Revision summary
Articles 245 to 254 set the territorial and subject map of Union and State law. Residuary power under Article 248 sits with Parliament, unlike in the United States. Article 254 makes Union law prevail on Concurrent subjects in case of conflict. Articles 249, 250, 253, and 356 let the Union enter State fields in defined crises or treaties. State lists remain, so the system is a centralized federation, not a unitary erasure of States.
Model answer
Introduction
India is a Union of States with lists, not a league of sovereigns. Union legislative power is the main legal reason the federation looks centralized even when States run police and land.
Body
The lists and supremacy
- Article 246 and the Seventh Schedule give the Union List the high-sovereignty subjects: defence, foreign affairs, currency, and inter-State trade.
- Article 248 vests residuary law-making in Parliament, which is the opposite of the United States pattern and a direct centralizing clause.
- Article 254 says that on a Concurrent subject a Union law prevails in conflict, unless a State law has later Presidential assent and still yields to a subsequent Union law.
Extra-central levers
- Articles 249 and 250 let Rajya Sabha or an Emergency put a State subject into Parliament’s temporary reach.
- Article 252 allows two or more States to invite Parliament to legislate for them, which has been used to expand Union statutes.
- Article 253 lets Parliament legislate for the whole country to implement a treaty, which can enter fields that look local.
- During a Proclamation under Article 356, Parliament may make laws for a State, which is the hardest centralizing edge.
Institutions that follow the lists
- All-India Services, the Election Commission, and a unified higher judiciary apply Union law across States, so legislative centralization is not only paper.
- Finance and GST still leave the Union as the larger fiscal legislator even after the One Hundred and First Amendment.
Critical note
- States retain land, police, and public order as legislative heads, and the Supreme Court has policed colourable Union entry into those fields.
- Centralization is therefore structural in the lists, not the same as daily administrative takeover of every village.
- Sarkaria and Punchhi both treated this design as cooperative but Union-tilted, which is the fair examination of the character.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD UL[Union List Art 246] --> C[Centralized federation] R[Residuary Art 248] --> C P[Art 254 override] --> C E[249 250 356] --> C SL[State List] --> F[Limited State autonomy]
Conclusion
Union legislative power—residuary, Concurrent override, treaty, and emergency—gives Indian federalism a centralized character. The character is constitutional, not accidental, and it still leaves State lists standing when no override clause is used.
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Can a State law on a Concurrent subject ever survive Union law?
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