Administrative Law and Judicial Review of Administrative Action

► According to Wade, administrative law is the law relating to the control of powers of the executive authorities. ► To consider why such a law became necessary, we have to consider its historical background ► There are two kinds of controls on executive powers: 1. statutory, and 2. non-statutory.

► Statutory controls are given in the statute (or rules or regulations made under the statute). ► Any executive action in violation of the same will be declared illegal by the courts, by applying the ultra vires doctrine. ► An executive authority may also act unlawfully if it fails to perform a duty imposed upon it by statute such as maintenance of civic services by the Municipalities or other local bodies whose duty under the statute is to maintain such services.

► Where the statute delegates a power to a particular authority, that authority cannot sub-delegate that power to another authority or person unless the statute permits such sub-delegation. ► Similarly, discretion exercised by the prescribed authority on the direction of a higher authority would be illegal.

Some of the non-statutory controls are: ► The Wednesbury principle ► Rules of natural justice ► Proportionality See Teri Oat Estates (P) Ltd. v. Union Territory, Chandigarh, Union of India v. Rajesh P.U, etc.) ► Promissory estoppel ► Legitimate expectation

► Remedies for enforcing administrative law are available before the higher judiciary e.g. the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution and the High Courts under Article 226 of the Constitution. ► The higher judiciary can issue writs of certiorari, mandamus, habeas corpus, prohibition and quo warranto and also issue orders or directions "in the nature of writs".

► The superior Courts in India enjoy the powers of judicial review and this is accepted as one of the basic features of our Constitution. ► We have been following the common law principles in the matter of justice delivery system, and for interpretation of the Constitution and the Statutes we rely heavily on some of the basic principles laid down by the superior Courts of common law countries.

► It is, therefore, of immense importance that some of the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, The House of Lords and The Court of Appeal in the United Kingdom, the Supreme Court of Canada and the High Court of Australia attract our attention and we closely follow them in appropriate cases. ► But, we must also remember that these decisions are rendered in peculiar socio-economic conditions of those countries and many of these principles cannot be applied implicitly in Indian conditions.