Doctrine of Incidental and

Ancillary powers
State of Rajasthan v G. Chawla, AIR 1959 SC
544
• The State Legislature made a law restricting the usage of sound
amplifiers under the Ajmer (Sound Amplifiers Control) Act 1952.
• The respondent who had violated the impugned Act was prosecuted.
The Judicial Commissioner held the Act to be invalid and quashed the
conviction.
• On appeal to the SC, the state contended that the law was within the
legislative competence of the State since it fell under Entry 6 List II
“Public Health and Sanitation.”
• The respondent contended that the law fell under Entry 31 of the
Union List “Posts and Telegraphs, telephones, Wireless, Broadcasting
and other like forms of communication.”
Decision
• The SC held that the legislation in its pith and substance fell within
Entry 6. The power to legislate in relation to public health includes
the power the use of amplifiers as producers of loud noises when the
right of such user, by the disregard and the comfort and obligation to
the others, emerges as a manifest nuisance to them.
• The pith and substance of the impugned Act is the control of the use
of amplifiers in the interests of health and tranquility, and thus falls
substantially (if not wholly) within the powers conferred to preserve,
regulate and promote them and does not so fall within the entry in
the Union List, even though the amplifier, the use of which is
regulated and controlled is an apparatus for broadcasting or
communication.