Which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. Criminal law is exclusively a subject under the State List of the Constitution of India. 2. Code of Civil Procedure falls under the Concurrent List of the Constitution of India. Select the answer using the code given below :
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Correct — B, 2 only. Statement 1 inverts the position. Criminal law is not a State subject at all: it is Entry 1 of the Concurrent List — 'Criminal law, including all matters included in the Indian Penal Code at the commencement of this Constitution' — and criminal procedure is Entry 2 of the same list. What the State List does contain is public order at Entry 1 and police at Entry 2, which is a different thing: the states run the police and keep order, but the offences themselves are defined by law that both Parliament and the state legislatures are competent to make. Statement 2 is right. The Code of Civil Procedure is Entry 13 of the Concurrent List, which reads 'Civil procedure, including all matters included in the Code of Civil Procedure at the commencement of this Constitution'. So only the second statement stands.
- (a)1 only — Keeps the false statement and discards the true one. Criminal law is concurrent, not exclusively a State subject.
- (c)Both 1 and 2 — Accepts both. The civil procedure statement is sound, but the criminal law statement is wrong on the face of the Seventh Schedule.
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects both, which discards the civil procedure statement. Civil procedure and the Code of Civil Procedure are expressly in the Concurrent List at Entry 13.
The Seventh Schedule divides legislative competence into three lists. Both the great procedural codes and the general criminal law sit in the Concurrent List: criminal law at Entry 1, criminal procedure at Entry 2, preventive detention for state purposes at Entry 3, evidence and oaths at Entry 12, and civil procedure at Entry 13. This is why states can and do amend the central codes for their own territory, subject to the President's assent under Article 254(2), while the codes themselves remain national.
The item works because 'law and order is a state subject' is a phrase every candidate has heard, and it is easy to slide from that to 'criminal law is a state subject'. They are not the same. Public order and police are State List entries; criminal law and criminal procedure are Concurrent List entries. Once statement 1 falls, the code leaves only options (b) and (d), and civil procedure is squarely concurrent, so (b) follows. A useful anchor: when Parliament replaced the Indian Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Evidence Act with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, all three took effect from 1 July 2024 across the country, which a purely State List subject could never have done.
- Concurrent List Entry 1 is criminal law, including all matters in the Indian Penal Code as it stood at the commencement of the Constitution.
- Concurrent List Entry 2 is criminal procedure, and Entry 13 is civil procedure, including the Code of Civil Procedure.
- State List Entry 1 is public order and Entry 2 is police — the enforcement side, not the definition of offences.
- Article 254 gives central law primacy on a concurrent subject, but a state law reserved for and receiving the President's assent may prevail in that state.
- The three new criminal laws that replaced the Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Evidence Act came into force on 1 July 2024.
Enforcement is state; the law being enforced is concurrent. The item lives on the gap between the two.
- Sliding from 'police and public order are state subjects' to 'criminal law is a state subject'.
- Assuming a nationwide code must be a Union List subject; a concurrent subject can also produce a single national code.
- Forgetting that evidence, marriage, contracts and bankruptcy are also concurrent, not state, subjects.
As a two-statement item placing a subject in the wrong list, or as a match of entries to lists in the Seventh Schedule.
As per the State List under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, the States have jurisdiction over agricultural land in connection with which of the following subjects? 1. Taxes on agricultural income 2. Duties in respect of succession of agricultural land 3. Estate duty in respect of agricultural land Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(d) 1, 2 and 3
The same schedule tested one session earlier, from the State List side. Reading the two together builds the habit the examiner rewards — knowing which entries sit in which list rather than relying on a general sense of what states do.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, 'Criminal law, including all matters included in the Indian Penal Code at the commencement of this Constitution' falls under
- (a)the Union List
- (b)the State List
- (c)the Concurrent List
- (d)the residuary powers of Parliament
Answer(c) the Concurrent List — Entry 1, while public order and police are State List entries.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In case of repugnancy between a law made by Parliament and a law made by a State Legislature on a subject in the Concurrent List, which Article decides which law prevails?
- (a)Article 246
- (b)Article 249
- (c)Article 254
- (d)Article 263
Answer(c) Article 254 — the central law prevails, unless the state law was reserved for and received the President's assent.