Question

Under the Constitution of India, Parliament enacts legislation to implement India's obligations under an international environmental agreement. The subject ordinarily falls within the State List and no resolution under Article 252 has been passed. The source of Parliament's competence would be:

• A. Article 250
• B. Article 252
• C. Article 253
• D. None of the above

Hint:

Remember: International Treaty = Article 253 National Emergency = Article 250 State Resolution = Article 252 These three Articles are frequently confused in examinations.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Step 1: Note what triggers each numbered article. Article 250 needs an Emergency Proclamation in force. Article 252 needs a resolution passed by two or more State Legislatures asking Parliament to legislate. Article 253 needs an international treaty, agreement, convention, or decision of an international body that Parliament wants to implement, and it works regardless of the Union, State or Concurrent List.

Step 2: Match the facts against these triggers. There is no Emergency in the facts, so Article 250 is out. The facts specifically say no Article 252 resolution has been passed, so Article 252 is out too. What remains is that Parliament is legislating to carry out India's obligations under an international environmental agreement.

Step 3: Apply Article 253 to the facts. Article 253 lets Parliament legislate on any subject, including one that ordinarily sits in the State List, purely because it is implementing a treaty or international agreement. Environmental protection sits in the State List generally, but that does not matter once Article 253 is invoked for a treaty obligation.

Step 4: Reach the conclusion. Since only Article 253 supplies a valid, unconditional basis for this law, that is the source of Parliament's competence.
\[ \boxed{\text{Article 253}} \]

Answer 2

Another way to reach the answer is to sort the three named articles into their constitutional families first, then see which family the facts belong to.

1. Article 250: This belongs to the emergency powers family of provisions, alongside Articles 249 and 354, all of which temporarily centralize legislative power during a Proclamation of Emergency. Nothing in the facts involves an emergency, so this family does not apply here.
2. Article 252: This belongs to the cooperative federalism family, where the States themselves voluntarily hand over a subject to Parliament through resolutions. This route depends entirely on State initiative, and the facts confirm no such State resolution exists, so this family is also inapplicable.
3. Article 253: This belongs to the international obligations family, a category by itself, allowing Parliament to legislate on any subject purely to give effect to India's external commitments, treaties or decisions of international bodies. Since the facts are squarely about implementing an international environmental agreement, this is the only family that fits.
4. None of the above: Once one provision from the given list matches the facts cleanly, this residual option cannot be the right choice.

Sorting the options by what kind of constitutional situation they are designed for, rather than reading them one by one in isolation, again shows that the facts belong to the international obligations category governed by Article 253.

So the correct answer is Article 253.