UPSC Mains 2019 GS Paper 2 Q4: model answer
From the resolution of contentious issues regarding distribution of legislative powers by the courts, ‘Principle of Federal Supremacy’ and ‘Harmonious Construction’ have emerged. Explain.
What the question wants
Explain the principles of federal supremacy and harmonious construction that courts use to settle legislative conflicts.
How to structure it
Explain: define, give the Article and a case each, then show how they fit together.
- Where conflicts arise
- Federal supremacy
- Harmonious construction
- Helper doctrines
How to think it through
Federal supremacy is the tie-breaker; harmonious construction is the attempt to avoid a tie. Courts try the second first, like a good parent with two quarrelling children.
Model answer
Schedule Seven has 97 Union, 66 State and 47 Concurrent entries as originally framed. With so many lists, overlaps were certain.
Federal supremacy
- Article 246 opens with 'notwithstanding': if an entry in the Union List and one in the
State List truly collide, the Union entry wins.
- Article 254: in Concurrent matters, a Union law prevails over a repugnant State law, unless the State law got Presidential assent.
- Courts use it only as a last resort, as in State of West Bengal v Kesoram Industries (2004).
Harmonious construction
- Courts read entries so that each keeps meaning and neither is made useless.
- In ITC v Agricultural Produce Market Committee (2002), the Court reconciled a State market fee with a Union tobacco law.
Helper doctrines
- Pith and substance: look at the true nature of a law (Prafulla Kumar Mukherjee, 1947).
- Colourable legislation: what cannot be done directly cannot be done indirectly.
Together they keep federalism workable: harmony first, supremacy only when harmony fails. This keeps the Union from swallowing State powers through broad readings of its entries.
Draw: A flow chart: conflict → try harmonious reading → if impossible, Union entry prevails.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
Article 246, 254, 'notwithstanding', repugnancy, Kesoram 2004, ITC v APMC 2002, pith and substance, colourable legislation.
Where most answers lose marks
- Treating them as rivals. They work in sequence, not in competition.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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