Test: Administrative Law - 2 - CUET Humanities MCQ

French administrative law is known as Droit Administratif, which means a body of rules which determines the organization, powers and duties of public administration and regulates the relation of the administration with the citizen of the country.

Both constitutional law and administrative law are parts of the public law which shows that constitutional law is the mother of administrative law and it cannot be totally separated from each other. Administrative law is subordinate to constitutional law. While the constitution touches all branches of law and deals with general principles relating to the organization and power of the various organs of the state, administrative law only deals with the powers and functions of the administrative authorities.

Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rule making, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. Administrative law as a law is limited to concerning powers and procedures of administrative agencies. It is limited to the powers of adjudication or rule-making power of the authorities.

The meaning of rule of law, is that no man is above law and also that every person is subject to the jurisdiction of ordinary courts of law irrespective of their position and rank. Thus, option 4 is the correct answer.

The non-delegation doctrine is a principle in administrative law that Parliament cannot delegate its legislative powers to other entities. This prohibition typically involves Parliament delegating its powers to administrative agencies or to private organisations.

The legislature cannot delegate essential legislative functions, which consists of the determination or choosing of the legislative policy and of formally enacting that policy into a binding rule of conduct. Thus, the legislature cannot delegate power to repeal a law, power to impose a tax or power of exemption to the executive, as they are essential legislative functions.

Prof. A.V. Dicey denounced the Droit system of administration as being a system where no justice was possible, while in theory Dicey's renunciation appeared reasonable. In practice it is often rightly pointed out that this system of justice was far more efficient than its contemporary common law systems.

The nature of administrative law is not rigid and streamlined and the general principles are well-settled but their application depends necessarily on the totality of the circumstances and facts.

Natural justice is identified with the two constituents of a fair hearing, which are the rule against bias (nemo iudex in causa sua, or "no man a judge in his own cause"), and the right to a fair hearing (audi alteram partem, or "hear the other side").

Administrative action can be of four types:Administrative Legislative Action - Administrative legislative action includes rule-making action as well as delegated legislation.
Quasi-judicial action or administrative adjudicatory action - In these cases, the administration performs functions which can be put under the judicial domain as there is some adjudication on legal rights of the individuals involved in the matter.
Simply Administrative Action - Of all the actions undertaken by administrative authorities, other than the two types of actions mentioned before, the rest are called 'Administrative Actions' which essentially deal with execution of crucial administrative decisions. Ministerial Action - In administrative action, discretion power is given to the administrative authority (that is, the authority has the right to exercise his/her own understanding and discretion in dealing with the matter) but in those actions which are copybook action and no discretion is vested with the authority (that is there is only one way of performing that action), such action will be called purely administrative action or ministerial action.