Doctrine of Repugnancy

The concept of Doctrine of Repugnancy is contained in Article 254 of the Constitution of India, 1950 (COI).

• Article 254 of the COI deals with the inconsistency between laws made by Parliament and laws made by the Legislatures of States. It states that –
  1. If any provision of a law made by the Legislature of a State is repugnant to any provision of a law made by Parliament which Parliament is competent to enact, or to any provision of an existing law with respect to one of the matters enumerated in the Concurrent List, then, subject to the provisions of clause ( 2 ), the law made by Parliament, whether passed before or after the law made by the Legislature of such State, or, as the case may be, the existing law, shall prevail and the law made by the Legislature of the State shall, to the extent of the repugnancy, be void.
  2. Where a law made by the Legislature of a State with respect to one of the matters enumerated in the Concurrent List contains any provision repugnant to the provisions of an earlier law made by Parliament or an existing law with respect to that matter, then, the law so made by the Legislature of such State shall, if it has been reserved for the consideration of the President and has received his assent, prevail in that State.

Provided that nothing in this clause shall prevent Parliament from enacting at any time any law with respect to the same matter including a law adding to, amending, varying or repealing the law so made by the Legislature of the State.

• This doctrine was included as a mechanism to resolve this repugnancy between the powers of the Parliament and State legislatures.
• This doctrine reflects the quasi-federal structure of the COI. It has clearly laid down the powers of the Parliament and State legislature to avoid inconsistencies and conflicts.

Evolution of Doctrine of Repugnancy

legislative bodies are making laws concerning matters in their country. The clash between these different legislative bodies or the law that they formulate is unavoidable and imminent, to prevent any such clash between legislative bodies The Indian Constitution, makers put provided the Doctrine of Repugnancy. The Constitution of India is known to be of the Quasi-Federal kind which means that it is neither federal nor unitary but the Doctrine of Repugnancy brings out more of the federal side of the Constitution.

The United States of America is a federal State and from there, our Constitution framers got the idea of implementing this doctrine in our Constitution. They implemented this doctrine because they believed that there should be no confusion between the powers of the State legislation and Centre legislation. The implementation of this doctrine and many others led to the naming of our Constitution as a Quasi-Federal Constitution. Now under Article 245 and Article 246 of The Indian Constitution it is clearly stated that the Parliament can make laws for the whole country whereas the State can make laws which are in concern to any part of the State or whole State. It is clearly Stated in the VII schedule that Parliament has the power to make exclusive law under any matter in Union list and The State has the power to make laws on matters mentioned under State list .There is also a 3rd list in the VII schedule which is known as the Concurrent List, in this list the Parliament and the Legislation of the State both have powers to make laws.

The Parliament’s power over the Concurrent List is considered to be supreme as, if any legislature made by the Parliament concerning a matter listed in Concurrent List will prevail over a legislation made by the State to the extent of its repugnancy over the law made by the Centre. The State can oppose this power of the parliament by getting an assent from The President of India that the legislature made by the State should prevail in their province. There have been many interpretations of the use of the doctrine by the Indian courts, which have given the doctrine a new practical life and help the doctrine evolve with the change in times.

What are the Conditions for Doctrine of Repugnancy?

• The conditions which must be satisfied before any repugnancy could arise are as follows:
  • Clear and direct inconsistency between the Central Act and the State Act.
  • Inconsistency is absolutely irreconcilable.
  • The inconsistency between the provisions of the two Acts is of such nature as to bring the two Acts into direct collision with each other and a situation is reached where it is impossible to obey the one without disobeying the other.

Judgments on Doctrine of Repugnancy

Bharat Hydro Power Corporation. Ltd. v. State of Assam–

In this case, the Apex court of India gave the order that there should be every effort made to harmonize both the legislations of Centre and State which are in direct conflict with each other. If both the laws made are not relating to the same list and there will be no repugnancy.

Grand Kakatiya Sheraton Hotel and Towers Employees & Workers Union v. Srinivasa Resorts Ltd–

In this case, The Supreme Court clearly stated that if State Government gets assent from the President on the matter in dispute then only the State legislature has the power to prevail over Centre’s legislation and this power granted to State is not indefinite for future legislature rather it is only related to the matter of conflict.

National Engineering Industries Ltd. v. Shri Kishan Bhageri-

In this case the Court gave the best way to deal with a repugnancy between the legislature of the State and the Centre is that if one prevails, the other cannot prevail. This judgment gave a crystal clear view that the degree of repugnancy needs to be removed from the legislature in question either by The Parliament or The State Government.