Question:-“Administration law is a part of Constitutional law. It has become an independent, branch of study only recently.” Discuss.

Answer:- Prof.Wade writs that with the exercise of Governmental power, administrative law is itself a part of Constitutional law. It has now become an independent branch of study. But it was denied recognition in the United Kingdom and United States of America Prof. Dicey repudiated its existence in The United Kingdom and his view continued to occupy the minds of thinking persons till the advent of the report of the committee on ministers. He misunderstood “Droit Administratiff,” which he identified with administrative law. According to him, since there was no dual system of Judiciary in Great Britain like France there is nothing like the term ‘administrative law’ in England. Similarly, the existence of administrative law was defined in the United States because of the acceptance of the doctrine of separation of powers under their Constitution. The views of Austin, to whom constitutional law merely determined what persons or classes of persons bore the sovereign powers while administrative law determined the ends and modes to and in which sovereign powers were exercised, are not complete in full sense, because he dealt constitutional law in a very narrow sense. While summarizing the views of Holland in this regard, Maitland said, “I think we catch his idea if we say that while constitutional law deals with the structure, administrative law deals with functions. ”Keith observes – “It is logically impossible to distinguish administrative law from constitutional law.”

Thus, according to the views of these writers, administrative law and constitutional law both deal with the same  subject. As Griffith, J.A. writes, that the truth is, all these writers (with possible exception of Austin) would themselves point out, that any definition of constitutional or administrative law and any distinction drawn between them are arbitrary and based on the convenience of the particular writer. Consequently, administrative law has been dealt with in the books of constitutional law till recently. Although there is much similarity in the subject – matter of the two laws as the definition of administrative law by Jennings clearly indicates, yet the tremendous growth in the scope of administrative law has separated it from constitutional law. It was Goodnew who first took up administrative law as a separate subject, he wrote a book on comparative administrative law in 1892. According to Holland the constitunal law describes the various organs of government at rest, whereas administrative law describes them in motion. In India administrative law has not grown up fully. It is in its infancy. Before 1947, our country was a police state. With the advent of independence a conscious effort started towards the achievement of a welfare state. The philosophy of welfare state has been expressly engrained in our Constitution. There are several principles which are derived from the Constitution law and they constitute the fundamental basis of administrative law. In fact among the various sources of administrative law constitution stands foremost besides the statutes, statutory instruments and precedent.

Our Constitutional itself envisages a few administrative bodies mainly from the point of view of Inter-State co–operation and co-ordination and to solve Inter–State problems. Examples are Inter-State Council, the Finance Commission, Union Public Service Commission and the Election Commission. Besides this, we have several provisions in the Constitution, relate to control on the administrative powers.

As regards the relationship between the two branches of law there is no deviation from the modern tendency of thought that administrative law is an independent branch of the subject, although, the knowledge of Indian Constitutional Law is indispensable for understanding the correct position of administrative law in India.

The inevitable and speedier growth of powers of the administration under the garb of socialism have resulted outstanding legal development of the twentieth century taking its force from constitution law. Administrative law is very much related to constitutional law. It owes much to constitution law, in spite of the fact that the former has developed as an independent branch of study. In many ways constitutional law is the determining factor of administrative law.

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Courtesy:- Dr. Deepak Miglani

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