---
title: "Centre-State Relations: Legislative to Financial"
description: "Master Centre-State relations across the legislative, administrative and financial domains, covering Articles 245-300A, the Seventh Schedule and key"
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/upsc-indian-polity-centre-state-relations-legislative-administrative-financial"
---

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Centre-State relations (legislative, administrative, financial)

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# Centre-State relations (legislative, administrative, financial)

UPSC mastery of Centre-State relations across the legislative, administrative, and financial domains—Articles 245-300A, the Seventh Schedule, and key commissions.

## The legislative architecture: Articles 245-255

Part XI, Chapter I of the Constitution (Articles 245-255) governs the distribution of legislative power. **Article 245** demarcates territorial jurisdiction: Parliament legislates for the whole or any part of India, a State legislature for its territory. Parliament alone possesses **extra-territorial operation** of laws, upheld in *GVK Industries v. ITO* (2011).

**Article 246** read with the **Seventh Schedule** distributes subject-matter across three lists. The **Union List** (originally 97 entries; e.g., defence, foreign affairs, atomic energy, currency) is Parliament's exclusive domain. The **State List** (originally 66 entries; police, public health, agriculture, public order) belongs to State legislatures. The **Concurrent List** (originally 47 entries; criminal law, marriage, education, forests) is open to both. The 42nd Amendment (1976) shifted education, forests, weights and measures, protection of wild animals and birds, and administration of justice from State to Concurrent List.

## Doctrines of interpretation

Courts deploy settled doctrines. The **doctrine of pith and substance** (*State of Bombay v. F.N. Balsara*, 1951) sustains a law touching another list incidentally if its true nature falls within the enacting legislature's competence. The **doctrine of colourable legislation** (*K.C. Gajapati Narayan Deo v. State of Orissa*, 1953) voids laws that do indirectly what the legislature cannot do directly. The **doctrine of repugnancy** under **Article 254** resolves Concurrent List conflicts in favour of central law, save where the State law has received Presidential assent under Article 254(2).

## Parliament legislating on State subjects

Five constitutional gateways let Parliament enter the State List:

1. **Article 249** — Rajya Sabha resolution by two-thirds majority declaring a State subject of national importance (valid one year, renewable).
2. **Article 250** — during a National Emergency under Article 352.
3. **Article 252** — when two or more States pass enabling resolutions requesting Parliament to legislate (e.g., the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and various transplantation and water laws).
4. **Article 253** — to implement international treaties, agreements, or decisions of international bodies; this underpinned environmental legislation following the 1972 Stockholm Conference.
5. **Article 356** — when a State is under President's Rule.

The **residuary power** under Article 248 read with Entry 97 of the Union List vests in Parliament—unlike the United States, where residuary power rests with the states, reflecting the strong-centre design the Constituent Assembly chose after Partition. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar described the Indian polity as 'federal in form but unitary in spirit' under stress. Retain the exact article numbers and the five gateways; Prelims routinely tests which article corresponds to treaty implementation versus Rajya Sabha resolution.

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