Legislative Competence over Nursing Regulation

Legislative competence means the constitutional authority of Parliament or a State Legislature to enact a law on a subject. Nursing regulation is not assigned exclusively to one level: professional regulation is principally concurrent, while public health administration belongs to States and specified educational standards belong to the Union.

Allocation under the Seventh Schedule

The entries must be read together because nursing combines professional regulation, education and healthcare delivery.

• Entry 26 of the Concurrent List covers legal, medical and other professions. It enables both Parliament and State Legislatures to regulate matters such as professional recognition, registration and standards of conduct for nursing professionals.
• Entry 25 of the Concurrent List covers education, including medical education, subject to specified Union List entries. It supports legislation concerning nursing education and training.
• Entry 66 of the Union List gives Parliament exclusive competence over coordination and determination of standards in institutions for higher education or research and scientific and technical institutions.
• Entry 6 of the State List covers public health and sanitation, hospitals and dispensaries. States therefore have primary competence over public health administration and State healthcare institutions.

Constitutional operation of overlapping powers

Under Article 246, Parliament and State Legislatures may both legislate on Concurrent List subjects, while Parliament has exclusive authority over Union List matters. A nursing law may incidentally affect education or hospitals; its legislative validity depends principally on its true subject and character.

• Where valid Union and State laws on a Concurrent List matter are irreconcilably inconsistent, Article 254 ordinarily gives the parliamentary law precedence.
• A State law reserved for and receiving the President's assent may prevail within that State, but Parliament can subsequently override it.

Resulting federal balance

Parliament can establish common norms for the nursing profession and applicable educational standards. States can regulate public hospitals, health administration and related institutional matters, while also legislating on the profession under the Concurrent List, subject to constitutional rules governing overlap and repugnancy.