Administrative law: meaning, nature, scope, growth and sources - Administrative Law

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1. Definitions
2. Nature
3. Scope
4. Factors responsible for the growth of administrative law
5. Sources of administrative law in India
6. Administrative law and constitutional law
How this is examined

Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.

Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.

The first question of the paper. Unit I almost always opens with one of four questions: define administrative law and explain its nature and scope, explain the factors for its growth, explain its sources, or distinguish it from constitutional law. All four are answered from the same material, set out below. Learn two or three definitions by name; the examiner looks for them.

1. Definitions

There is no single accepted definition, and the standard answer gives three or four and then says what they have in common.

Ivor Jennings: administrative law is the law relating to the administration. It determines the organisation, powers and duties of administrative authorities. The definition is wide; it does not separate administrative law from constitutional law.
A.V. Dicey: that portion of a nation's legal system which determines the legal status and liabilities of all State officials, the rights and liabilities of private individuals in their dealings with officials, and the procedure by which those rights and liabilities are enforced. It is narrow, because Dicey had the French droit administratif in mind and thought England had no such separate body of law.
K.C. Davis: the law concerning the powers and procedures of administrative agencies, including especially the law governing judicial review of administrative action. This is the American, procedure-centred view.
H.W.R. Wade: the law relating to the control of governmental power; its primary object is to keep the powers of government within their legal bounds, so as to protect the citizen against their abuse.

Common to all of them: administrative law deals with the powers of administrative authorities, the manner in which those powers are exercised, and the remedies available to a person injured by their exercise. M.P. Jain and S.N. Jain, the prescribed text, describe it as the law dealing with the organisation, powers and functions of the administration and the controls on those powers.

2. Nature

Mostly judge-made. In India there is no administrative code. The grounds of review, natural justice, the rules on discretion, legitimate expectation and proportionality were all built by courts.
Public law. It governs the relationship between the individual and the State, unlike contract or tort, which govern relations between private parties.
A branch of constitutional law in the wide sense, concerned with the executive in action rather than with the structure of the State.
Dynamic. It changes as the functions of government change. The welfare and regulatory State has brought new kinds of power and therefore new controls.

3. Scope

The scope follows from what administrative authorities actually do. The syllabus itself names their triple function: they legislate (rules, regulations, notifications), they adjudicate (tribunals, licensing authorities, disciplinary enquiries) and they administer (executive orders, licences, contracts). Administrative law therefore covers:

delegated legislation and its controls (Unit II);
administrative adjudication and natural justice (Unit III);
administrative discretion and its judicial review (Unit IV);
remedies, writ and ordinary, and the liability of the State in contract and tort (Unit IV);
public corporations, and non-judicial controls such as the Lokpal, Lokayukta, Central Vigilance Commission, parliamentary committees and commissions of inquiry (Unit V).

What it does not cover: the structure of the legislature, the substantive law that the administration applies (tax law, labour law), and the internal management of departments as such.

4. Factors responsible for the growth of administrative law

The January 2026 paper set exactly this. Write it as a list of causes, each with one sentence of explanation.

The change from police State to welfare State. A State that once kept order and collected taxes now runs railways, banks, hospitals and schools, regulates industry and distributes benefits. Each new function creates new administrative power.
Industrialisation and urbanisation, bringing problems of labour, housing, public health and pollution that the ordinary courts and legislature could not regulate in detail.
Inadequacy of the legislature. Parliament lacks the time and the technical knowledge to enact detailed rules, so it lays down policy and leaves the details to the executive: hence delegated legislation.
Inadequacy of the ordinary courts. Courts are slow, costly and formal, and their judges are not experts in technical disputes. Tribunals and administrative adjudication are cheaper, quicker and more specialised.
Need for flexibility and experiment. Rules made by the executive can be changed quickly as conditions change, which a statute cannot.
Emergencies and preventive action. Epidemics, floods, food shortages and threats to security require immediate action that only the executive can take.
The Indian Constitution itself, with its Directive Principles directing the State to secure social and economic justice, which can be realised only through a large administration.

Growth of power produces the need for control, and that is the real reason administrative law has grown: the more the administration can do, the more the citizen needs protection against its excess.

5. Sources of administrative law in India

The Constitution. Articles 14, 19 and 21 supply the standards against which administrative action is tested; Articles 32, 136, 226 and 227 supply the remedies; Articles 299 and 300 govern contract and liability; Part XIV governs the services; Articles 323A and 323B provide for tribunals.
Statutes. Acts that create authorities and confer powers on them, and Acts of general application such as the General Clauses Act, 1897, the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003, the Right to Information Act, 2005 and the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013.
Delegated legislation: rules, regulations, bye-laws, schemes and notifications made under those statutes.
Administrative directions and circulars, which bind officers internally and, in some cases, are enforced by courts.
Judicial decisions. The most important source in practice. Natural justice, the doctrine of excessive delegation, the grounds of review of discretion and the doctrine of legitimate expectation are all case law.
English and other foreign law, as persuasive authority: Ridge v. Baldwin (House of Lords, 1963) and the Wednesbury case (Court of Appeal, 1947) are cited in Indian courts constantly.

6. Administrative law and constitutional law

Asked as a 6-mark distinction in June 2025. The orthodox statement, from Jennings via Wade, is that constitutional law describes the structure of the organs of government and their relations with each other and with the citizen, while administrative law describes those organs in motion. Points of difference:

Subject. Constitutional law deals with the State and its organs at rest; administrative law with the executive at work.
Supremacy. In India constitutional law is the supreme law; administrative law operates within it and must conform to it.
Source. Constitutional law is mainly in a written document; administrative law is mainly in statutes, rules and case law.
Scope. Constitutional law covers all three organs and federal relations; administrative law is concerned chiefly with the executive and administrative bodies, including those exercising legislative and judicial powers.

The line is not watertight, and good answers say so. The writ jurisdiction under Articles 32 and 226, the reading of Article 14 to strike down arbitrary action, and Article 21 as the source of procedural fairness are all constitutional law and administrative law at once.

How this is examined

Every recent paper has one of these as the Unit I essay. January 2026: “Explain the different factors responsible for the growth of administrative law” and a note on its sources. June 2025: “What is administrative law? Explain the objectives and sources of administrative law” and a 6-mark distinction from constitutional law. For the objectives, use Wade's definition: keeping power within legal bounds, preventing abuse, securing fair procedure and giving effective remedies. A good 10-mark answer gives two or three definitions by author, the triple function, the list of causes or sources with one line each, and a closing sentence that growth of power is what makes the controls necessary. The droit administratif note, set in January 2026, belongs with the rule of law and is covered in the note on that topic.