Article 272 of the Costitution of India with Case law
📜 Article 272 of the Constitution of India – (Omitted by the 80th Amendment, 2000)
❌ Current Status:
Article 272 has been omitted by the Constitution (Eightieth Amendment) Act, 2000, which came into effect from 1st April 2003.
🔍 Original Text of Article 272 (Before Omission):
"Union duties levied and collected but assigned to the States."
This Article provided that:
Excise duties on goods (other than those on medicinal and toilet preparations containing alcohol) levied and collected by the Union shall be distributed between the Union and the States.
The manner of distribution was to be prescribed by the President on the recommendation of the Finance Commission.
🧠 Purpose Before Omission:
It dealt with sharing of revenue collected from certain Union excise duties with the States.
It aimed to support fiscal federalism by ensuring States received a portion of central taxes.
🛑 Why Was Article 272 Omitted?
The 80th Constitutional Amendment (2000) and Tenth Finance Commission recommended a new scheme of tax devolution.
Under the new scheme:
All central taxes, including Union excise duties and income tax, would be pooled together.
A fixed percentage of this pool would be assigned to the States.
This rendered Articles 268, 269, 270, 272 partially or completely redundant.
As a result, Article 272 was removed, and Article 270 was revised to consolidate tax-sharing provisions.
⚖️ Case Law (Historical Reference):
Although no major recent case law exists on Article 272 after its omission, it was discussed contextually in financial devolution and federalism cases, such as:
1. Re: The Berubari Union Case (1960)
Citation: AIR 1960 SC 845
Relevance:
While not directly on Article 272, it discusses the distribution of powers between Centre and States, including fiscal matters, forming part of the context in which Article 272 was interpreted.
2. State of West Bengal v. Union of India
Citation: AIR 1963 SC 1241
Relevance:
Again, though not directly about Article 272, it dealt with Centre-State financial relations, a domain Article 272 originally belonged to.
🔁 Now Replaced By:
| Replaced By | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Article 270 (as amended) | Now governs distribution of all taxes collected by the Union (except surcharges and cesses). |
| Finance Commission (Article 280) | Recommends the share of taxes and grants-in-aid to States. |
📚 Summary Table:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Article | 272 |
| Title | Union Duties – Distribution to States |
| Current Status | Omitted by 80th Amendment |
| Effective From | 1st April 2003 |
| Reason for Omission | New unified tax-sharing mechanism under Article 270 |
| Replaced By | Article 270 (as amended), based on Finance Commission recommendations |
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