Introduction

The most significant and outstanding development of the 20th century is the rapid growth of administrative law. It does not, however, mean that there was no administrative law before this century. For many years, in one form or another, it has very much been in existence. But in this century, the philosophy of the role and function of the state has undergone a radical change. The governmental functions have multiplied by leaps and bounds.

Today, the state is not merely a police state, exercising sovereign functions, but as a progressive democratic state, it seeks to ensure social security and social welfare for the common man, regulates industrial relations, exercises control over the production, manufacture, and distribution of essential commodities, initiates enterprises, tries to achieve equality for all, and ensures equal pay for equal work. It works to improve slums, looks after the health and morals of the people, provides education to children, and undertakes all steps that social justice demands. In short, the modern state takes care of its citizens from “cradle to grave.”.

Definitions of Administrative Law

It is the law relating to the control of powers of the government. The main object of this law is to protect individual rights. Others place greater emphasis on rules that are designed to ensure that the administration effectively performs the tasks assigned to it. Yet others highlight the principal objective of administrative law as ensuring governmental accountability and fostering participation by interested parties in the decision-making process.

According to Ivor Jennings, Administrative law is the law relating to the administration; it determines the organization, powers, and duties of the administrative authorities.

This is the most widely accepted definition. However, according to Griffith and Street, there are two difficulties with this definition. Those are —

• a) It does not distinguish administrative law from constitutional law.
• b) It is a very wide definition, for the law that determined the powers and functions of administrative authorities may also deal with the substantive aspects of such powers, for example, legislation relating to public health services, houses, town and country planning, etc., but these are not included within the scope and ambit of administrative law. Again, it does not include the remedies available to an aggrieved person when his rights are adversely affected by the administration.

According to Griffith and Street, the main object of administrative law is the operation and control of administrative authorities. It must deal with three aspects:

• What sort of power does the administration exercise?
• What are the limits of those powers?
• What are the ways in which the administration is contained within those limits?

According to the Indian Law Institute, the following two aspects must be added to have a complete idea of present-day administrative law:

• What are the procedures followed by the administrative authorities?
• What are the remedies available to a person affected by administration?

According to C. K. Takwani, administrative law is that branch of constitutional law that deals with the powers and duties of administrative authorities, the procedures followed by them in exercising the powers and discharging the duties, and the remedies available to an aggrieved person when his rights are affected by an action of such authorities.

Nature and Scope of Administrative Law

Administrative law deals with the powers of the administrative authorities, the manner in which the powers are exercised, and the remedies that are available to the aggrieved persons when those powers are abused by these authorities.

The administrative process has come to stay, and it has to be accepted as a necessary evil in all progressive societies, particularly in a welfare state, where many schemes for the progress of society are prepared and administered by the government. The execution and implementation of this program may adversely affect the rights of citizens. The actual problem is to reconcile social welfare with the rights of individual subjects. Lord Denning observed, “Properly exercised, the new powers of the executive lead to the welfare state; but abused, they lead to the totalitarian state.”

The main object of the study of administrative law is to unravel the way in which these administrative authorities could be kept within their limits so that discretionary powers may not be turned into arbitrary powers.

Functions of Administrative Law

The primary function of administrative law is to keep governmental powers within the limits of law and to protect private rights and individual interests. As Wade observed, all powers have two inherent characteristics:

• They are not absolute or unfettered, and
• They are likely to be abused.

Administrative law attempts to control the powers of the government and its instrumentalities and agencies. To achieve that objective, administrative law provides an effective mechanism and adequate protection. It helps to strike a balance between two conflicting forces:

• Individual Rights.
• Public Interest.