Education as a subject of legislation figures in the

Concept — Article 246 read with the Seventh Schedule distributes legislative competence in India across three lists: List I (Union), on whose entries Parliament alone may legislate; List II (State), on whose entries a state legislature ordinarily legislates; and List III (Concurrent), on whose entries both Parliament and the state legislatures are competent, with Union law ordinarily prevailing over a repugnant state law under Article 254 — the exception being Article 254(2), under which a state law reserved for and given the President's assent continues to operate in that state. A matter enumerated in none of the three lists falls to Parliament as residuary power under Article 248.

Application — Education was originally placed in the State List. Acting on the Swaran Singh Committee's recommendation, the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976 transferred it to the Concurrent List, where it stands today as Entry 25 of List III ('Education, including technical education, medical education and universities...'). Since that amendment both Parliament and the state legislatures hold competence over education.

Cross-check:

• Central statutes such as the Right to Education Act, 2009 operate nationwide while states simultaneously run their own school boards and education Acts — a division possible only for a subject on which both legislatures are competent.

• Residuary power under Article 248 reaches only matters not enumerated in any list, so it cannot govern an expressly enumerated subject.

• Before 1976 this same question would have been answered from the State List; it was the amendment, not the nature of the subject, that moved the position.

Result — Education is a subject of the Concurrent List (List III), Entry 25.