Professional Documents
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Administrative Law
Project
ON-
“Retrospective Operation of
Delegated Legislation”
--SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE PROJECT--
SUBMITTED TO:-
Mr..Girish R.,
FACUTLY FOR Administrative Law,
GUJARAT NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY
SUBMITTED BY:-
Prateeti Gaur
IV Semester, 09B085
B.A. LL.B. (HONS.),
GUJARAT NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I take this opportunity to thank a few people without whose help this project
would not have been completed. With immense pleasure I express my
special and sincere thanks to our Administrative Law professor Mr. Girish R,
without whose help the completion of this project would have been a dream for
us.
I am also thankful to all our friends who provided us support throughout the
completion of this project. Without their valuable support, I would never have
been able to get ahead in our project.
I would like to thank all those people who had been of great help for us.
Last but not the least; I am thankful to the almighty and my parents for their
blessings and never ending support.
PRATEETI GAUR
09B085
Research methodology
Methodology: -
The sources for this paper are the books, journals, reporters available in the
Gujarat National Law University library. The online libraries and resources from
the internet have also been used. Hence the research is doctrinal in nature.
List of abbreviations
• AC -Appeal Case
• ACJ –American Communication Journal
• Art- Article
• Ch- Chapter
• Co.-Company
• Corp.-Corporation
• Edn-Edition
• Hon’ble-Honourable
• HL-House of Lords
• M.P.-Madhya Pradesh
• Maha- Maharashtra
• Para- paragraph
• SC-Supreme Court
LIST OF CASES
• Baku Cashew Co. v. S.T. Officer, quilon, AIR 1987 SCC 2239
• Mathra Pd. & sons v. State of Punjab (1962) 13 STC 180 (SC)
Table of contents
• Delegated legislation
• Need for delegated legislation
• Reasons for control over delegated legislation
• Retrospective rules
• Case laws on retrospective operation
• Retrospective effect with reference to constitutional
law
• Principle of ultra vires
• Constitutionality of delegated legislation
• Conclusion
RETROSPECTIVE OPERATION OF
DELEGATED LEGISLATION
INTRODUCTION :
‘Delegated Legislation’ means the exercise of legislative power by an
agency which is subordinate to the legislature. It is a bureaucratic
legislation. It involves transfer of legislative power from the legislature to
the executive. The democratic safeguards that apply to a legislature are
absent in case of the delegated legislation. Hence, some controls and
safeguards are needed in that area.
Statutes are legislation made by Parliament, and need the consent of the
House of Commons and the HL, as well as the Monarch before they
become law. Before Bills are introduced into Parliament they will go
through a green and white paper process, allowing for public consultation.
The parliamentary debates on proposed legislation will also be made
public, allowing the parliamentary law-making process to appear open
and clear. The House of Commons can be considered to have the most
influence over legislation, since the House of Lords cannot veto a Bill, but
simply make amendments and slow the process, as the House of
Commons can send a Bill, without agreement from the House of Lords, for
Royal Assent after a year. The House of Commons is also democratically
elected, and as such its influence can be seen as fair and democratic,
allowing those voted for by the public to have the most power over
legislation. Parliament initially has the ability to limit the powers of bodies
and individuals creating delegated legislation, and set down procedure to
be followed in their creation; and if those creating the delegated
legislation do go beyond their powers, then the legislation will be void.
Effective check on delegated legislation is the Joint Select Committee on
Statutory Instruments, or the Scrutiny Committee. The Scrutiny
Committee reviews all statutory instruments and draws the attention of
parliament to certain points, if the statutory instrument; imposes a tax, is
made under an Act which states it cannot be challenged in court, is
designed to have retrospective effect, may be beyond powers or an
unusual use of them, or is badly drafted or in need of clarification.
DELEGATED LEGISLATION
Thus the main reason that controls over delegated legislation are
necessary is because it is not created by Parliament, and often not even
The most common reason for objecting delegated legislation in the courts
is due to ultra vires- where legislation goes beyond its power that
parliament granted under the enabling Act, whilst the validity of statute
can never be challenged by the courts due to parliamentary sovereignty.
Procedural ultra vires occurs when procedures under the enabling act
have failed to be followed and refers mainly to the situation where a
public authority has over stepped its powers. An example of ultra vires
The problem with enabling Acts is that it provides Ministers with high
discretionary powers as a result Elliott and Quinn demonstrate a phrase
such as the minister may make such regulations as he sees fit for the
purpose of bringing the Act into operation to be quite common; this
means it is rare for anything to lead to ultra vires leaving judicial review
effectively frustrated (Elliott and Quinn).
Under the principle of substantive ultra vires, the courts are able to
intervene to prevent or remedy an abuse of power by public authorities.
This occurred in the Commissioners of Custom and Excise V Cure and
Deely Ltd (1962), where the power of the commissioners to make
delegated legislation under the Finance Act 1940 was challenged. Under
this Act the commissioners determined the amount of tax due where a tax
return was submitted late however the High Court invalidated this and
argued that the commissioners had given themselves powers far beyond
what parliament had empowered, there job was to only collect the
amount of tax due. This is another case whether it has been clearly
demonstrated without controls many authorities will abuse the powers
ultra vires and again demonstrates why it is necessary to have control
over delegated legislation. In this demonstration control by the courts has
proved to be highly effective.
RETROSPECTIVE RULES
Legislature may enact laws with retrospective effect but a delegate
cannot exercise a similar power and give retrospectivity to the rules made
by it unless the parent statute gives it a power to do so either expressly
or by necessary implication. In other words we can say that a general
power to make laws for the purpose of carrying out the purposes of the
act, does not entitle the government to make rules.1
1
Hukam chand v. union of india AIR 1972 SC 2427
2
Ashok Lanka v. Rishi Dikshit, 2006 9 SCC 90
There are plenty of examples in which the court has accepted the above
proposition, a few of them are cited below
3
Baku Cashew Co. v. S.T. Officer, quilon, AIR 1987 SCC 2239
4
Ibid
5
AIR 1974 SC 385
The Supreme court in this regard has explained that the Court disfavor
retrospective operation of laws because it disfavors retroactive operation
of law because it may prejudicially affect vested rights. There could be no
objection to the notification fixing the date of commencement of the act
after its enactment but from a date earlier than the date of notification.
The act as such has not been given a retrospective operation. There is no
question of affecting any vested rights.
We may even see a few cases wherein the courts have relaxed the
rule against retrospectivity of rules, mainly because it was against the
interest of the affected person.
For example in Mathra Pd. & sons v. State of Punjab7, when the
Government issued a notification exempting a commodity from sales tax
in the middle of the financial year, but failed to specify the date from
which the notification was to be operative, the Supreme Court ruled that it
would be operative from the beginning of the financial year. The reason
given in this context by the Supreme Court was that the sales tax was a
yearly tax under the law and it was made payable on the annual taxable
6
AIR 1982 SC 1126
7
(1962) 13 STC 180 (SC)
turnover of a dealer. Hence the exemption from tax must operate for the
whole year in the absence of any clear indication to the contrary. This
interpretation obviously confers a benefit on the taxpayers.
8
AIR 1956 SC 246
9
AIR 1969 SC 118
But the date from which the rules are made to operate must be
shown to bear, either from the face of the rules or by extrinsic evidence,
10
AIR 1977 SC 451
11
AIR 1981 SC 561
The Supreme Court has also ruled that retrospective rules ought not
to operate criminately or in violation of any constitutional right so as to
affect vested rights. For example as held in K. Narayanan v. State of
Karnataka12 a service rule made in 1985 was given effect to from 1976.
The rule was quashed as it operated viciously against the existing
personnel. The court said that, there is no nexus between framing a rule,
and making it retrospective with effect from 1976. The retrospective
operation of the impugned rule attempts to disturb a system which has
been existing for more than twenty years. And that too without any
rationale. Absence of nexus apart, no rule can be made retrospectively to
operate unjustly and unfairly against other.
12
AIR 1994 SC 55
An action of a n authority is intra vires when it falls within the parameters of the
power conferred on it, but ultra vires when it goes outside those limits.
In State of Uttar Pradesh v. Renusagar13, the SC held that “if the exercise of
power is in the nature of subordinate legislation, the exercise must conform to
the provisions of the statute. All the conditions of the statute must be fulfilled.
The doctrine of ultra vires is concerned with the question : is the rule challenged
within the scope of the authority conferred on the rule maker by the parent
statute. The court does not concern itself with the wisdom or efficaciousness of
the rules. It is for the rule maker to decide, as a matter of policy, how to
implement the provisions of the statute and what measures to take efficaciously
achieve the objects and purposes of the act. it is not for the courts to examine
the merits or demerits of such a policy.
The courts may be asked to consider the constitutionality of delegated legislation itself. The
emanating delegated legislation may be in conflict with some provision of the constitution.
13
AIR 1988 SC 1737, para 75 : (1988) 4 SCC 59
In Dwarka Prasad Laxmi Narayan v. State of Uttar Pradesh14, a few provisions of the U.P.
Coal Control Order, 1953 made under s. 3(2) of the essential supplies act, 1946 were
declared ultra vires as infringing article art. 19(1)(g), a fundamental right guaranteed by the
constitution.
In Narendra Kumar v. Union of India15, the Supreme Court specifically considered the point
whether the question of unconstitutionality of delegated legislation made under a valid act
could be raised or not. The Non Ferrous Metal Order, 1958 was made under the essential
commodities act, 1955.
In an earlier case16, the validity of the essential commodities act had been upheld. The
question in Narendra now was whether the constitutional validity of the order made under the
act could be canvassed under art. 19(1)(g). The court held that though a law may not be
unconstitutional, an order made there under may yet be challenged under the constitution,
because the law could not be presumed to authorize anything unconstitutional.
In Air India v. Nargheesh Mirza17, the Supreme Court declared certain regulations
pertaining to the conditions of service of air hostesses in Air India., an undertaking of the
central government18, as discriminatory under article 14 of the constitution.
The courts may be asked to consider the question of constitutionality of delegated legislation
itself. The parent statute may be constitutional, but the delegated legislation emanating there
under may be in conflict with some provision of the constitution. The delegated legislation
will be invalid in that case and the frame of reference to assess the validity of delegated
legislation is the constitution.
Art.14 guarantees ‘equal protection of the laws’ and ‘equality before the law’. It has emerged
to be the most potent constitutional provision to control rule making. Delegated legislation
has been declared invalid in a number of cases under art.14 on such grounds as being
14
AIR 1954 SC 224, Para 8 : 1954 SCR 803
15
AIR 1960 SC 430 : (1960) 2 SCR 375
16
Hari Shankar Bagla v. State of M.P., AIR 1954 SC 465 : (1955) 1 SCR 380, Jain Cases, Ch. III, 56.
17
AIR 1981 SC 1829, para 37 : (1981) 4 SCC
18
On public sector undertakings AIR 1981 SC 1829, para 37 : (1981) 4 SCC
Conclusion
19
Raj Pal Sharma v. Haryana, AIR 1985 Sc 1263; Nidmarti v. State of maha., (1986) 2 SCC 534
20
Senior Supt. Of post office v. izhaar hussain, AIR 1989 SC 2262; jain, cases, 432
BIBLIOGRAPHY