Law of ultra vires

The Hon'ble Prasanna Coomar Tagore of the celebrated Tagore family of Calcutta and a fellow of the Calcutta University had, in the second half of the last century created the Tagore Law Professorship which has in course of time grown into an institution by itself. With his munificence the Calcutta University has been inviting renowned scholars, jurists and judges from different States of India and from countries abroad to deliver lectures as Tagore Law Professor. These lectures, as the donor wished, have enriched our knowledge in different aspects and branches of law and the pre sent generation has thus inherited a rich legal literature to nourish and guide them and more particularly the earnest students of law in their journey and quest for opening new dimensions to law and the legal literature keeping with the rapid changes in society and the intellectual development of the race.

As the present century opened one of those lecturers Mr. Satya Ranjan Das, an erudite scholar and Bar-at-Law of Lincoln's Inn, London, delivered a series of lectures on the Law of Ultra Vires-a subject which has assumed great significance and deep importance in the present complex society as the century is nearing towards it close. This is more so particularly in the context of the political changes, the industrial revolution, the socialistic pattern of economic development, the growth of different institutions both in the public and private sectors, the various social legislations, the inevitably close and not unoften strained relationship between the employer and the employed, the gradual development of constitutional law of the country, working and experimenting with a written constitution guided by a mechanism executive, legislative and judicial-wholly cast and moulded in Britain and borrowed from the United Kingdom which enigmatically has an unwritten constitution. Whenever any statutory provision be it of the constitution or of any ordinary legislation or any principle of natural justice is in the least slighted, by-passed, ignored or violated in a manner colourable or otherwise by the Executive or a Quasi-judicial authority or even by the Legislature itself, the watchful eyes of the law of ultra vires come to the rescue of the victim. The field of this particular branch of law is rich and wide. The subject assumes vast importance in any country having a constitution, either written or unwritten, unitary or federal. Even Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls, recently voiced the proposition that English Courts should have the same power as the Supreme Court of the U. S. A. to declare legislation unconstitutional and invalid. This proposition has, however, raised a controversy as its practical feasibility is far away in that country as Britain has no written constitution as the U. S. A. or India has. The law of ultra vires, however, does provide the most effective and the only beacon light for creating an area of checks and balances so much needed for a well-ordered society.