KSLU Solved Question Papers
Administrative Law
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 5
2013 Dec Examination
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Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 5 Administrative Law 2013 Dec Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2013 Dec examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2013 Dec examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2013 Dec examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all five Questions. (2) Figures to the right indicate marks. (3) Answers should be written completely either in English or in Kannada.
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)Define Administrative Law. What are the factors responsible for the growth of Administrative Law ?[15]
Answer
For full marks, cover: Part A, the definition: the leading definitions (Jennings, Davis, Wade, the Indian Law Institute) and a working definition; Part B, the reasons for its growth, grouped by what changed: (1) the State's role (police State to welfare State; Part IV of the Constitution), (2) the limits of the legislature, which produced delegated legislation (Avinder Singh: "a compulsive necessity"; Delhi Laws Act), (3) the limits of the courts, which produced tribunals (Bharat Bank; S.P. Sampath Kumar), (4) the need for discretion (S.G. Jaisinghani), (5) the citizen's need for protection (Kraipak; Maneka Gandhi), (6) economic and technological change; an assessment; a table; a conclusion.
Part A: Definition
The leading definitions
Administrative law has no single accepted definition, because it grew from the changing work of the State.
- Sir Ivor Jennings described it as the law relating to the administration. It determines the organisation, powers and duties of administrative authorities.
- K.C. Davis described it as the law about the powers and procedures of administrative agencies, especially judicial review of their action.
- H.W.R. Wade saw it as the law about the control of governmental power, which keeps powers within legal limits to protect the citizen.
- The Indian Law Institute added control by the legislature and other bodies, and the liability of the administration to the citizen.
A working definition
Administrative law is the branch of public law that deals with the organisation, powers and duties of administrative authorities. It covers the procedure they must follow and the controls over them by the legislature, the courts and other bodies. It also covers the remedies of persons harmed by their action.
Part B: The reasons for its growth
1. The change in the State's role
In the nineteenth century the State mainly kept order, defended the country and collected taxes. It was a police State. In the twentieth century it became a welfare State. It runs railways, banks, hospitals and schools, regulates industry, labour, prices and land, and provides social security. In India this is a constitutional duty. Part IV directs the State to secure social, economic and political justice (Article 38). It also directs the State to distribute material resources for the common good (Article 39). Every new function meant new powers in the hands of officials, and new law to govern them. A State that builds dams, fixes wages and licenses trades must also decide disputes about them.
2. The limits of the legislature: delegated legislation
The legislature cannot write every rule a modern State needs. It lacks the time, the technical knowledge and the flexibility to deal with changing conditions and emergencies. So it lays down policy and leaves the details to the executive.
Avinder Singh v. State of Punjab, AIR 1979 SC 321. The State imposed a municipal tax on foreign liquor under a power in the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act 1976. Licensees challenged it as excessive delegation. The Supreme Court upheld the tax. It called delegation of some legislative power "a compulsive necessity" in a modern State. The legislature must, however, keep control over its delegate.
In re The Delhi Laws Act, 1912, AIR 1951 SC 332, had already accepted delegation as inevitable. It held only that the legislature cannot hand over its essential function of laying down policy. The body of law governing rules and regulations, their making, laying and review, grew from this need.
3. The limits of the courts: administrative adjudication
The ordinary courts are slow, costly and bound by technical procedure. They lack expertise in matters like industrial relations, taxation and land reform. And they apply fixed rules where social policy is at stake. So the State created tribunals.
The Bharat Bank Ltd. v. Employees of the Bharat Bank Ltd., AIR 1950 SC 188, held that an Industrial Tribunal discharged functions "very much like those of a body discharging judicial functions although it is not a Court". So an appeal lay to the Supreme Court. S.P. Sampath Kumar v. Union of India, AIR 1987 SC 386, upheld the Administrative Tribunals Act 1985, which moved service disputes from the High Courts to tribunals. The tribunals had to be as effective as the courts they replaced. The law of administrative adjudication grew from this shift.
4. The need for discretion
Officials must deal with an endless variety of cases that no rule can foresee. Licensing, planning and regulation all require judgment. So statutes give wide discretion. But discretion can be abused. S.G. Jaisinghani v. Union of India, AIR 1967 SC 1427, involved promotions in the Income Tax Service beyond the quota the rules fixed. The Supreme Court said that "the absence of arbitrary power is the first essential of the rule of law". Discretion "must be confined within clearly defined limits". The law on control of discretion grew to meet this danger.
5. The citizen's need for protection
As administrative power grew, so did the risk to the citizen. Administrative law grew as the means of protection.
A.K. Kraipak v. Union of India, AIR 1970 SC 150. A candidate sat on the board that selected officers for the Indian Forest Service while his rivals were judged. The Supreme Court set the selection aside. It held that natural justice applies to administrative inquiries, because an unjust administrative decision may harm a person as much as a judicial one.
Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, AIR 1978 SC 597. The petitioner's passport was impounded "in public interest" without a hearing or reasons. The Supreme Court held that procedure affecting liberty must be right, just and fair. Natural justice became part of Articles 14 and 21.
6. Economic and technological change
Industrialisation, the growth of cities, new technology and, after 1991, the regulation of markets created problems the old law never contemplated. These include pollution, telecom, securities and competition. Regulators with rule-making, licensing and penal powers were created for each. Each brought new administrative law with it.
7. Wars and emergencies
The two world wars and the economic depression of the 1930s required quick action that ordinary legislation could not supply. Governments rationed food, controlled prices, requisitioned property and directed industry by orders. In India, the Essential Commodities Act 1955 and similar control laws continued this pattern in peacetime. Many controls, once created, stayed, and the law governing them stayed with them.
The same growth elsewhere
The growth was not peculiar to India. In England, Lord Hewart, the Lord Chief Justice, attacked the rise of official power in his book The New Despotism (1929). The Committee on Ministers' Powers reported in 1932 that delegated legislation and administrative adjudication were necessary, but needed safeguards. In the United States, the Administrative Procedure Act 1946 laid down how federal agencies must make rules and decide cases. Wherever the State took on new tasks, administrative law followed.
An assessment
These reasons are connected. The welfare State needed more power. Parliament and the courts could not exercise it all, so it passed to the executive, its delegates and tribunals. That transfer in turn created the need to protect the citizen. Administrative law is therefore both a grant of power to the administration and a set of controls over it. Its growth will continue as long as the State takes on new tasks. Recent laws on the right to information, the Lokpal and tribunals show that it is still growing.
| Cause | What grew | Case |
|---|---|---|
| Welfare State | New administrative functions | Articles 38, 39 |
| Limits of the legislature | Delegated legislation | Avinder Singh; Delhi Laws Act |
| Limits of the courts | Tribunals | Bharat Bank; Sampath Kumar |
| Need for discretion | Control of discretion | S.G. Jaisinghani |
| Citizen's protection | Natural justice, review | Kraipak; Maneka Gandhi |
Conclusion. Administrative law is the law of the organisation, powers, procedure and control of administrative authorities, and of the remedies against them. It grew because the State became a welfare State with vast new functions, which the legislature and the courts could not perform alone. So power passed to the executive through delegated legislation (Avinder Singh, Delhi Laws Act), tribunals (Bharat Bank, Sampath Kumar) and discretion (S.G. Jaisinghani). The same growth required protection for the citizen, which the courts supplied through natural justice and review (Kraipak, Maneka Gandhi).
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