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

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, Without the consent of any State. The stem is a paraphrase of Article 253, and the Article answers it in its opening words: '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 that non obstante clause. The 'foregoing provisions of this Chapter' are the ordinary distribution of legislative power — Article 246 and the Seventh Schedule, which reserve the State List to the States, and Articles 249, 250 and 252, which set out the narrow routes by which Parliament may enter the State List. Article 253 sweeps all of them aside for one purpose. If a treaty obligation requires legislation on a subject that would otherwise be exclusively the States', Parliament may simply legislate; no State's assent is asked for, no resolution is required, and no State can opt out. The three rejected options each import a consent requirement that belongs to a different Article. Article 252 is the one that genuinely needs State consent, and reading it beside 253 is the fastest way to see why (b) must be right: 252 works only 'if resolutions to that effect are passed by all the Houses of the Legislatures of those States', and 253 begins by disapplying exactly that scheme. It is also worth knowing that UPSC set this same question in 2000 in almost identical words and its published key names 'without the consent of any State' — the text at option (B) here. That is independent corroboration of the constitutional position; it is not this Commission's key, which was never published.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This is Article 252, transplanted to the wrong Article. Under 252 Parliament may legislate for two or more States on a matter otherwise outside its competence only if all the Houses of those States' Legislatures pass resolutions asking it to, and the resulting Act binds only those States plus any other that later adopts it by resolution. Article 253 exists precisely to dispense with that machinery, because a treaty obligation binds the Union internationally and cannot be left to depend on State-by-State assent.  (c) No provision of the Constitution makes Parliament's legislative power turn on the consent of a majority of States. Ratification by the Legislatures of not less than one-half of the States is required for certain constitutional amendments under the proviso to Article 368(2), and that is the requirement this option is echoing — but a law implementing a treaty is ordinary legislation, not a constitutional amendment, and Article 253 asks for nothing of the kind.  (d) The furthest from the text. Unanimity among the States appears nowhere in the Constitution as a condition for Parliament to legislate; even the amendment procedure in Article 368 asks only for half. Requiring it here would let a single State's refusal make it impossible for India to honour a treaty it has signed, which is the exact outcome the non obstante clause in Article 253 was written to prevent.

Concept: The Constitution divides legislative power by Article 246 and the Seventh Schedule — Union List, State List, Concurrent List — and then provides five ways for Parliament to reach into the State List, each with its own trigger. Article 249: the Council of States resolves by not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting that a named State List matter should be legislated on in the national interest, and Parliament may then do so for as long as the resolution stands, which is up to one year at a time. Article 250: a Proclamation of Emergency is in operation, and Parliament may legislate on any State List matter for its duration. Article 252: two or more State Legislatures pass resolutions inviting Parliament to legislate, and the resulting law applies to them and to any State that adopts it later. Article 253: a treaty, agreement, convention or decision of an international conference requires implementation, and Parliament may legislate for the whole or any part of India with no State involvement at all. Article 356: the State's own legislative power is exercised by or under the authority of Parliament during President's rule. Article 253 is the widest of the five in one respect and the narrowest in another — it needs no one's permission, but only for the purpose of implementing an international commitment.

State PCS 2025 Q99 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q99 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer