grievances.
- reference
Merger Act receives Presidential assent
The Act was assented to on 9 December 2019, with the constitutional consequences to take effect from a date notified by the Union government. The stated rationale was administrative consolidation and cost reduction across two territories that shared a cadre and an administrator but not a legal identity.
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The merged Union Territory comes into existence
Two Union Territories became one, with Daman as capital and three districts — Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman, Diu. It is the only Indian Union Territory created by merging existing Union Territories rather than by carving territory from a state.
- official
State of play: a merged administration without a legislature
As of July 2026 the territory is administered by an Administrator appointed by the President, assisted by an Advisor drawn from the IAS, through 43 departments and three district administrations, under the Ministry of Home Affairs. There is no assembly and no Chief Minister; the elected tier below Parliament is the District Panchayat in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and the municipal bodies of Daman, Diu and Silvassa.
Frequently asked
- What is Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu?
- Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu is a Union Territory of India formed on 26 January 2020 by merging two previously separate Union Territories, both of them former Portuguese possessions taken into the Republic in the early 1960s. It is one of the smallest units of the Union — roughly 603 sq km of non-contiguous enclaves scattered across Gujarat and Maharashtra, with about 5.87 lakh people at the 2011 Census — yet it sends two members to the Lok Sabha. Structurally, it is defined by what it does not have: no legislative assembly, no council of ministers and no Chief Minister, so it is run directly by an Administrator appointed by the President under Article 239, with the President legislating for it by regulation under Article 240. Its economy is an artefact of that constitutional position: decades of Union tax and excise concessions turned Silvassa and Daman into migrant-labour manufacturing belts, producing the most male-skewed sex ratios recorded anywhere in India.
- When was Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu established?
- Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu was established 2020-01-26.
- What does Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu do?
- Its remit covers Direct Union administration: the territory has no legislature, so subjects that elsewhere sit with a state government are run by the Administrator's departments under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Law and order, land and revenue, and the UT Police, including an India Reserve Battalion, Health, education, agriculture, fisheries, forests and rural development, delivered through 43 administration departments across three districts, Industrial promotion and excise: the District Industries Centre, Excise and VAT departments, which anchor the territory's tax-arbitrage manufacturing base, Local self-government through a District Panchayat in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and municipal bodies in Daman, Diu and Silvassa — the territory's only directly elected tier below Parliament.
- What is the latest on Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu?
- As of 2026-07-17: State of play: a merged administration without a legislature. As of July 2026 the territory is administered by an Administrator appointed by the President, assisted by an Advisor drawn from the IAS, through 43 departments and three district administrations, under the Ministry of Home Affairs. There is no assembly and no Chief Minister; the elected tier below Parliament is the District Panchayat in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and the municipal bodies of Daman, Diu and Silvassa.
Official sources
The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.
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Official portal of the U.T. of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu; Administrator, Advisor and district administrations.
ddd.gov.in/
- Departments of the UT Administration department
The 43 departments that discharge, under the Administrator, functions a state government would otherwise hold.
ddd.gov.in/departments/
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District portal for the largest of the three districts; carries the 1961 accession history and District Panchayat structure.
dnh.gov.in/
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Directory for the Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu election departments.
ddd.gov.in/departments/ut-election-commission/
- PRS — Merger of Union Territories Bill, 2019 legislation
Legislative track of the merger, including High Court jurisdiction and Lok Sabha seat provisions.
prsindia.org/billtrack/the-dadra-and-nagar-haveli-and-daman-