Q1. Which of the following pairs is correctly matched with regard to the subject and its respective list under the Seventh Schedule?
- (a) Police - Union List
- (b) Education- State List
- (c) Trade and Commerce -Concurrent List
- (d) Banking - State List
Answer & solution
Answer: (c) Trade and Commerce -Concurrent List
The other three pairs are plainly mismatched — police is State List, education has been Concurrent List since the 42nd Amendment, 1976, and banking is Union List.
Trade and commerce is the only pair left standing, because Concurrent List Entry 33 covers trade and commerce in foodstuffs, cattle fodder, raw cotton, jute and the products of scheduled industries.
Revision note — The Seventh Schedule and Article 246
• The Seventh Schedule, read with Article 246, holds three lists — Union, State and Concurrent — originally with 97, 66 and 47 entries.
• Union List: defence, foreign affairs, atomic energy, railways, banking, currency, posts and telegraphs, inter-State trade and commerce.
• State List: police, public order, prisons, public health, agriculture, local government, and trade and commerce within the State (Entry 26).
• Concurrent List: criminal law and criminal procedure, marriage and divorce, education, forests, weights and measures, and protection of wild animals and birds.
• The 42nd Amendment, 1976 moved education, forests, weights and measures, protection of wild animals and birds, and administration of justice from the State List to the Concurrent List.
• Under Article 254 a Union law prevails over a conflicting State law on a Concurrent subject, unless the State law was reserved for and received the President's assent under 254(2).
• Article 248 gives residuary powers — subjects in no list at all — exclusively to Parliament.
Do not mix these up
• Intra-State vs inter-State trade — trade within a State is State List Entry 26; inter-State trade and commerce is Union List Entry 42; only trade in listed goods is Concurrent (Entry 33).
• Police vs administration of justice — police stayed in the State List, but administration of justice went to the Concurrent List in 1976.
Also asked from this topic: the list education now sits in (Concurrent List); the amendment that moved it (42nd, 1976); who holds residuary powers (Parliament, under Article 248).