The lsquo Doctrine of Pith amp Substance rsquo refers to the ........

Indian Polity Centre - State Relations

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The ‘Doctrine of Pith & Substance’ refers to the

Power of the Supreme Court to go into the details of reasonable restriction

Power of the court to see that the executive performs the functions in tune with the Constitutional provisions

Competence of the legislature to make law with the prescribed jurisdiction

Limitation imposed on the judiciary which is kept in mind while pronouncing judgements?

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Explanation:

The basic purpose of this doctrine is to determine under which head of power or field i.e. under which list (given in the Seventh Schedule) a given piece of legislation falls.

Pith means ‘true nature’ or ‘essence of something’ and Substance means ‘the most important or essential part of something’.

Doctrine of Pith and Substance says that where the question arises of determining whether a particular law relates to a particular subject (mentioned in one List or another), the court looks to the substance of the matter. Thus, if the substance falls within Union List, then the incidental encroachment by the law on the State List does not make it invalid.

This is essentially a Canadian Doctrine now firmly entrenched in the Indian Constitutional Jurisprudence.