The Seventh Schedule — Union List, State List, Concurrent List and the Subject-Matching Trick

One Table Decides Who Makes Which Law

Article 246 of the Constitution links Parliament and every State Legislature to a single table: the Seventh Schedule, which sorts every subject a government might legislate on into three lists.

List I — Union List: subjects only Parliament can make laws on — defence, foreign affairs, railways, currency, banking, atomic energy.

List II — State List: subjects only the State Legislature can make laws on — police, public health, agriculture, local government.

List III — Concurrent List: subjects both Parliament and State Legislatures can make laws on — education, forests, marriage and divorce, criminal law.

The logic behind the split is simple once you see it: anything that must be *one policy across the whole country* sits in the Union List; anything that genuinely differs by state condition sits in the State List; anything both levels have a legitimate stake in sits in Concurrent. Exams test whether you can apply that logic to a subject you've never memorised, not just recall the list you were taught.

1. Which list does 'Police' belong to?

2. What was the original 1950 count of Union List subjects?

3. Which article allows a central law to prevail over a conflicting state law on a Concurrent subject?

4. Which subject moved from the State List to the Concurrent List by the 42nd Amendment (1976)?

5. Residuary powers — subjects mentioned in none of the three lists — belong to whom?

6. Which of these is Concurrent, not State, despite feeling like a local matter?

7. Tax on agricultural income, distinct from ordinary income tax, belongs to which list?

8. Inter-state trade and commerce belongs to which list?