Exclusive Jurisdiction Regarding Central Laws (Omitted)
Official heading: “Exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in regard to questions as to constitutional validity of Central laws”
Enacted during the Emergency to strip High Courts of jurisdiction over Central statutes; repealed to restore constitutional balance.
- Source edition
- The Constitution of India (as on 1 May 2026)
- Source locator
- Part V, Article 131A, printed page 61
- Last human source-link check
- Not yet checked
- Last human legal review
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1. In One Sentence
Article 131A, inserted during the Emergency by the 42nd Amendment (1976) to grant the Supreme Court exclusive jurisdiction over the constitutional validity of Central laws, was omitted by the 43rd Amendment (1977).
2. What It Means in Everyday Language
Article 131A was inserted by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 during the national Emergency.
It sought to deprive State High Courts of their established power under Article 226 to review the constitutional validity of Central legislation, centralizing all such judicial challenges exclusively in the Supreme Court.
Following the revocation of the Emergency, Parliament enacted the Constitution (Forty-third Amendment) Act, 1977, which omitted Article 131A in its entirety (effective 13 April 1978).
The omission restored the traditional concurrent jurisdiction of State High Courts under Article 226 to examine the constitutional validity of both Central and State legislation, preserving accessible decentralized judicial review.
3. Practical Illustrative Example
A citizen in Kerala challenges a Central parliamentary statute before the Kerala High Court on grounds of violating fundamental rights.
4. Important Limits, Qualifications & Exceptions
Article 131A is an omitted provision reflecting an Emergency-era curtailment of High Court powers that was swiftly repealed.
- Inserted by 42nd Amendment (1976); omitted by 43rd Amendment (1977).
- Attempted to centralize Central law challenges in the Supreme Court.
- Omission restored decentralized judicial review across all High Courts.
5. Historical constitutional wording — not operative
6. Sources & Historical Assembly Deliberations
Assembly quotations are withheld until wording, dates, and attribution have been checked against the primary record.
- •Government of India (Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice) • Part V, Article 131A, printed page 61 • Human source-link check pending
Primary PDF accessed and transcribed with AI assistance on 14 October 2026. Formatting and amendment annotation markers are omitted; operative wording is retained. This is not human legal review. Later amendments and commencement notifications have not been comprehensively checked.