delegated legislation
Delegated or subordinate legislation includes rules, regulations, bye-laws, notifications and orders made under a parent Act. The legislature cannot deal with every detail, so it lays down policy and leaves the executive to fill in the details. In India the legislature may delegate, but it cannot abdicate its essential legislative function: it must lay down the policy and standards (In re Delhi Laws Act).
Delegated legislation is controlled by the courts (it can be struck down as ultra vires the parent Act or the Constitution) and by the legislature (laying before the House and scrutiny by committees on subordinate legislation). Unlike an Act, a rule can be challenged for going beyond the parent statute.
Example
The rule was struck down as delegated legislation going beyond the parent Act, which gave no power to impose such a fee.
In Indian law
See also
excessive delegation · delegatus non potest delegare
Read more in the study notes
- Delegated legislation: meaning, growth, merits and administrative directions (Administrative Law)
- Control of delegated legislation: parliamentary, procedural and judicial (Administrative Law)
- Administrative law: meaning, nature, scope, growth and sources (Administrative Law)
- Separation of powers and its bearing on administrative law (Administrative Law)
- Excessive delegation, conditional legislation and sub-delegation (Administrative Law)
- Central Vigilance Commission, parliamentary committees and commissions of inquiry (Administrative Law)