IMPORTANCE OF LEGISLATION AS A SOURCE OF LAW

Legislation means the process of lawmaking. Legis means law and Latum mean “making”, and as a whole
it means lawmaking. According to Austin, it means the making of law by a supreme or a sovereign
authority which must be followed by people of every stratum of the society. Salmond defines Legislation
as the process of lawmaking by a competent and able authority.

The main reason behind the legislation is regarded as an important source of law i.e., the legal rule
enshrined by the legislature was recognized by the State as law and legislation have the authority and
force over the State. That’s the reason, Dias said that deliberate law-making by an authoritative power,
i.e., the State is called the Legislation provided that authority is duly recognized as the Supreme power
by the Courts.

Some different types of legislation are as follows: Subordinate legislation refers to that legislation which
has been made by any authority other than the supreme authority in the state. This legislation owes its
existence, validity and continuance on the mercy of Supreme authority. This subordinate legislation has
been divided into the following classes:

Autonomous Law: When a supreme authority grants power a group of Individual to make laws on the
matter conferred to them as a group, so here the law made by the group is called autonomous law. For
example, University rules and guidelines, Railway bye laws and many more.

Judicial Laws: Judiciary has been given power to make rules for the regulation of its procedure. Just like
in India Supreme Court and High Court has been empowered to make rules for their procedure and
administration.

Local Laws: There are certain situations where local bodies are entrusted with the power to make by
laws to tackle local matters. These laws operate within the respective locality. In India local bodies like
Municipal Corporation, Municipal Boards, Zila Parishads, Panchayat etc are provided with a power to do
so.

Colonial Law: When a country is not an independent unit and is under the control of some other
Country. They are called colonies, dominions etc. The laws made by them are subjected to the supreme
legislation of the state under whose control they are. These laws are called colonial law.

Executive made law: As we know that there are three organs of the government i.e. legislative,
executive and judiciary. They all have their own functions to be performed. Executive is required to
implement the laws, in addition to this function it also does some law making and laws made by the
executive are called as executive made laws. This kind of subordinate legislation is called ‘delegated
legislation’.

Delegated Legislation

Delegated Legislation means the law made by the executive under the powers delegated to it by the
supreme legislative authority. There are certain reasons which led to emergence of Delegated
Legislation such as lack of time, Emergency, Flexibility, Experimentation, Local matters and many others.