Mumbai University Solved Question Papers
Administrative Law
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
BLS LLB 5 Years · Sem 7
Apr 2014 Examination
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BLS LLB 5 Years Sem 7 Administrative Law Apr 2014 Question Paper with Solutions
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First published on munotes.in on 29 September 2026.
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Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
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The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.
The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by the University of Mumbai at the Apr 2014 examination.
The answers in this volume state the law as it stands today, not as it stood when this paper was set, and in this subject that distinction is doing real work. On 19 November 2025 the Supreme Court struck down the core provisions of the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 governing the appointment, tenure and conditions of service of tribunal members, so a textbook printed before that date states the position wrongly; every answer here on tribunals gives the Act as enacted and then what survives of it. The criminal statutes the older papers cite have also been replaced, so where a question is set on Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code the answer gives the corresponding section of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 alongside it, and the same is done for the Indian Evidence Act. Where a decision relied on in an older paper has since been overruled, most importantly ADM Jabalpur, the answer says so. A repeated question from an older paper can therefore be answered from these pages as they are written.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as the University of Mumbai set it at the Apr 2014 examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the Apr 2014 examination, reproduced as the University of Mumbai set them, in the order it set them. Nothing has been reworded, added or left out. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 25 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B: 1. Attempt all questions. 2. Figures to the right indicate full marks. 3. Support your answers with relevant case laws.
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.
Q.1
Answer in Short, not more than two sentences 20 Marks
(a)What is doctrine of excessive delegation?[2]
Answer
The doctrine of excessive delegation is that a legislature may delegate the details of law-making but may not delegate its essential legislative function. If it does, the delegating provision itself is unconstitutional, and so is everything made under it.
What the essential legislative function is. Laying down the policy of the law and enacting it as a binding rule of conduct. The legislature must decide what the law is to achieve and how far it is to go. It may then leave to the executive the working out of the detail.
Where the doctrine comes from. In re Delhi Laws Act, 1912 AIR 1951 SC 332, a seven-Judge Bench delivering seven opinions. Two propositions emerged. Delegation is permissible, because modern government could not work otherwise. But the essential legislative function cannot be delegated, so a power to repeal an existing law, or to modify a law in its policy, goes beyond what may be given away.
The test the courts apply. Has the legislature laid down a policy or a standard to guide the delegate, and has it refrained from effacing itself? Registrar of Co-operative Societies v. K. Kunjabmu (1980) 1 SCC 340 put it that way: the legislature may delegate widely, provided it does not abdicate.
Struck down. Hamdard Dawakhana v. Union of India AIR 1960 SC 554: a power to add diseases to a schedule, with no policy laid down. Devi Das Gopal Krishnan v. State of Punjab AIR 1967 SC 1895: a power to fix a sales tax rate with no maximum and no guidance.
Upheld. Harishankar Bagla v. State of Madhya Pradesh AIR 1954 SC 465, where the policy was in the section itself. Edward Mills Co. v. State of Ajmer AIR 1955 SC 25, where the policy of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 supplied the standard.
Conclusion. Excessive delegation is delegation without a policy. The question is never how wide the power is, but whether the legislature itself decided what the law is for before handing the rest over. Where it did not, the provision fails, and Hamdard Dawakhana is the case to cite.
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