What are the Powers of Indian Parliament to Repeal Law?

Power of Parliament to repeal law- Under the proviso to clause (2) of Article 254, Parliament can enact at any time any law with respect to the same matter including a law adding to, amending, varying or repealing the law so made by the Legislature of the State.

Ordinarily, the Parliament would not have the power to repeal a law passed by the State Legislature even though it is a law with respect to one of the matters enumerated in the Concurrent List.

Sec­tion 107 of the Government of India Act, 1935 did not contain any such power. Art. 254 (2) of the Constitution of India is in substance a reproduction of section 107 of the 1935 Act, the concluding portion whereof being incorporated in a proviso with further additions.

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Discussing the nature of the power of the Dominion Legislature, Canada, in relation to that of the Provincial Legislature, it was ob­served by Lord Waston in Attorney-General for Ontario v. Attorney- General for the Dominion, (1896) A.C. 348 that though a law enacted by the Parliament of Canada and within its competence would over­ride the Provincial Legislation covering the same field, the Dominion Parliament had no authority conferred upon it under the Constitution to enact a statute repealing directly any Provincial statute.

That would appear to have been the position under section 107 (2) of the Govern­ment of India Act with reference to the subjects mentioned in the Concurrent List.

Now, by the proviso to Art. 254 (2), the Indian Constitution has enlarged the powers of Parliament and, under that proviso, Parliament can do what the Central Legislature could not do under section 107 of the Government of India Act, and can enact a law adding to, amending, varying or repealing a law of the State when it relates to a matter mentioned in the Concurrent List. Therefore the Parliament can, acting under the proviso to Art. 254 (2) repeal a State Law.

While the proviso does confer on Parliament a power to repeal a law passed by the State Legislature, this power is subject to certain limitations. It is limited to enacting a law with respect to the same matter adding to, amending, varying or repealing a law so made by the State Legislature.

The law referred to here is the law mentioned in the body of Art. 254 (2), It is a law made by the State Legislature with reference to a matter in the Concurrent List containing provisions repugnant to an earlier law made by Parliament and with the consent of the President. It is only such a law that can be altered, amended, repealed under the proviso.

The power of repeal conferred by the proviso can be exercised by Parliament alone and cannot be delegated to an executive authority.

The repeal of a statute means that the repealed statute must be regarded as if it had never been on the statute book. It is wiped out from the statute book.

In the case of Delhi Laws Act, 1951 S.C.R. 747, it was held that to repeal or abrogate an existing law is the exercise of* an essential legislative power.

Parliament, being supreme, can certainly make a law abrogating or repealing by implication provisions of any pre-existing law and no exception can be taken on the ground of excessive delegation to the Act of the Parliament itself.