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Doctrine of Repugnancy : The Law

Justice M.K. Sharma
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court in Zameer Ahmed Latifur Rehman Sheikh Vs. State of Maharashtra has examined the law relating to the Doctrine of Repugnancy. In essence, Part XI of the Indian Constitution describes the legislative relations between the States and the Centre. Further, Article 254 establishes the doctrine of Repugnancy which acts as a safeguard to solve disputes arising between the states and the Union. The term ‘Repugnancy’ means inconsistency between the State-made law and the Union-made law. The relevant extracts from the judgment are reproduced hereunder;

46. Before we proceed to analyze the said aspect, it would be appropriate to understand the situations in which repugnancy would arise.

47. Chapter I of Part XI of the Constitution deals with the subject of distribution of legislative powers of the Parliament and the legislature of the States. Article 245 of the Constitution provides that the Parliament may make laws for the whole or any part of the territory of India, and the legislature of a State may make laws for the whole or any part of the State.

48. The legislative field of the Parliament and the State Legislatures has been specified in Article 246 of the Constitution. Article 246, reads as follows: -
"246. Subject-matter of laws made by Parliament and by the legislature of States.—
(1) Notwithstanding anything in clauses (2) and (3), Parliament has exclusive power to make laws with