Energy in the Constitution

In one line

Electricity is Concurrent, gas is a State subject, atomic energy and oilfields are Union, and coal is a State subject the Union has taken over by declaration.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: Entry 38 of the Concurrent List is "Electricity"; Entry 25 of the State List is "Gas and gas-works"; Entry 6 of the Union List is "Atomic energy and mineral resources necessary for its production"; Entry 53 of the Union List is "Regulation and development of oilfields and mineral oil resources; petroleum and petroleum products; other liquids and substances declared by Parliament by law to be dangerously inflammable"; and Entry 54 of the Union List is "Regulation of mines and mineral development to the extent to which such regulation and development under the control of the Union is declared by Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest".

The five entries that matter

Union List, Entry 6: atomic energy and mineral resources necessary for its production. Unqualified. No declaration is needed and no State has any competence at all, and that is why the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, reserves uranium and thorium and why sections 11B and 11C of the mining Act carve the atomic minerals out. (The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025, enacted in December 2025 but not in force as of September 2026, will on commencement repeal the 1962 Act; its section 5 keeps the working of uranium and thorium mines with the Government, a Government company or a Government corporation.)

Union List, Entry 53: oilfields and mineral oil resources, petroleum and petroleum products. Also unqualified. Petroleum and natural gas are Union subjects at the resource end, which is why the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act, 1948, and the rules made under it are central.

Union List, Entry 54: mines and mineral development, to the extent declared by Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest. Conditional on a declaration, and section 2 of the Mines and Minerals Act makes exactly that declaration. Coal is caught by it.

Union List, Entry 55: regulation of labour and safety in mines and oilfields. Union List, Entry 52: industries whose control by the Union is declared by Parliament to be expedient in the public interest.

State List, Entry 23: regulation of mines and mineral development subject to the provisions of List I with respect to regulation and development under the control of the Union. So the State's power over minerals survives only where the Union's declaration has not occupied the field, which for practical purposes leaves it minor minerals.

State List, Entry 25: gas and gas-works. This is the anomaly of Indian energy federalism, and it should be named: the gas in the ground is Union under Entry 53, and the gas-works that distribute it are State under Entry 25.