Retrospective Legislation

Retrospective legislation changes the legal consequences of acts, transactions or events that occurred before the law commenced. Indian legislatures may enact such laws, but retrospectivity does not cure lack of legislative competence and remains subject to Fundamental Rights and judicial review.

Legislative competence and constitutional supremacy

A retrospective law must fall within the enacting legislature's territorial and subject-matter competence under Articles 245 and 246 and the Seventh Schedule. Like any other law, it is void to the extent that it violates applicable Fundamental Rights under Article 13.

• A retrospective tax must possess valid legislative authority because Article 265 permits taxation only by authority of law.
• Retrospectivity cannot validate action concerning a subject outside the legislature's constitutional field.

Protection against retrospective penal laws

Article 20(1) prohibits conviction for an act that was not an offence when committed and prohibits imposing a penalty greater than the one then applicable. This protection applies to criminal liability, not ordinarily to retrospective civil, regulatory or tax consequences.

• A law reducing punishment or otherwise benefiting an accused may receive retrospective application without offending Article 20(1).
• Procedural changes may generally apply to pending proceedings, provided they do not retrospectively create an offence or enhance punishment.

Fundamental Rights and judicial decisions

A retrospective law may be invalidated if it produces arbitrary or discriminatory consequences contrary to Article 14, or unjustifiably restricts applicable freedoms under Article 19. Other constitutional protections, including Article 21, continue to apply according to the law's subject matter.

• A validation law may retrospectively remove the legal defect identified by a court, as recognised in Shri Prithvi Cotton Mills v. Broach Borough Municipality.
• The legislature cannot merely declare a judicial decision ineffective without changing its underlying legal basis, because adjudication remains a judicial function.
• Delegated legislation may operate retrospectively only when the parent statute expressly, or by necessary implication, authorises it.