The Parliament can make any law for whole or any part of India for implementing international treaties

Correct — D, (d) Without the consent of any State.

The stem is a close paraphrase of ARTICLE 253 of the Constitution, which reads:

'Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this Chapter, Parliament has power to make any law for the whole or any part of the territory of India for implementing any treaty, agreement or convention with any other country or countries or any decision made at any international conference, association or other body.'

Everything turns on the opening word. 'NOTWITHSTANDING anything in the foregoing provisions of this Chapter' sets aside the ordinary distribution of legislative powers for this purpose. The foregoing provisions are the ones that confine Parliament to the Union and Concurrent Lists and reserve the State List to the State legislatures. Article 253 lifts that confinement where the object is to implement an international obligation: Parliament may legislate even on a subject in the State List, and it needs no State's agreement to do so.

The reason is straightforward. A treaty binds INDIA, not a province of it. If the Union could enter into an international obligation and then find itself unable to give effect to it because the subject matter fell within the States' competence, the country's capacity to conduct foreign relations would depend on the agreement of twenty-eight legislatures. The Constitution avoids that by making the implementing power plenary. The same logic appears on the other side of the Seventh Schedule: Entry 14 of the UNION LIST covers entering into treaties and agreements with foreign countries and implementing treaties, agreements and conventions with foreign countries, so treaty-making is a Union function throughout.

The clearest illustration in Indian law is environmental legislation. The ENVIRONMENT (PROTECTION) ACT, 1986 was enacted under Article 253 to give effect to the decisions taken at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held at Stockholm in June 1972, in which India took part; the AIR (PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF POLLUTION) ACT, 1981 rests on the same footing. Both deal with subject matter that would otherwise have raised awkward questions about the State List, and neither required any State's consent.

So option (d) is right, and the three wrong options each describe a consent requirement that exists somewhere else in the Constitution or nowhere at all. The stem is printed as a complete statement with no trailing punctuation, and 'for whole or any part of India' appears without an article before 'whole', as set.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)With the consent of all the States — No provision of the Constitution requires the unanimous consent of the States for any legislation, and a unanimity requirement would be a practical veto for every one of them. It would also defeat the purpose of Article 253 entirely: the Article exists so that India's ability to honour an international commitment does not depend on the agreement of its constituent units. The option belongs to a confederal model of federation, in which the units retain sovereignty and delegate powers upward, and the Indian Constitution is emphatically not of that kind — the Union was not created by an agreement among the States and they have no power to leave it.
• (b)With the consent of majority of the States — This resembles a real requirement and attaches it to the wrong thing. The proviso to Article 368(2) requires that a constitutional AMENDMENT affecting certain entrenched matters — the distribution of legislative powers, the representation of States in Parliament, the election of the President, the High Courts — be ratified by the legislatures of not less than one-half of the States before it is presented for assent. That is a special procedure for amending the Constitution, not a condition on ordinary law-making, and it has nothing to do with implementing treaties. Transplanting an amendment requirement onto a legislative power is the standard way this kind of distractor is built.
• (c)With the consent of the States concerned — The strongest of the three, because it describes a genuine constitutional route — just not this one. ARTICLE 252 provides that if the legislatures of two or more States pass RESOLUTIONS to the effect that a matter in the State List should be regulated by Parliament, Parliament may legislate for those States, and any other State may adopt the law later by resolution. That is the consent route, and it has been used: the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 was enacted on the strength of resolutions passed by State legislatures under Article 252. But Article 253 is a different power operating on a different trigger. Where the object is to implement an international obligation, no resolution and no consent is required — which is exactly why the Air Act of 1981 and the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 could be enacted without going back to the States.

The Constitution distributes legislative power in Article 246 and the Seventh Schedule, and then provides five distinct routes by which Parliament may nonetheless legislate on a State List subject. Learning them as a set, with the TRIGGER for each, answers a whole family of questions.

ARTICLE 249 — IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST. The RAJYA SABHA passes a resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting, declaring it necessary in the national interest. The resolution remains in force for one year and may be renewed. The trigger is the Council of STATES acting as a chamber, not the States acting individually. ARTICLE 250 — DURING A PROCLAMATION OF EMERGENCY. Parliament may legislate on any State List matter for the whole or any part of India while the Proclamation is in operation. ARTICLE 252 — BY CONSENT OF THE STATES. Two or more State legislatures pass resolutions asking Parliament to legislate; the resulting law applies to those States and to any other that adopts it afterwards. ARTICLE 253 — TO IMPLEMENT INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS. No consent, no resolution, no emergency required. The only condition is the purpose. ARTICLE 356 — DURING PRESIDENT'S RULE in a State, the powers of the State legislature are exercised by or under the authority of Parliament.

THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURE of Article 253 is that it needs no consent and no external event — it operates on the purpose of the legislation alone. That makes it the most far-reaching of the five and, because the range of subjects covered by modern treaties is very wide, a standing point of debate in Indian federalism: agreements on environment, trade, human rights, intellectual property and labour standards all reach deep into subjects the Seventh Schedule assigns to the States.

TREATY-MAKING ITSELF is an executive function of the Union, exercised under Article 73 read with Entry 14 of the Union List, and it does not require parliamentary ratification in the way some constitutions do. Article 253 supplies the legislative half of the same competence: the executive can bind India, and Parliament can enact whatever law is needed to carry the binding into effect.

Key facts

• Article 253 gives Parliament power to make any law for the whole or any part of the territory of India for implementing any treaty, agreement or convention with another country, or any decision made at an international conference or body.
• It opens with a non-obstante clause — 'Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this Chapter' — which sets aside the ordinary distribution of legislative powers, so Parliament may legislate even on a State List subject.
• No State's consent, and no resolution of any State legislature, is required under Article 253.
• Entry 14 of the Union List covers entering into and implementing treaties, agreements and conventions with foreign countries, so treaty-making is a Union function throughout.
• Article 252 is the consent route: two or more State legislatures pass resolutions asking Parliament to legislate on a State List matter, and other States may adopt the law later.
• Article 249 lets Parliament legislate on a State List matter in the national interest on a Rajya Sabha resolution supported by two-thirds of the members present and voting, valid for one year and renewable.
• The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 was enacted under Article 253 to give effect to the decisions of the Stockholm Conference of June 1972; the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 was enacted under Article 252 on State resolutions.
• The proviso to Article 368(2) requires ratification by the legislatures of not less than half the States for certain constitutional amendments — an amendment requirement, not a legislative one.

Common traps

• Confusing Article 253 with Article 252. The second is the consent route and requires State resolutions; the first requires nothing but the purpose.
• Importing the ratification requirement from the proviso to Article 368(2). That governs certain constitutional amendments, not ordinary legislation.
• Assuming a federation must obtain its units' consent to implement a treaty. India's Constitution deliberately provides the opposite.
• Overlooking the non-obstante clause. 'Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions' is what makes the power override the distribution of legislative subjects.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under which Article may Parliament legislate on a matter in the State List if the legislatures of two or more States pass resolutions to that effect ?

  • (a)Article 249
  • (b)Article 250
  • (c)Article 252
  • (d)Article 253

  Answer(c) Article 252 — it permits Parliament to legislate for two or more States on a State List matter where their legislatures have passed resolutions requesting it, and allows any other State to adopt the law afterwards. The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 was enacted by this route. Article 253 needs no consent at all.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 was enacted by Parliament principally in exercise of its power to

  • (a)legislate on a Concurrent List subject after obtaining the President's assent
  • (b)implement decisions taken at an international conference
  • (c)legislate during a Proclamation of Emergency
  • (d)legislate on the request of a majority of the State legislatures

  Answer(b) implement decisions taken at an international conference — the Act gives effect to the decisions of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held at Stockholm in June 1972, and rests on Article 253, which requires no State consent. It was passed in the aftermath of the Bhopal gas disaster of December 1984 as India's umbrella environmental law.