Explanation: Distribution of Legislative Subjects

The Constitution provides for a three-fold distribution of legislative subjects between the Centre and the states, viz., List-I (the Union List), List-II (the State List) and List-III (the Concurrent List) in the Seventh Schedule:

• The Parliament has exclusive powers to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the Union List. This list has at present 100 subjects (originally 971 subjects) like defence, banking, foreign affairs, currency, atomic energy, insurance, communication, inter-state trade and commerce, census, audit and so on.
• The state legislature has “in normal circumstances” exclusive powers to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the State List.
• This has at present 61 subjects (originally 662 subjects) like public order, police, public health and sanitation, agriculture, prisons, local government, fisheries, markets, theaters, gambling and so on.
• Both, the Parliament and state legislature can make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the Concurrent List. This list has at present 52 subjects (originally 473 subjects) like criminal law and procedure, civil procedure, marriage and divorce, population control and family planning, electricity, labour welfare, economic and social planning, drugs, newspapers, books and printing press, and others. The 42^nd Amendment Act of 1976 transferred five subjects to Concurrent List from State List, that is,
  • education,
  • forests,
  • weights and measures,
  • protection of wild animals and birds, and
  • administration of justice;

constitution and organisation of all courts except the Supreme Court and the high courts.

The power to make laws with respect to residuary subjects (i.e., the matters which are not enumerated in any of the three lists) is vested in Parliament.

This residuary power of legislation includes the power to levy residuary taxes.

Source: Indian Polity by Laxmikanth