Administrative Law
Administrative Law in CLAT PG examines how the executive is kept within legal bounds: delegation, procedure and the intensity of judicial review. Expect questions turning on one doctrinal distinction rather than a case name alone.
Core rules
- Delegated legislation is valid if the legislature lays down policy and guidelines and does not abdicate its essential legislative function (In re Delhi Laws Act, 1951). Conditional legislation differs from subordinate legislation. Excessive delegation is struck down; a Henry VIII clause is read down where possible.
- Natural justice has two limbs: audi alteram partem and nemo judex in causa sua. A.K. Kraipak v. Union of India (1969) extended natural justice to administrative action; Maneka Gandhi linked it to Article 14. Exceptions include urgency, public interest, interim orders and statutory exclusion, but exclusion is read narrowly.
- Grounds of review in Council of Civil Service Unions v. Minister for the Civil Service (1985): illegality, irrationality (Wednesbury unreasonableness) and procedural impropriety; proportionality applies in fundamental-rights cases (Modern Dental College, 2016). Legitimate expectation is a procedural protection, not a guarantee of outcome (Food Corporation of India v. Kamdhenu Cattle Feed, 1993).
- Tribunals derive from Articles 323A and 323B; Rojer Mathew v. South Indian Bank (2019) and the Madras Bar Association line require judicial dominance and independence in appointments.
Worked example
A licensing authority cancels a transport permit after receiving an adverse report, without disclosing it or hearing the licensee. Applying Mohinder Singh Gill v. Chief Election Commissioner (1978), the order must stand or fall on the reasons it records; later affidavits cannot supply the missing hearing. The cancellation is void for breach of audi alteram partem, and certiorari lies, with the authority free to re-decide after a proper hearing.
Traps
- Confusing error of law with error of fact apparent on the face of the record.
- Treating legitimate expectation as a right to the benefit itself.
- Assuming Article 14 requires a hearing for every administrative act.