Constitutional Validity of Administrative Rule Making

1. Constitutional Validity
of Administrative Rule
Making
-Sharan Shah
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2. Introduction
▪ The Constitution of Indian empowers Legislature to make laws for the
country. One of the significant legislative functions is to determine a
legislative policy and to frame it as a rule of conduct. Obviously such
powers cannot be conferred on other institutions. But keeping in mind
various multifarious activities of a welfare State, it is not possible for
the legislature to perform all the functions. In such situation, the
delegated legislation comes into the picture. Delegated Legislature is
one of the essential elements of administration whereby the executive
has to perform certain legislative functions.
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3. What is
Delegated
Legislation?
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4. ▪ Legislation by any statutory authority or local or other body
other than the Legislature but under the authority of the
competent legislature is called Delegated legislation.
Meaning
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5. Constitutional Validity of Administrative Rule Making
▪ The phrase 'constitutional validity of administrative rule making‘ means the permissible
extent of the Constitution of any country within which the legislature, which strictly
speaking is the sole authority of law making power, can validly delegate rule making
powers to other administrative agencies. In today's world, there has been a tremendous
expansion of the government's authority due to the shift from the laissez faire regime to a
welfare state concept. As result, the new role of the state can only be fulfilled through the
use of greater power in the hands of the government which is best suited to carry out the
social and economic tasks before the country. The task of increasing the power of the
government to successfully deal with the problems of social and economic reconstruction
has been accomplished by delegating the legislative power to it. This is commonly known
as the concept of delegated legislation.
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• The major problem associated with constitutional validity of administrative rule
making is regarding the permissible limit of delegation of powers by legislature.
• Validity of administrative rule making in pre independence and post-
independence India.
• Three sets of periods describe the question of permissible limits within the
Constitution, within which delegated legislation is permissible.

7. Division Of Periods
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Period I- Privy
Council as the
highest court of
Appeal.
Period III-
Supreme Court as
the highest court
of Appeal.
Period II- Federal
Court as the
highest court of
Appeal.

8. Period I- Privy Council as the highest court of appeal.
▪ The nature and extent of legislative power and the possibility of its delegation
was considered by the Privy Council in the case of R. v. Burah.
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9. Period II- Federal Court as the highest court of appeal.
▪ Federal Court of India, the predecessor of the present Supreme Court, examined
the problem of delegation of legislative power to an extraneous authority in the
case of Jatindra Nath Gupta v. the Province of Bihar.
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10. Period III- Suprme Court as the highest court of appeal.
▪ In Re Delhi Laws Act
▪ This was a Presidential reference under Article 143 of the Constitution.
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11. Conclusion
▪ In the end we can conclude that the delegated legislation is important in the
wake of the rise in the number of legislations and technicalities involved. But at
the same time with the rise in delegated legislation, the need to control it also
arises because with the increase in the delegation of power also increases the
chance of the abuse of power. The judicial control apart from the legislative and
procedural control is the way how the delegation of power can be controlled.
Thus, the delegated legislation can be questioned on the grounds of substantive
ultra vires or procedural ultra vires and on the ground of the constitutionality of
the parent act that is the reasonableness and the delegated legislation. The
latter can also be challenged on the ground of its being arbitrary.
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