Abstract
The paper attempts to highlight some leading judgments of the Supreme Court of India to trace the principles of law forming basis for the application of the three main doctrines viz., the doctrines of Pith and substance, repugnancy and colourable legislation which have been applied by the common law systems. The doctrine is applied to determine whether a legislation is within the legislative competence under Articles 246(1) and 246(3) of the Constitution. The doctrine of pith and substance is applied to resolve the conflict of jurisdiction. When the repugnancy between the two legislations is under consideration, what is in issue is whether the provision of the State enactment though otherwise constitutionally valid, has lost its validity because the Parliament has made legislation with a conflicting provision on allegedly the same matter. The doctrine has no application when the matter in question is covered by an entry or entries in the Concurrent List and has occupied the same field both in the Union and the State Law. If there is no power directly or impliedly vested with the legislature, or the objects sought to be achieved and the actual provisions have no consensus, the legislation or the part of it becomes ‘colourable’ and hence to be declared void. If the Legislature is competent to pass a particular law, the motives which impelled it to act are really irrelevant. Thus, the trident testing the constitutionality of the laws dealing with the legislative relations of the Union and the States in India is being analysed in this paper.
Published Version
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