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In Re: Delhi Laws Act, 1912 Gwalior Rayon Mills Mfg. Co. LTD v. Assistant Commissioner of Sales

The document discusses two Supreme Court cases that addressed the controversial issue of delegated legislation in India - In Re: Delhi Laws Act, 1912 and Gwalior Rayon Mills Mfg. Co. Ltd v. Assistant Commissioner of Sales. These cases contain the most comprehensive deliberations on delegated legislation and seem to have settled the theoretical aspects of the issue. The Delhi Laws case involved a Presidential Reference on the validity of the Delhi Laws Act of 1912, which led to contentious debates among the seven judges on the bench who each delivered opinions. The consensus from Chief Justice Kania's opinion was that the Constitution does not generally allow the delegation of legislative functions and that Parliament's power to delegate is limited to conditional or subsidiary legislation.

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chetna raghuwanshi
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100 views1 page

In Re: Delhi Laws Act, 1912 Gwalior Rayon Mills Mfg. Co. LTD v. Assistant Commissioner of Sales

The document discusses two Supreme Court cases that addressed the controversial issue of delegated legislation in India - In Re: Delhi Laws Act, 1912 and Gwalior Rayon Mills Mfg. Co. Ltd v. Assistant Commissioner of Sales. These cases contain the most comprehensive deliberations on delegated legislation and seem to have settled the theoretical aspects of the issue. The Delhi Laws case involved a Presidential Reference on the validity of the Delhi Laws Act of 1912, which led to contentious debates among the seven judges on the bench who each delivered opinions. The consensus from Chief Justice Kania's opinion was that the Constitution does not generally allow the delegation of legislative functions and that Parliament's power to delegate is limited to conditional or subsidiary legislation.

Uploaded by

chetna raghuwanshi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The concept of delegated legislation attracted a great deal of controversy and debate in the early

years of the Constitution, and at least the theoretical aspects of the issue seem settled with the
Supreme Court’s pronouncements in In Re: Delhi Laws Act, 1912 and Gwalior Rayon Mills Mfg. Co.
Ltd v. Assistant Commissioner of Sales. Though the Court has upheld and struck down delegated
legislation in a number of cases in the intervening years, these cases have stood the test of time as
they contain the most comprehensive deliberations on the concerned issue.

The Delhi Laws case was the result of a Presidential Reference under Article 143, wherein the Court
was required to adjudicate the validity of the Delhi Laws Act, 1912 which conferred powers on the
government to extend the application of the law as it saw fit. The case provoked contentious
debates amongst the judges, with each member of the 7 Judge Bench delivering an opinion in the
matter.

Despite a considerable amount of overlap among the 7 opinions, the consensus – contained in Kania
CJ’s opinion – was that “the power to delegate legislative functions generally is not warranted under
the Constitution of India at any stage.” Though wide latitude has been given to Parliament in terms
of what it can delegate, the consensus states authoritatively that this power is limited to
“conditional” or “subsidiary” legislation. By conditional leg

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