BharatNotes What is Residuary Powers?
Residuary powers are the authority to legislate on subjects that find no place in any of the three Lists of the Seventh Schedule — the Union List (List I), the State List (List II) or the Concurrent List (List III). Under Article 248 of the Constitution, "Parliament has exclusive power to make any law with respect to any matter not enumerated in the Concurrent List or State List," and this includes the power to impose any tax not mentioned in those Lists. The same authority is reflected as the residuary head of power in Entry 97 of the Union List. In short, whatever is not assigned to the States or shared with them defaults to the Union — a clear constitutional bias towards a strong Centre.
Key Features
- Exclusive to Parliament: State legislatures can never exercise residuary power; it vests solely in the Union.
- Twin source: Article 248 (the substantive provision) operates together with Entry 97 of List I.
- Tax dimension: It expressly covers taxes not mentioned in any List.
- Post-GST limitation: The Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016 made Article 248 "subject to Article 246A," which governs Goods and Services Tax. This is the key recent change to the provision (effective with the GST regime, 2017).
Comparative Position
| Country | Where Residuary Powers Lie |
|---|---|
| India | Union (Centre) — Article 248, Entry 97 |
| USA | States |
| Canada | Centre (federal government) |
| GoI Act, 1935 (pre-Independence) | Governor-General (in his discretion) |
The framers consciously rejected the American model. They drew on the Government of India Act, 1935, which had placed residuary discretion with the Governor-General, and aligned India closer to the Canadian centralising approach.
Significance and Judicial Interpretation
Residuary power prevents any legislative gap and lets the Union respond to emerging subjects unforeseen in 1950 — for example, information technology, space programmes and online commerce. The Supreme Court has read the power broadly. In the landmark Union of India v. H.S. Dhillon (decided 21 October 1971), the Court upheld Parliament's competence to levy wealth tax that included the value of agricultural land, locating the power in Article 248 read with Entry 97. The Court clarified that once a matter is found not to fall within the State List, Parliament is competent to legislate on it under the residuary head — placing the onus on those challenging a central law to show it falls within List II.
UPSC Angle
This is a foundation topic for Indian federalism. Prelims questions often pair Article 248 with Entry 97 and test the India-versus-USA contrast (a recurring distractor). For Mains GS2, residuary powers feature in answers on the federal-with-unitary-bias debate, Centre-State legislative relations, and the strong-Centre design of the Constitution. Do not confuse residuary legislative power (Parliament) with the distribution under Article 246; and remember the post-2016 carve-out for GST under Article 246A.
