Dominance of Union in the distribution of legislative process

The Constitution of India is a federal Constitution with the distribution of various powers between the Union and the States. The most important feature of a federal Constitution is the distribution of legislative power between the Center and the states. The distribution of power is an essential feature of federalism. The object for which a federal state is formed involves a diversion of authority between the national government and the separate states.

A basic test applied to decide what subjects should be allotted to the one or the other level of government is that functions of national importance should go to the center, and those of local interest should go to the regions.

The distribution of legislative powers is covered under Part XI Chapter I of the Constitution and the List of subjects is given in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution. While there is a distribution of legislative powers, in cases of emergency or under certain circumstances, the Union Legislature has power to make laws superseding the State laws under the topics covered in the State list. Similarly, as far as the Concurrent List is concerned, in cases of repugnancy, the laws made by the Union Legislature shall prevail over the ones made by State Legislatures. The Union Parliament has also the power to make law for two or more States, when they request it to do so.

Thus, going by the scheme of Part XI Chapter I of the Constitution of India, it can be inferred that it has been intended by the Constitution makers that the Parliament should have a dominant role in the legislative field as compared with the state legislatures. The Union List has greater number of Entries, further the Union laws shall prevail in cases of repugnancy with the state laws made in respect of the Concurrent List or the State List under special circumstances like emergency or in case when a resolution is passed by the Council of States when  the same acquires a national importance .

                Therefore, overall it can be stated that there is a dominance of the union in the distribution of legislative process between the union and the state. The aim behind such dominance is to create a stronger center with wider legislative powers as the strength of the nation depends upon its center and a strong center will lead to a strong country.