Administrative Law

In modern time, the scope of administrative law is expanding very fast. There has been tremendous increase in the powers and functions of administrative authorities and, therefore, the discovery of different modes of control mechanism to keep them into restraint has become necessary because in present time the manner and style of administrative functioning has influenced every aspect of human life and the conferment of discretionary powers on administrative authorities in every field has become very common. The obvious result is full of dangers of its degeneration and unwanted encroachment on human rights and liberties. Under these circumstances, the public complaints and grievances are bound to rise, particularly in developing countries like India and to devise means of providing appropriate remedies to

the aggrieved ones is the main concern of the Administrative law. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Since, there is a rising tendency to transfer more and more powers to the executive which include quasi-judicial, as well as quasi-legislative, a multitude of litigations are coming up against it, leading to mounting up of the arrears of cases in the courts and delay in the dispensation of justice. Such kinds of situations compelled us for serious thinking to find out alternative forums like Administrative tribunals for quick disposal of cases and the question of judicial control of quasi-judicial powers as well as of Tribunals is also assuming great importance.

Delegated legislation has become inevitable in modern democratic functioning. The number of statutory instruments, rules and regulations is increasing in geometrical proportions and it warrants the need of prescribing delimitations on the powers of the legislature to delegate. The study of all these factors has enhanced the importance of administrative law in modern times.

The concept of welfare state and socialistic society has also become instrumental to the increase of administrative powers in our country. Hence new departments and instrumentalities of Government are coming into existence to implement welfare schemes. In this process, the rights and liberties of people are bound to be affected many a times on account of exercise of administrative powers in an illegal and unauthorised manner so that administrative law devises means and modes of safeguards against those situations. Since nineteen eighties there has been changes in the trend of judicial behaviour in our country, Maneka Gandhi's case gave a new direction to the administrative functioning by emphasizing the need of procedural due process in all those cases which involve the exercise of discretionary powers. A terrain of judicial decisions followed the trend and upheld human dignity and liberty. The courts have unmistakably maintained constant vigil over such encroachments. The liberalisation of locus standi rule by the Supreme Court has proved to be a powerful instrument of social justice to the ignored specimen of humanity and encouraged the public spirited men to approach the court for enabling millions of people of this country to get appropriate remedies. These liberalisation trends touched heights in MC. Mehta v. Union of India, Bandhuwa Mukti Morcha v. Union of India, D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal, the goal of administrative law is not to stifle administrative but to provide good administration and to develop public faith in it. With this end in view more and more emphasis is laid down on the exercise of administrative powers in a lawful manner. The institute of Lokayukta which was loudly applauded is being left in oblivion for its ineffectiveness in providing suitable remedies for administrative maladies.

The Lok Pal Bill had been introduced in Lok Sabha in 1989, 1999, 2003 and 2011. The main feature of the Bill is that the Prime Minister of India has also been included within the ambit of the proposed Bill. Recently a Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha and with amendments the same was passed. But due to several amendments moved by the political parties and lack of time it could not be passed in the Rajya Sabha. Now it is expected to be taken up in budget session. Important decisions on the various topics upto July 2013 have already been placed at appropriate place. Apart from these, there are cases such as,

Speaker Haryana Vidhan Sabha v. Kuldeep Bishnoi (AIR. 2013 S.C. 120), Manubai Rati Lal Patel. v. State of Gujarat (AIR. 2013 S.C. 313), State of Gujarat and others v. Mr. Justice RA. Mehta and others (A.LR. 2013 S.C. 693), Union of India v. Gobinda Prasad Mala, (AIR 2013 S.C. 1074), R.S.IDI Corporation v. Diamond and Gem development Corporation Ltd., (AIR. 2013 S.C. 1241), Abdul Nasar Adam Ismail v. State of Maharashtra, (AIR. 2013 S.C. 1376) have also been incorporated in the book.