Doctrine of Pith and Substance

Abstract

There is a mutually exclusive division of constitutional rights between the Union and the Provinces. It states that, under the Constitution, the Parliament and State Legislature shall remain within the area assigned to them and they should not enter the field assigned to others. Article 246 of the Scheme is such that it grants primacy to Union law in the event of a dispute or overlap between Union law and State law, but the Court applies 'the doctrine of Pith and Substance' until a law dealing with one subject in one list and even affecting a subject in another list is considered to be evil. In other words, the law's pith and content, i.e. the true purpose of the law or statute, applies to a matter with the authority of the legislature that passed it, it should be called intra vires, even though it may incidentally trench on matters not under the jurisdiction of the legislature.