Definition
Indirect encroachment.
Legislature cannot do indirectly what it cannot do directly.
Etymology & Origin
Based on the Latin maxim 'Quando aliquid prohibetur ex directo, prohibetur et per obliquum' (What cannot be done directly, cannot be done indirectly). 'Colourable' implies wearing a false color or disguise.
Full Legal Analysis
The Doctrine of Colourable Legislation acts as a check on legislative fraud. It applies when a legislature (Parliament or a State Assembly) lacks the constitutional power to make a law on a particular subject, but attempts to do so indirectly by disguising the law to make it look like it falls within their permitted jurisdiction.
If the court pierces the veil of the statute and finds that the legislature has transgressed its constitutional limits under the guise of exercising its lawful powers, the law will be struck down as 'colourable'.
This doctrine is often the flip side of 'Pith and Substance'. If the pith and substance of the law actually falls outside the legislature's list, the law is colourable.
The Supreme Court clarified that the doctrine applies only to the question of legislative competence. If a legislature has the power to make a law, its motives for making it are irrelevant and cannot make the law 'colourable'.
For advocates challenging state laws that disguise taxes as fees to bypass constitutional restrictions, invoking the doctrine of colourable legislation is the primary line of attack.
