Sources of Administrative Law in India: Constitution, Statutes, Delegated Legislation and Judicial Decisions

Administrative law in India has no single foundational statute. Unlike the United States, which built its administrative law around the Administrative Procedure Act, 1946, India has drawn the subject from several sources at once. The Constitution supplies its framework and its highest principles; statutes create the authorities and confer their powers; delegated legislation fills in the detail; and the courts, through case law, have developed almost all the general doctrines that give the subject its shape. To know the sources is to know where each rule of administrative law comes from and, therefore, how it may be found, argued and changed.

1. An Overview of the Sources

The sources of Indian administrative law may be grouped as follows: the Constitution; statutes enacted by Parliament and the State Legislatures; delegated or subordinate legislation made by the executive under statutory authority; judicial decisions, which are the most fertile source of the general principles of the subject; administrative rule-making of a non-statutory kind, such as directions, circulars and manuals; and, at a lower level of authority, custom, usage and the reports of expert bodies. The list is not one of equals. The Constitution stands above all the rest, statutes below the Constitution, delegated legislation below its parent statute, and case law both interprets and supplements the written law.

2. The Constitution of India

The Constitution is the primary and supreme source of administrative law in India. It creates the organs of the State, distributes power among them, defines the extent of executive power, guarantees the rights of citizens against the State, and provides the remedies by which those rights are enforced. Every other source is subordinate to it, and any administrative action or rule that offends the Constitution is void.

2.1 The provisions that constitute the framework

Provision	Contribution to administrative law
Articles 53, 73, 154, 162	Vest the executive power of the Union and the States and fix its extent by reference to legislative competence
Article 12	Defines 'the State' and thereby fixes the range of bodies bound by fundamental rights and reachable by much of administrative law
Article 14	The guarantee of equality and, through it, the doctrine of non-arbitrariness that pervades review of administrative action
Articles 19 and 21	Substantive standards, including the requirement of fair, just and reasonable procedure, against which administrative action is tested
Articles 32 and 226	Confer the writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, the principal machinery of judicial review
Article 136 and Article 227	The Supreme Court's special leave jurisdiction and the High Courts' power of superintendence over tribunals and subordinate courts
Articles 299 and 300	Government contracts and the suability of the Union and the States
Articles 309 to 311	The public services and the protection of civil servants against arbitrary dismissal, removal or reduction in rank
Articles 323A and 323B	The constitutional basis for administrative and other tribunals
Article 300A	Deprivation of property only by authority of law, a control on administrative acquisition and taking

2.2 The basic structure and judicial review

Beyond its text, the Constitution is a source of administrative law through the doctrine of the basic structure. The rule of law and the power of judicial review vested in the Supreme Court under Article 32 and in the High Courts under Articles 226 and 227 have been held to be basic features that cannot be taken away even by constitutional amendment.

📖 L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India, (1997) 3 SCC 261

Facts: Provisions of Articles 323A and 323B and of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, which excluded the jurisdiction of the High Courts over matters entrusted to tribunals, were challenged.

Held: A seven-Judge Bench held that the power of judicial review vested in the High Courts under Articles 226 and 227 and in the Supreme Court under Article 32 is an integral and essential feature of the Constitution, forming part of its basic structure. Provisions that excluded that jurisdiction were unconstitutional to that extent. Tribunals may act as courts of first instance but their decisions are subject to review by a Division Bench of the High Court.

Ratio: Judicial review of administrative action has a constitutional guarantee that no statute or amendment can remove. This places the central mechanism of administrative law beyond the reach of ordinary legislation.

3. Statutes

After the Constitution, statutes are the most important source. It is a statute that ordinarily creates an administrative authority, confers its powers, prescribes the procedure it must follow, provides for appeals and defines the extent of judicial control. Statutes relevant to administrative law fall into two groups.

3.1 Parent or enabling statutes

These create particular authorities and regimes: for example, the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997, the Competition Act, 2002, the Electricity Act, 2003, the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 and the four Labour Codes of 2019 and 2020. Each such Act is the source of the powers and duties of the body it creates, and administrative law asks whether the body has acted within the four corners of its Act.

3.2 General statutes bearing on the administrative process

A second group of statutes applies across the administration. They include the General Clauses Act, 1897, which governs the construction of statutes and delegated legislation and the effect of repeals; the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952; the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985; the Right to Information Act, 2005; and the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013. The absence of a general Administrative Procedure Act means that these scattered statutes, together with case law, perform the function that a single code performs elsewhere.

⚠ India has no general Administrative Procedure Act

A recurring point in this subject is that India, unlike the United States, has never enacted a general statute prescribing uniform procedures for administrative rule-making and adjudication. The Law Commission of India, in its 14th Report (1958), recommended the systematic development of administrative law, and later writers have urged a general statute, but none has been enacted. In its place, procedural safeguards have been supplied by the courts through the principles of natural justice and the duty to give reasons, and by individual statutes for their own fields. This gap is itself a favourite examination point.

4. Delegated Legislation

Delegated or subordinate legislation is law made by the executive under powers conferred by a statute. It takes the form of rules, regulations, bye-laws, orders, schemes and notifications. It is both a source of administrative law, because a great part of the rules that govern administrative bodies and citizens is found in it, and a subject of administrative law, because its validity and control form a major chapter of the discipline.

Delegated legislation is subordinate to its parent statute. It is valid only if it is within the authority conferred (not ultra vires), consistent with the parent Act and the Constitution, and, in the case of bye-laws and regulations, not manifestly unreasonable. The constitutional limit on delegation itself, namely that the legislature may not delegate its essential legislative function of laying down policy, was established in In re Delhi Laws Act, 1912, AIR 1951 SC 332.

📖 State of Tamil Nadu v. P. Krishnamurthy, (2006) 4 SCC 517

Facts: A rule made under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 was challenged as beyond the rule-making power conferred by the Act.

Held: The Supreme Court restated the grounds on which subordinate legislation may be challenged. A rule may be struck down if it is beyond the scope of, or in conflict with, the enabling statute; if it is contrary to some other statute; if it is manifestly arbitrary or unreasonable to the degree recognised in administrative law; if it offends the Constitution; or if it fails to conform to the statutory procedure for its making. There is a presumption in favour of the validity of subordinate legislation, and the burden lies on the challenger.

Ratio: Delegated legislation is a genuine source of law but a controlled one. It is valid only within the limits set by its parent Act and the Constitution, and the courts test it on the grounds summarised here.

Delegated legislation is controlled in three ways, each a topic in its own right: procedural control, through requirements of consultation and of publication in the Official Gazette, since a rule that is not published does not ordinarily bind (Harla v. State of Rajasthan, AIR 1951 SC 467); legislative control, through the laying of rules before the House and scrutiny by the Committees on Subordinate Legislation; and judicial control, on the grounds set out in P. Krishnamurthy.

5. Judicial Decisions

Case law is the most creative source of Indian administrative law. Because there is no general procedural code, the general principles of the subject have been developed almost entirely by the Supreme Court and the High Courts, drawing on English and, to a lesser extent, American and Commonwealth authority and adapting it to the Constitution. The following doctrines are, in substance, judicial creations.

The grounds of judicial review. Illegality, irrationality and procedural impropriety, adopted from Council of Civil Service Unions v. Minister for the Civil Service, [1985] AC 374 and applied in Tata Cellular v. Union of India, (1994) 6 SCC 651.
The principles of natural justice. The rule against bias (nemo judex in causa sua) and the right to a fair hearing (audi alteram partem), extended to administrative action in A.K. Kraipak v. Union of India, (1969) 2 SCC 262 and constitutionalised in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, (1978) 1 SCC 248.
The doctrine of non-arbitrariness. The reading of Article 14 as a guarantee against arbitrary State action in E.P. Royappa v. State of Tamil Nadu, (1974) 4 SCC 3 and Maneka Gandhi.
Legitimate expectation. Developed in Food Corporation of India v. Kamdhenu Cattle Feed Industries, (1993) 1 SCC 71 and later decisions.
Promissory estoppel against the Government. Motilal Padampat Sugar Mills Co. Ltd. v. State of U.P., (1979) 2 SCC 409.
Proportionality. Om Kumar v. Union of India, (2001) 2 SCC 386, developed in later rights-based decisions.
The duty to give reasons. S.N. Mukherjee v. Union of India, (1990) 4 SCC 594.
Public law compensation and the liability of the State. Rudul Sah v. State of Bihar, (1983) 4 SCC 141 and Nilabati Behera v. State of Orissa, (1993) 2 SCC 746.

Under Article 141 of the Constitution, the law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on all courts within the territory of India, so these decisions are not merely persuasive but are law. Judicial decisions therefore operate as a binding source, and the development of administrative law in India is largely a history of the leading cases.

📖 Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, (1978) 1 SCC 248

Facts: The petitioner's passport was impounded without a hearing and without reasons, under section 10(3)(c) of the Passports Act, 1967.

Held: A seven-Judge Bench held that the procedure for depriving a person of personal liberty under Article 21 must be right, just and fair, that Articles 14, 19 and 21 are interlinked, and that the principle of audi alteram partem must be read into the exercise of the power. A post-decisional hearing could satisfy the requirement where a pre-decisional hearing was impracticable.

Ratio: The decision is the fountainhead of much of modern Indian administrative law, giving natural justice and fair procedure a constitutional basis under Articles 14 and 21. It is the clearest illustration of case law as a source, creating doctrine that no statute had laid down.

6. Administrative Rule-Making of a Non-Statutory Kind

A great deal of administration is guided by instruments that are not delegated legislation in the strict sense: executive instructions, departmental circulars, office memoranda, manuals, guidelines and policy statements. These are a practical source of administrative law, though of lower authority.

They may be issued under the executive power of the Government (Articles 73 and 162) to fill gaps where no statutory rule exists, and they bind officials internally.
They do not ordinarily create enforceable rights in third parties, but the courts will not permit them to be applied arbitrarily, and they may found a legitimate expectation or be enforced through Article 14 where a citizen has been treated inconsistently with a published policy.
They cannot override a statute or a statutory rule. In Sant Ram Sharma v. State of Rajasthan, AIR 1967 SC 1910, the Supreme Court held that the Government may fill gaps in the rules by administrative instructions, but such instructions cannot supersede statutory rules or deal with matters the rules already cover.

7. Subsidiary Sources: Custom, Usage and Expert Reports

Two further sources have a limited but real influence.

Custom and usage. Established administrative practice and departmental usage may, where consistent with statute, guide the exercise of power and inform the interpretation of a rule. They are a weak source, always yielding to the Constitution, statute and binding precedent.

Reports of commissions and committees. These do not have the force of law, but they have shaped both legislation and judicial doctrine, and are often cited by the courts. They include the reports of the Law Commission of India (notably the 14th Report of 1958), the reports of the first Administrative Reforms Commission (1966 to 1970), which recommended the institutions of Lokpal and Lokayukta, and of the second Administrative Reforms Commission (2005 onwards), and, in England, the Donoughmore Committee (1932) on Ministers' powers and the Franks Committee (1957) on tribunals and inquiries, whose principles of openness, fairness and impartiality have influenced Indian thinking on administrative adjudication.

8. The Sources at a Glance

Source	Nature and authority	Illustrations
Constitution	Supreme; the framework and the highest principles	Articles 12, 14, 19, 21, 32, 226, 300, 311, 323A, 323B; the basic structure doctrine
Statutes	Below the Constitution; create authorities and confer powers	SEBI Act; TRAI Act; Competition Act; Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985; RTI Act, 2005; the Labour Codes
Delegated legislation	Below the parent statute; both source and subject of control	Rules, regulations, bye-laws, schemes and notifications; In re Delhi Laws Act; P. Krishnamurthy
Judicial decisions	Binding under Article 141; the main source of general doctrine	Natural justice, non-arbitrariness, legitimate expectation, proportionality; Maneka Gandhi; Kraipak
Non-statutory rule-making	Guides officials; limited effect on third parties	Circulars, office memoranda, guidelines; Sant Ram Sharma
Custom, usage and reports	Weak or persuasive	Departmental practice; Law Commission and ARC reports; Donoughmore and Franks Committees

9. Related Topics and Provisions

Administrative Law: Meaning, Definitions, Nature and Scope (Topic 1): the largely judge-made, uncodified character of the subject, explained here through its sources.
Constitutional Foundations of Administrative Law in India (Topic 7): a fuller treatment of the constitutional provisions listed in Section 2.
Delegated Legislation: the meaning, permissible limits and control of the source discussed in Section 4.
Principles of Natural Justice and Judicial Review of Administrative Action: the doctrines that case law, as a source, has produced.
Rule of Law (Topic 8): the constitutional principle that underlies the supremacy of the Constitution as a source.
Constitution of India: Articles 12, 13, 14, 19, 21, 32, 73, 141, 162, 226, 227, 299, 300, 309 to 311, 323A and 323B; General Clauses Act, 1897.