As of 2023, there are no officially recognised flags for the individual states or union territories of India. No legal prohibitions to prevent states adopting distinctive flags exist in either the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950, or the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971. In a 1994 case before the Supreme Court of India, S. R. Bommai v. Union of India, the Supreme Court declared that there is no prohibition in the Constitution of India for a state to have its own flag. However, a state flag should not dishonour the national flag. The Flag code of India also permits other flags to be flown with the Flag of India, but not on the same flag pole or in a superior position to the national flag.
When a distinctive banner is required to represent a state or union territory, the emblem of the state or union territory is usually displayed on a white field.
The Government of Karnataka proposed a design for the Flag of Karnataka in 2018 based on the traditional yellow-red Kannada bicolour. The new tricolour flag with the central white band and emblem, was designed to distance itself from regional political parties and emulate the structure of the Indian Tricolour. In August 2019, the Government of Karnataka announced it was no longer officially pursuing the proposal for an official state flag.