Important Legal Definitions

Based on the Latin maxim "what cannot be done directly cannot also be done indirectly." It applies when a legislature, lacking the constitutional competence to enact a law directly, dresses up the statute in a manner that conceals its unauthorized encroachment.

In K.C. Gajapati Narayan Deo v. State of Orissa, the court examined an estate abolition act to verify if disguised agricultural tax provisions were an indirect mechanism to avoid paying real compensation for seized land.