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1961 (3) TMI 105

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..... passed which were taken in appeal by the present appellants to the Labour Appellate Tribunal and they failed there also. They then filed petitions under Art. 226 of the Constitution in the Allahabad High Court challenging the constitutionality of s. 3 of the Act and the validity of the two general orders passed on March 15, 1951, by which industrial tribunals were set up. The High Court held that s. 3 of the Act was constitutional. It however held that the two general orders dated March 15, 1951, were invalid; but it went on to hold that orders of reference passed in these cases were special orders as envisaged under s. 3 of the Act and were therefore not invalid; in consequence it dismissed the petitions. The appellants then applied for and obtained certificates for leave to appeal, and that is how the matter has come up before us. It is unnecessary to set out the facts further in respect of these appeals, as the only points argued before us are about the constitutionality of s. 3 and the validity of the two general orders of 1951 and also of the references made in these cases. It is not disputed that if the appellants fail on these points their appeals in this Court must fail. .....

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..... on or choosing of the legislative policy and of formally enacting that policy into a binding rule of conduct. It is open to the legislature to formulate the policy as br oadly and with as little or as much details as it thinks proper and it may delegate the rest of the legislative work to a subordinate authority who will work out the details within the framework of that policy. 'So long as a policy is laid down and a standard established by statute no constitutional delegation of legislative power is involved in leaving to selected instrumentalities the making of subordinate rules within prescribed limits and the determination of facts to which the legislation is to apply'. What we have to see therefore is whether the legislature in this case performed its essential legislative function of determining and choosing the legislative policy and of formally enacting that policy into a binding rule of conduct. It was open to the legislature to formulate that policy as broadly and with as little or as much details as it thought proper. Thereafter once a policy is laid down and a standard established by statute, there is no question of delegation of legislative power .....

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..... n, laws and powers and the result of that judgment having been conditional legislation as to all these things, the legislation would be absolute as soon as the conditions a re fulfilled. These observations have in our opinion nothing to do with such matters of detail as the place where a court or tribunal will sit or the qualifications of persons constituting the tribunal; they refer to more fundamental matters when the words place and person are used therein. The place there must mean the area to which the legislation would apply; and so far as that is concerned, the legislature has determined the area in this case to which s. 3 will apply, namely, the whole of the State of Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, the word Person used there refers to persons to whom legislation will apply- and that has also been determined by the legislature in this case, namely, it will apply to employers and employees of industrial concerns. We have already said that the conditions under which the order will be passed have also been set out in the opening part of s. 3, and how the Government will act is also set out, namely, by referring any industrial dispute that may arise for conciliation or adjudicat .....

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..... reamble to the second order also does not contain a recital that the State Government had formed such opinion before it made the order. It is therefore contended on behalf of the appellants that the orders were bad as the condition precedent for their formulation was not recited in the orders themselves. At a later stage the appellants also contended that in any case the orders were bad because as a fact they were passed without any satisfaction of the State Government as required under s. 3, though no affidavit was filed by the appellants in this behalf in support of this averment. Unfortunately, the State also filed no affidavit to show that the conditions precedent provided ins. 3 had been complied with, even though there was no recital thereof on the face of the order. We should have expected that even though the appellants did not file an affidavit in support of their case on this aspect of the matter, the State would as a matter of precaution have filed an affidavit to indicate whether the conditions precedent set out in s. 3 had been complied with, considering that it was a general order which was being attacked under which a large number of adjudications must have taken pla .....

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..... order would be bad ab initio. It is urged that where subordinate rules of this nature have to be made and they affect the general public or a section thereof, conditions precedent to the exercise of the power must be recited when the power is exercised in order that the public may know that the rules are legal and framed after satisfying the conditions necessary for the, purpose. Moreover, some of the subordinate rules may have to be enforced by courts and tribunals and it is necessary that courts and tribunals should also know by the presence of the recital in the order that the rules are legal and binding and have been 'framed after the condition precedent had been satisfied. In particular, it is urged that where the rules are of a general nature and are subordinate legislation the satisfaction of the condition precedent becomes a part of the legislative process so far as the subordinate authority is concerned and the defect in legislative process cannot be remedied later by affidavit. Shri C. B. Aggarwala on the other hand contends that where a statute gives power to make an order subject to certain conditions then unless the statute requires the conditions to be set out .....

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..... ect can be made good by filing an affidavit later on to show that the condition precedent was satisfied. In The State of Bombay v. Purushottam Jog Naik [1952] S.C.R. 674, which was a case relating to preventive detention it was held by this Court that even if the order was defective in form it was open to the State Government to prove by other means that it was validly made. In Biswabhusan Naik v. The State of Orissa [1955] 1 S.C.R. 92, which was a case relating to sanction under the Prevention of Corruption Act, No. II of 1947, this Court held that it is desirable to state the facts on the face of sanction, because when the facts are not set out in the sanction, proof has to be given aliunde that sanction was given in respect of the facts constituting the offence charged; but an omission to set out the facts in the sanction is not fatal so long as the facts can be and are proved in some other way . In a later case in The State of Bombay v. Bhanji Munji 1955] 1 S.C.R. 777 which was a case of requisition under the Bombay Land Requisition Act, this Court held that it was not necessary to set out the purpose of the requisition in the order; the desirability of such a course was obvio .....

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..... by other means that the conditions precedent were fulfilled but in the former case the court will presume the regularity of the order including the fulfilment of the conditions precedent; and then it will be for the party challenging the legality of the order to show that the recital was not correct and that the conditions precedent were not in fact complied with by the a uthority: [see the observations of Spens C. J. in King Emperor v. Sibnath Banerjee (1944) F.C.R. 1, 42, which were approved by the Privy Council in King Emperor v. Sibnath Banerjee (1945) F.C.R 195, 216-7]. Nor are we impressed with the contention of Shri Pathak that conditions become a part of legislative process and therefore where they are not complied with the subordinate legislation is illegal and the defect cannot be cured by an. affidavit later. It is true that such power may have to be exercised subject to certain conditions precedent but that does not assimilate the action of the subordinate executive authority to something like a legislative procedure, which must be followed before a bill becomes a law. Our conclusion therefore is that where certain conditions precedent have to be satisfied before a subo .....

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..... ch required such a finding to be stated in the order and is no authority for the proposition that an express recital is necessary in the order in every case before a delegate can exercise the power delegated to it. The next case is Herbert Mahler v. Howard Eby That was a case dealing with deportation of aliens. The statute provided for deportation if the Secretary (Labour) after hearing finds that such aliens were undesirable residents of United States. But the Secretary made no express finding so far as the warrant for deportation disclosed it. Nor was the defect in the warrant of deportation supplied before the court. The court held that the finding was made a condition precedent to deportation and it was essential that where an executive is exercising delegated legislative power he should substantially comply with all the statutory requirements in its exercise, and that, if his making a finding is a condition precedent to this act, the fulfilment of that condition should appear in the record of the act, and reliance was placed on the case of Wichita Railroad Light Company v. Public Utilities COmmission (1922) 67 L. Ed. 124. This again was a case of a hearing and a finding r .....

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