Constitutional rule in Article 251: Articles 249 and 250 do not themselves prevent a State Legislature from making a law that it is otherwise constitutionally competent to make. Where a provision of such a State law conflicts with a Parliamentary law that Parliament had power to enact under Article 249 or Article 250, the Parliamentary provision prevails whether it was enacted before or after the State provision. The conflicting part of the State law remains inoperative while the Parliamentary law continues in force.
Articles 251 and 252 of the Constitution of India: Parliament and State Laws
Updated: 19 September 2026
Articles 251 and 252 form part of the constitutional scheme governing the legislative relations between the Union and the States. Article 251 deals with a conflict between a State law and a Parliamentary law made under Articles 249 or 250. Article 252 provides a separate mechanism under which Parliament may legislate on a State List matter for two or more States that consent by legislative resolution, with other States able to adopt that Parliamentary law later.
Official text: The current text of the Constitution can be checked on the Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice and through India Code.
Article 251 - Inconsistency between Parliamentary and State laws
Meaning: Article 251 preserves the normal legislative power of a State Legislature even while Parliament is temporarily empowered to legislate on a State List subject under Article 249 or Article 250. If a State law is repugnant to a Parliamentary law validly made under either of those Articles, however, the Parliamentary law prevails. The State law becomes inoperative only to the extent of the repugnancy and only for so long as the Parliamentary law continues to have effect.
How Article 251 works
| Issue | Constitutional position |
|---|---|
| State legislative power | The State Legislature is not stripped of its own legislative competence merely because Parliament can legislate under Article 249 or 250. |
| Repugnancy | If provisions of the State law and the relevant Parliamentary law are inconsistent, the Parliamentary law prevails to the extent of the inconsistency. |
| Duration | The State provision is inoperative only while the Parliamentary law made under Article 249 or 250 continues to have effect. |
Article 252 - Parliament legislating for consenting States
Meaning: Article 252 enables Parliament to legislate on a matter for which it ordinarily lacks power to make a law for States, when the Legislatures of at least two States consider Parliamentary regulation desirable and pass the constitutionally required resolutions. The resulting Parliamentary Act initially applies to those States and can later be adopted by another State through a legislative resolution.
Clause (1): Where the Legislatures of two or more States consider it desirable that a matter outside Parliament's ordinary legislative power for the States, except as provided by Articles 249 and 250, should be regulated by Parliament, the required resolutions may be passed by all Houses of those State Legislatures. Parliament may then enact a law regulating that matter for those States. Another State may subsequently adopt that Act by the required resolution of its Legislature.
Clause (2): An Act enacted under Article 252 can, in relation to a State to which it applies, be amended or repealed only by an Act of Parliament passed or adopted in the same constitutional manner. The Legislature of that State cannot itself amend or repeal the Parliamentary Act.
Essential features of Article 252
| Stage | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Initiation | At least two State Legislatures must pass resolutions requesting Parliamentary legislation on the relevant matter. |
| Parliamentary law | Parliament may enact legislation regulating the matter for the States that passed the resolutions. |
| Later adoption | Another State can adopt the Parliamentary Act afterwards by the resolution procedure specified in Article 252. |
| Amendment or repeal | For a State to which the Act applies, amendment or repeal must be through Parliament in the manner contemplated by Article 252(2), not by that State Legislature acting alone. |
Difference between Articles 251 and 252
Article 251 is a rule for resolving inconsistency when Parliament legislates under the special powers in Articles 249 or 250. Article 252, by contrast, is based on State legislative consent: it enables Parliament to make a law for consenting States on a matter that would ordinarily fall outside Parliament's legislative power for those States.
Related constitutional provisions
For the broader legislative scheme, read Articles 249 and 250, which provide the special Parliamentary powers referred to in Article 251, and Articles 253 and 254, which deal respectively with legislation for implementing international agreements and inconsistency between Parliamentary and State laws in the constitutional circumstances covered there.