Case Comment On State Of Maharashtra V. M.H. George And Understanding The Dilemma Of Delegated Legislation Involved
Gunjan Modi, B.A.L.L.B, National Law School of India University, Bangalore
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF DELEGATION OF LEGISLATION AND WHY ITS NEED WAS FELT
While understanding the managerial chain of command in an organizational set-up, it is often popularly said that with every delegation of power comes even greater responsibility. This comes with the notion that authority can be delegated but responsibility cannot. This same understanding was imbibed into state functioning as it was coming to realization that the legislative branch of the government cannot deal with every minute and technical details of a legislation on its own. Especially considering the modern nation state, it started to look like an impractical idea for hundreds of parliamentarians to sit and deliberate on every precise detail of a legislation. This point is buttressed by the lack of expertise, time for experimentation and flexibility. Thus, the idea of delegation of legislation, even though apparently in defiance of the doctrine of separation of powers, started to become a common practice. As of the present position, delegation of legislation is a widespread practice with the condition that the legislative lays down the four corners of the statute and the delegated authority make rules within this framework; this essentially means that the legislative cannot delegate its core powers to any authority which would lead to self-effacement of legislative.1 Though it looks like an attractive method to reduce the burden of the legislative and make statutes more efficient, it has always been taken with a pinch of salt. This is due to the fact that any amount of excessive delegation of powers can create a scenario where everyone is in a worse-off position. Excessive delegation can lead to infringement of fundamental rights of the citizens, something that goes against the principles of natural justice and also imposes high expected costs on the society. The democratic value given to separation of powers and the responsibility of the parliamentarians elected by the people of the nation also comes into question when someone apart from the elected representatives make laws which are to be adhered by the citizens.
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