Legislative Competence over Personal Laws

Legislative competence over marriage, divorce and specified personal-law matters belongs to the Concurrent List. Specifically, Entry 5 of List III in the Seventh Schedule enables both Parliament and State Legislatures to legislate on these subjects, subject to constitutional rules governing inconsistency between their laws.

Constitutional allocation

Under Article 246(2), both Parliament and State Legislatures may enact laws on subjects in the Concurrent List. Entry 5 of List III covers marriage and divorce, infants and minors, adoption, wills, intestacy and succession, joint family and partition.

• Entry 5 also includes matters concerning which parties in judicial proceedings were, immediately before the Constitution commenced, subject to their personal law.
• The entry supplies legislative competence regardless of whether the applicable rules originate in religion, custom or an existing statute.

How concurrent competence operates

Parliament can enact a law applicable across India, while a State Legislature can legislate for that State, subject to the Constitution. If valid Union and State laws on the same Concurrent List matter conflict, Article 254 governs repugnancy.

• Ordinarily, the parliamentary law prevails and the conflicting State law is void to the extent of repugnancy.
• A State law reserved for and receiving the President's assent may prevail within that State, but Parliament may subsequently override it.

Distinction from the Uniform Civil Code

Article 44 directs the State to endeavour to secure a Uniform Civil Code throughout India. It is a Directive Principle and does not itself allocate legislative power; competence for the relevant subjects principally follows Entry 5 of the Concurrent List.