Raison d'etre In Growth of

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
Mian Ali Haider
L.L.B., L.L.M (Cum Laude) U.K.
INTRODUCTION
 The most significant and outstanding development of the twentieth century is
the rapid growth of administrative law.
 Though administrative law has been in existence, in one form or the other,
before the 20th century, it is in this century that the philosophy as to the role
and function of the State has undergone a radical change.
 The governmental functions have multiplied by leaps and bounds
 Today, the State is not merely a police State, exercising sovereign functions,
but as a progressive democratic State, it seeks to ensure social security and
social welfare for the common man, regulates the industrial relations,
exercises control over the prk.oduction, manufacture and distribution of
essential commodities, starts many enterprises, tries to achieve equality for all
and ensures equal pay for equal wor
 PROBLEMS WITH
DEFINITIONS
 It is indeed difficult to evolve a scientific, precise
and satisfactory definition of Administrative Law.
 Many jurists have made attempts to define it, but
none of the definitions has completely demarcated
the nature, scope and content of administrative law.
 Either the definitions are too broad and include much more
than necessary
 or they are too narrow and do not include all essential
ingredients
 For some it is the law relating to the control of powers of the
government.
 The main object of this law is to protect individual rights.
 Others place greater emphasis upon rules which are designed to
ensure that the administration effectively performs the tasks
assigned to it.
 Yet others highlight the principal objective of Administrative
Law as ensuring governmental accountability, and fostering
participation by interested parties in the decision- making process
 Ivory Jennings gave most widely-accepted definition
 Administrative Law is the law relating to the administration.
It determines the organization, powers and duties of the
administrative authorities.
 According to Griffith and Street, there are three difficulties:
 It does not distinguish administrative law from constitutional
law;
 It is a very wide definition, for the law which determines the
powers and functions of administrative authorities may also
deal with the substantive aspects of such powers, for
example, legislations relating to public health services,
houses, town and country planning, etc.; but these are not
included within the scope and ambit of administrative law.
 Again, it does not include the remedies available to an
aggrieved person when his rights are adversely affected by
the administration.
 According to Kennith Culp Davis
 “Administrative Law is the law concerning the powers and procedures of
administrative agencies, including especially the law governing judicial review of
administrative action.”
 In one respect, this definition is proper as it puts emphasis on procedure
followed by administrative agencies in exercising their powers.
 However, it does not include the substantive laws made by these agencies.
 According to Davis, an administrative agency is a governmental authority,
other than a court and a legislature which affects the rights of private parties
either through administrative adjudication or rule-making.
 The difficulty in accepting this definition, however, is that it does
not include many non adjudicative and yet administrative
functions of the administration which cannot be characterized as
legislative or quasi-judicial.
 Another difficulty with this definition is that it puts an emphasis
on the control of the administrative functions by the judiciary,
but does not study other equally important controls, e.g.
 parliamentary control of delegated legislation,
 control through administrative appeals or revisions and the
like
 According to Professor Upendra Bakshi of India
 “Administrative law as that portion of law which controls the abuse
of powers by the administrative authorities so as to protect the rights
of individuals”
 On an analysis of the above definitions, it may be submitted that there
is no comprehensive definition of administrative law till today
 Administrative law is that portion of law which determines the

organization, powers and duties of administrative authorities,

administrative agencies, quasi – administrative authorities and the
law that governs the judicial review of administrative activities.
 NATURE & SCOPE OF
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
 The main object of the study of administrative law is to
unravel the way in which these administrative authorities
could be kept within their limits so that the discretionary
powers may not be turned into arbitrary powers.
 Kennith Culp Davis divided Admin law in three parts
 The powers vested in administrative agencies;
 The requirements imposed by law upon the exercise of
those powers; and
 Remedies available against unlawful administrative actions.
 SOURCES OF ADMIN LAW
 In few legal systems, there are statutes laying down rules,
principles and procedures to be followed by administrative
agencies.
 But even in absence of specific enactments dealing with a
particular situation, certain fundamental rules, basic principles
and minimum requirements of law are well settled and all
authorities are bound to observe them.
 A person adversely affected by any action of an administrative
authority has right to challenge such action in an appropriate
body or a court of law.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
 In USA the following are the sources of administrative law:
 Administrative Procedure Act, 1893
 Statutory Instrument Act, 1946
 Federal Tort Claim Act, 1947
 The Tribunals and Enquiries Act, 1958
 The Parliamentary Commissions Act, 1962
 Apart from these legislations, the Constitution of USA is also
considered as a source of administrative law in addition to the
judgments delivered by the U.S Supreme Court
 UNITED KINGDOM

 The sources of administrative law in the UK are:

 Rule Publication Act, 1946
 Federal Torts Claims Act, 1947 etc.

 In the UK, since there is no written constitution, the

bulk source of administrative law is derived from the
decisions delivered by the superior courts, the
customary practices that are followed in the course of
administration and so on.
 PAKISTAN & INDIA
 In India & Pakistan there is a written constitution which
is considered as a grundnorm.
 Till today there is no legislation enacted either by the
parliament or state legislature exclusively on
administrative law.
 In the absence of legislations, the main sources of
administrative law are rules, regulations, orders,
notifications, bye-laws, schemes, governmental
resolutions, memorandums, department circulars etc
 There are also legislations which provide for the establishment of
tribunals.
 For example, ………..provides for the establishment of national
tribunals, industrial tribunals and labour courts.
 There are other legislations for establishing special courts, but all
these legislations provide different procedures and different powers
for functioning of the tribunals.
 Therefore, for the purpose of attaining uniformity in maintaining
procedures and for prescribing powers, there is a need for
comprehensive legislation on administrative law in Pakistan & India.
 Raison d'etre In Growth of
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
 Administrative law is not a codified, written or well-defined law like
the Contract Act, Penal Code, Transfer of Property Act, Evidence Act,
Constitution of Pakistan, etc.
 It is essentially an unwritten, uncodified or ‘Judge-made’ law. It has developed
slowly in the wake of factual situations before courts.
 In a welfare State, administrative authorities are called upon to perform not only
executive acts, but also quasi-legislative and quasijudicial functions.
 They used to deem the rights of parties and have become the ‘Fourth branch’ of
Government, a ‘Government in miniature’. Legal scholars have compared
administrative law to the rise of equity.
 It has its origin in need and necessity in protecting personal rights and
in safeguarding individual interests.
 Administrative law is considered as an intensive form of government.
 It deals with the pathology of functions.
 The functions that are discharged by the administrative authorities differ from
time to time depending upon the changes in socio-economic conditions in any
nation
 There is a radical change in the philosophy as to the role played by the State.
 The negative policy of maintaining 'law and order' and of 'laissez faire' is given
up.
 The State has not confined its scope to the traditional and minimum functions
of defence and administration of justice, but has adopted the positive policy
and as a welfare State has undertaken to perform varied functions.
 Urbanization –
 Due to the Industrial Revolution in England and other countries and
due to the emergence of the factory system in our country, people
migrated from the countryside to the urban areas in search of
employment in factories and large scale industries.
 As a result of which there arose a need for increase in providing
housing, roads, parks, effective drainage system etc.
 Legislations were enacted to provide all these basic facilities and
accordingly administrative authorities were required to make rules and
regulations, frame schemes for effective infrastructure and facilities which
ultimately lead to the growth of administrative law
 To meet Emergency Situations –
 Enacting legislations, getting assent from the President is all a lengthy process,
whereas it is very easy and quick to frame schemes and rules for meeting any
emergency situations that arise in a locality.
 Due to the flexibility of making the rules, obviously there is a constant growth
of administrative law making in the country.
 There is scope for experiments in administrative process.
 Here, unlike legislation, it is not necessary to continue a rule until
commencement of the next session of the legislature. Here a rule can be made,
tried for some time and if it is found defective, it can be altered or modified
within a short period. Thus, legislation is rigid in character while the
administrative process is flexible.
 The judicial system proved inadequate to decide and settle all types
of disputes.
 It was slow, costly, inexpert, complex and formalistic.
 It was already overburdened, and it was not possible to expect speedy
disposal of even very important matters, e.g. disputes between employers
and employees, lockouts, strikes, etc.
 These burning problems could not be solved merely by literally interpreting
the provisions of any statute, but required consideration of various other
factors and it could not be done by the ordinary courts of law.
 Therefore, industrial tribunals and labour courts were established, which
possessed the techniques and expertise to handle these complex problems.
 The legislative process was also inadequate. It had
no time and technique to deal with all the details.
 It was impossible for it to lay down detailed rules
and procedures, and even when detailed provisions
were made by the legislature, they were found to be
defective and inadequate, e.g., rate fixing.
 And, therefore, it was felt necessary to delegate
some powers to the administrative authorities.
 There is scope for experiments in administrative process. Here, unlike
legislation, it is not necessary to continue a rule until commencement of the
next session of the legislature. Here a rule can be made, tried for some time and
if it is found defective, it can be altered or modified within a short period. Thus,
legislation is rigid in character while the administrative process is flexible.
 The administrative authorities can avoid technicalities. Administrative law
represents functional rather than a theoretical and legalistic approach.
 The traditional judiciary is conservative, rigid and technical. It is not possible
for the courts to decide the cases without formality and technicality.
 The administrative tribunals are not bound by the rules of evidence and
procedure and they can take a practical view of the matter to decide complex
problems.
 Administrative authorities can take preventive measures, e.g. licensing, rate
fixing, etc. Unlike regular courts of law, they have not to wait for parties to come
before them with disputes.
 In many cases, these preventive actions may prove to be more effective and useful
than punishing a person after he has committed a breach of any provision or law.
 As Freeman says,
 "Inspection and grading of meat answers the consumer's need more adequately than does a
right to sue the seller after the consumer is injured.“
 Administrative authorities can take effective steps for enforcement of the aforesaid
preventive measures; e.g. suspension, revocation and cancellation of licences,
destruction of contaminated articles, etc.
 which are not generally available through regular courts of law.
The END!!!
Thank you