Delegated Legislation

Every Mumbaikar has seen a notice that the BMC has changed a parking rule, a fee or a licence condition, and nobody remembers Parliament or the State Assembly debating it. Yet the notice binds you and a challan follows if you ignore it. Who gave the BMC, a ministry or a regulator the power to make that rule? And if an elected legislature is meant to make the law, how far can it hand that job to someone else before the handover itself becomes unconstitutional? This topic answers both questions.

In two minutes

Delegated legislation is law made by the executive or another authority under power given by an Act; the legislature may delegate the details but never its essential function of laying down policy, and anything beyond that line is excessive delegation and void.

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