Law

The word law is used across every statute, but its most tested legal meaning is the one in Article 13(3)(a) of the Constitution. For Article 13, law includes any Ordinance, order, bye-law, rule, regulation, notification, custom or usage having in the territory of India the force of law. The definition is inclusive, so it reaches delegated legislation and executive orders with legal force, and even custom and usage, and all of them are open to challenge for violating fundamental rights.

Article 13(1) declares pre-Constitution laws in force void to the extent of inconsistency with Part III, and Article 13(2) forbids the State from making any law that takes away or abridges those rights, voiding any law to the extent of contravention. Laws in force, under Article 13(3)(b), include laws made before the Constitution and not repealed, even if not then in operation. Article 13(4) provides that nothing in the Article applies to an amendment of the Constitution made under Article 368, so constitutional amendments are tested instead against the basic structure.

Other provisions use law in different senses. In A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras (1950), the majority read law in Article 21 as State-made or enacted law, rejecting due process and natural justice as tests; later decisions required such procedure to be fair, just and reasonable. In Harla v. State of Rajasthan (1951), a measure passed by a resolution of a council of ministers but never promulgated or published was held not to be operative law, because a law must be made known before it binds. Under Article 141, the law declared by the Supreme Court binds all courts in India.

Other statutes define law for their own purposes, such as Section 2(1)(y) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Examiners test the items listed in Article 13(3)(a), the exclusion of amendments by Article 13(4), the meaning of law in Article 21, and the need for publication.