GOVERNMENT OF MANIPUR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment dispose of Civil Writ Petitions 10155 of 1995 (The Government of Manipur v. The State of Punjab), 10255 of 1995 (The Government of Assam v. The State of Punjab), 10254 of 1995 (The Government of Nagaland v. The State of Punjab ) and 10923 of 1995 (Govt. of Mizoram v. State of Punjab), as common questions of law and fact are involved in all these petitions. In whichever writ petition, any additional point has been raised, the same shall be dealt with separately. Facts are taken from CWP 10155 of 1995.

(2.) Government of Manipur (hereinafter referred to as 'the petitioner') seeks to challenge the action of the respondents vide which sale/distribution of tickets of various lotteries 'organised' by it in the State of Punjab has been stopped. The only question which is involved is "As to whether the lotteries organised by the petitioner are State 'organised' lotteries, falling under Entry 40, List 1 of VIIth Schedule of the Constitution of India with regard to which only Parliament can legislate, or whether the same are State 'authorised' letteries for which the State of Punjab had the legislative competence to make law/control the same falling under Entry 34 of List II ?"

(3.) Scheme of division of legislative powers between the Union and the States is given under Part XI of the Constitution of India, under the heading 'Relations Between the Union and the States'. There is a three part distribution of legislative powers between the Union and the States under the Constitution of India, made up of three legislative lists in the VIIth, Schedule of the Constitution. Union List or List I includes subjects over which the Union shall have exclusive powers of legislation. For the entries in List II or the State List, the State Legislature has exclusive powers of legislation. List III gives concurrent powers to the Union and the State Legislatures and residual powers belong to the Union. In the case of overlapping of a matter as between the three lists, predominance has been given to the Union Legislature.