the Andaman and Nicobar Islands no legislature can be created under Article 239-A, and for such territories there can be no authority competent to legislate with respect to matters, enumerated in the State List.Such a construction is repugnant to the subject and context of Article 246.” (emphasis supplied)
60. The position that Section 3(58) of the General Clauses Act is inapplicable to Article 246 was reiterated by a nine Judge Bench of this Court in NDMC v. State of Punjab[1]. The Seventh Schedule was inserted under Article 246. In view of the position laid down in Kanniyan (supra) and NDMC (supra), the word “State” used in entries in the Seventh Schedule would also not include Union Territories. Thus, the legislative competence of NCTD would not extend to entries which mention ‘State’. The usage of the phrase “insofar as such matter is applicable to Union Territories” was included to avert such a consequence. The phrase has extended the legislative power of NCTD to all the entries in List II, which use the word “State”.
61. Any amendment to the State List as well as the Concurrent List, being an amendment to the Seventh Schedule must be in accordance with Article 368 of the Constitution. The proviso to Article 368(2) of the Constitution stipulates that an amendment to the Seventh Schedule would need a special majority of two-thirds of the members of each House of Parliament present and voting. The amendment would also need to be ratified by the legislatures of not less than one-half of the States. If the phrase “insofar as such matter is applicable to Union Territories” was not included in Article 239AA, Parliament and the Legislature of States would have
- ↑ 1997 (7) SCC 339
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