TMI Blog1973 (12) TMI 38X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... has not abdicated its legislative function by enacting section 8(2)(b) of the Act is in agreement with that reached by the High Court of Gujarat in Rallis India Ltd. v. R. S. Joshi, Sales Tax Officer, [1972 (9) TMI 138 - GUJARAT HIGH COURT] and the High Court of Punjab in Tek Chand Daulat Rai v. Excise and Taxation Officer, Ferozepore [1971 (4) TMI 89 - PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT] . Appeals dismissed. - Civil Appeal No. 212, 213, 214, 215 of 1973. - - - Dated:- 21-12-1973 - Judge(s) : K. K. MATHEW., A. ALAGIRISWAMI., A. N. ROY., H. R. KHANNA., P. N. BHAGWATI A.K. Sen and R.V. Patel, Senior Advocates (Biswarup Gupta, R.N. Jhunjhunwala and U.K. Khaitan, Advocates, with them), for the appellants. I.N. Shroff, Advocate, for respondents Nos. 1 to 3. B. Sen, Senior Advocate (S.P. Nayar, Advocate, with him), for respondent No. 4 in C.A. No. 212 of 1973. S.P. Nayar, Advocate, for respondent No. 4 in C.A. Nos. 213 to 215 of 1973. JUDGMENT [The judgment of RAY C. J. and MATHEW J. was delivered by MATHEW J. The judgment Of KHANNA, ALAGIRTSWAMI and BHAGWATI JJ. was delivered by KHANNA J.] MATHEW J.- -These appeals are preferred on the basis of certificates g ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed a conclusive presumption that the procedure prescribed had been gone through on a certain notification being issued by the Government in that regard. This provision, it was contended, was ultra vires because there was an abdication of essential legislative functions by the Legislature with respect to the imposition of tax inasmuch as the State Government was given the power to condone the breaches of the Act and to set at naught the Act itself. This, it was contended, was an indirect exempting or dispensing power. Hidayatullah J., speaking for the majority, said that regard being had to the democratic set-up of the municipalities which need the proceeds of these taxes for their own administration, it is proper to leave to these municipalites the power to impose and collect these taxes. He further said that, apart from the fact that, the Board was a representative body of the local population on whom the tax was levied, there were other safeguards by way of checks and controls by Government which could veto the action of the Board in case it did not carry out the mandate of the Legislature. In Devi Dass Gopal Krishnan v. Slate of Punjab, the question was whether section 5 of th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e including those who paid taxes provided a great check on the elected councillors imposing unreasonable rates of tax. He then said: "The guidance may take the form of providing maximum rates of tax up to which a local body may be given the discretion to make its choice, or it may take the form of providing for consultation with the people of the local area and then fixing the rates after such consultation. It may also take the form of subjecting the rate to be fixed by the local body to the approval of Government which acts as a watch-dog on the actions of the local body in this matter on behalf of the Legislature. There may be other ways in which guidance may be provided." In Sita Ram Bishambhar Dayal v. State of U.P., section 3-D(1) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948, had provided for levying taxes at such rates as may be prescribed by the State Government not exceeding the maximum prescribed therein. Hegde J., speaking for the court, observed: "However much one might deplore the 'New Despotism' of the executive, the very complexity of the modern society and the demand it makes on its Government have set in motion forces which have made it absolutely necessary for the Legisla ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nstitution or body of its own creation authority to make bye-laws or resolutions as to subjects specified in the enactment, and with the object of carrying the enactment into operation and effect. The main argument in the case was that the delegation of a power to make regulation ancillary to legislation might be intra vires but for a legislature to pass a skeleton legislation and to empower the Government to clothe the bare bones was not delegation but abdication, as that would create and endow with its own capacity a new legislative power not created by the British North America Act to which it owes its existence. In 1918, near forty years after Hodge v. Queen, the theory of abdication was raised in Its re Gray, where the Supreme Court of Canada upheld an Act but the judges did not agree in their reasoning for so holding. The Act was called the "Dominion War Measures Act" which empowered the Governor-General to make "such regulations as he may by reason of the existence of real or apprehended war ... deem necessary or advisable for the security, defence, peace, order and welfare of Canada." The argument was that the legislation transferred legislative power of the Dominion Pa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n in the following pithy sentences of Lord Atkin : "Within its appointed sphere the Provincial Legislature is as supreme as any other Parliament; and it is unnecessary to try to enumerate the innumerable occasions on which Legislatures, Provincial, Dominion and Imperial, have entrusted various persons and bodies with similar powers to those contained in this Act." Now it is well known that the English Parliament may, by legislation, give to any body of its own choosing, the power to modify or add to a given Act of Parliament (the legality of all English statutory rules and orders derives from this). In R. v. Burah, the Privy Council held that the Indian Legislature was in no sense an agent or delegate of the British Parliament, that within the limits of its powers, the Indian Legislature had plenary powers of legislation as wide and of the same nature as those of the British Parliament, and that the plenary powers of legislation carried with them the power to legislate absolutely or conditionally. The Privy Council did not require as a prerequisite to a valid delegation of legislative, power that the law must lay down a policy or standard; nor did it do so in any other case o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fference in this respect. I read [1883] 9 A. C. 117 and [1885] 10 A.C. 282 as laying down that legislatures like Indian Legislatures had full power to delegate legislative authority to subordinate bodies. In the judgments in these cases no such words as 'policy', 'standard', or 'guidance' is mentioned. In Lichter v. United States the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the Renegotiation Act. That Act provided for the renegotiation of war contracts and authorised administrative officers to recover profits which they determined to be excessive; such profits being defined mean "any amount of a contract or a sub-contract price which is found as a result of renegotiation to represent excessive profits" which means, in other words that excessive profits mean excessive profits. The court repelled the challenge on the ground of delegated legislation by saying: "It is not necessary that Congress supply administrative officials with a specific formula for their guidance in a field where flexibility and the adaptation of the congressional policy to infinitely varialbe conditions constitute the essence of the program. The statutory terms 'excessive profits' in the context was a sufficient ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... slative function ? The concept of "abdication" seems no less vague, fluctuating and uncertain than the "transfer to others (of) the essential legislative functions" banned by the Supreme Court of the United States in Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan. To Lord Haldane, a legislature does not "abdicate" unless it withdraws from the field and surrenders its responsibility therefor. But, in the eyes of some other judges, there seems to be, "abdication" whenever a legislature, while remaining in the field and retaining its responsibility therefor, entrusts to others the formulation of policy otherwise than with a definite standard or purpose laid down by it. In In re the Delhi Laws Act, 1912, etc. Kania C. J. said that if full powers to do everything that the legislature can do are conferred on a subordinate authority, although the legislature retains the power to control the action of the subordinate authority by recalling such power or repealing the Acts passed by the subordinate authority, there is no abdication or effacement of the legislature conferring such power. Fazl Ali J. observed that there are only two main checks in this country on the power of the legislature to delegate, th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... whether the Queensland Legislature had legislative authority under the impugned Acts to invest the Commissioner or Transport with power to impose and levy licence and permit fees. It was not disputed before their Lordships that fees imposed are to be regarded as constituting taxation. Accordingly, it was contended that the legislature had abdicated its exclusive power of levying taxation. The Privy Council held that the Queensland Legislature was entitled to use agent or subordinate agency and any machinery that it considered appropriate for carrrying out the object and the purposes that they had in mind and which they designated and to use the Commissioner for Transport at its instrument to fix and recover the licence and permit fees, provided it preserved its own capacity intact and retained perfect control over him; that as it could at any time repeal the legislation and withdraw such authority and discretion as it had vested in him, it had not assigned, transferred of abrogated its sovereign power to levy taxes, nor had it renounced or abdicated its responsibilities in favour of a newly created legislative authority and that, accordingly, the two Acts were valid. Lord Morris of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of law is only a means to achieve a purpose. It is not an end in itself. That end can be attained by the legislature making the law. But many topics or subjects of legislation are such that they require expertise, technical knowledge and a degree of adaptability to changing situations which Parliment might not possess and, therefore, this end is better secured by extensive delegation of legislative power. The legislative process would frequently bog down if a legislature were required to appraise beforehand the myriad situations to which it wishes a particular policy to be applied and to formulate specific rules for each situation. The presence of Henry VIII clause in many of the statutes is a pointer to the necessity of extensive delegation. The hunt by court for legislative policy or guidance in the crevices of a statute or the nook and cranny of its preamble is not an edifying spectacle. It is not clear what difference does it make in principle by saying that since the delegation is to a representative body, that would be a guarantee that the delegate will not exercise the power unreasonably, for, if ex hypothesi the legislature must perform the essential legislative function, i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... force in Pondicherry. When the Act had come into force the petitioner was served with a notice to register himself as a dealer and he thereupon filed a writ petition challenging the validity of the Act. After the petition was filed, the Pondicherry Legislature passed the Pondicherry General Sales Tax (Amendment) Act (13 of 1966) whereby section 1(2) of the principal Act was amended to read that the latter Act "shall come into force on the 1st day of April, 1966"; it was also provided that all taxes levied or collected and all proceedings taken and things done were to be deemed valid as if the principal Act as amended had been in force at all material times. The court, by a majority, held that the Pondicherry Legislature not only adopted the Madras Act as it stood at the date when it passed the principal Act, but in effect also enacted that if the Madras Legislature were to amend its Act prior to the notification of its extension to Pondicherry, it would be the amended Act that would apply; that the Legislature at that stage could not anticipate that the Madras Act would not be amended nor could it predicate what amendments would be carried out or whether they would be of a sweep ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ision and its future amendments and that for a special reason or purpose. In A. G., N. S. v. A. G., Can. (Nova Scotia Inter-delegation case) the Supreme Court of Canada said that neither the Parliament of Canada nor the Legislature of any Province can delegate one to the other (to be exercised by that other as a Parliament or legislature, as the case may be) any of the legislative authority respectively conferred upon them by the British North America Act and especially by sections 91 and 92 thereof. The court was of the view that the legislative authority conferred upon Parliament and upon a Provincial Legislature is exclusive and, in consequence, neither can bestow upon or accept power from the other, although each may delegate to subordinate agencies; and to permit through delegation alteration of the distribution of legislative power established by the British North America Act (save as Permitted by section 94) would mean that matters within Dominion competence would be incorporated in legislation assented to by the Lieutenant-Governor instead of by the Governor-General and vice versa; and, moreover, it would mean that the debate and judgment of one legislative body would be ad ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ce and for its own purposes, a borrowing by the one from the other of future enactments does not involve the latter in exercise of power which it does not otherwise possess. This view is amply supported by Regina v. Glibbery [1963] 1 O.R. 232; 36 D.L.R. (2d) 548." (See Bora Laskin, Canadian Constitutional Law, 3rd Ed., pp. 40-41). The decision in A. G., Ont. v. Scott was in an appeal from a judgment reversing an order dismissing a motion for prohibition directed to a Magistrate purporting to act under the Ontario Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders Act, R.S.O. 1950, c. 334. The Act carried out an arrangement, to which certain other provinces and England became parties, for enforcement in Ontario, against resident husbands, of provisional maintenance orders for which proceedings had been initiated in a reciprocating jurisdiction by wives resident there. By s. 5(2) of the Act, a resident husband against whom "confirmation" of a foreign order was sought was entitled "to raise any defence that he might have raised in the original proceedings had he been a party thereto but no other defence". Among the objections to the validity of the Act was one directed to s. 5(2) as being ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Ontario and that this could not be done was made clear by the judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in A. G., N. S. v. A. G., Can.; but the learned judge came to the conclusion that this objection should not prevail as it was a valid exercise of provincial powers under head (13) of section 92 of the British North America Act to declare that the defences which may be relied upon in proceedings of this nature shall be those from time to time permissible under the laws of England, those laws in substance being adopted and declared to be the law in the Province. As regards the correctness of the reasoning of Locke J., see Bora Laskin, comments in [1956] 34 Can. Bar Review, 215-227. We think that Parliament fixed the rate of tax on inter-State sales of the description specified in section 8(2)(b) of the Act at the rate fixed by the appropriate State Legislature in respect of inter-State sales with a purpose, namely, to check evasion of tax on inter-State sales and to prevent discrimination between residents in one State and those in other States. Parliament thought that unless the rate fixed by the States from time to time is adopted as the rate of tax for inter-State sales of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ovisions. Sub-sections (1), (2) and (4) of section 8 of the Act read as under : "(1) Every dealer, who in the course of inter-State trade or commerce-- (a) sells to the Government any goods; or (b) sells to a registered dealer other than the Government goods of the description referred to in sub-section (3); shall be liable to pay tax under this Act, which shall be three per cent. of his turnover. (2) The tax payable by any dealer on his turnover in so far as the turnover or any part thereof relates to the sale of goods in the course of inter-State trade or commerce not falling within sub-section (1)-- (a) in the case of declared goods, shall be calculated at the rate applicable to the sale or purchase of such goods inside the appropriate State ; and (b) in the case of goods other than declared goods, shall be calculated at the rate of ten per cent. or at the rate applicable to the sale or purchase of such goods inside the appropriate State, whichever is higher; and lot the purpose of making any such calculation any such dealer shall be deemed to be a dealer liable to pay tax under the sales tax law of the appropriate State, notwithstanding that he, in fact, may n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... te applicable to the sale or purchase of such goods inside the appropriate State: vide section 8(2)(a) of the Act. As regards goods other than the declared goods, section 8(2)(b) provides that the tax payable by any dealer on the sale of such goods in the course of inter-State trade or commerce shall be calculated at the rate of 10 per cent. or at the rate applicable to the sale or purchase of such goods inside the appropriate State, whichever is higher. The question with which we are concerned is whether Parliament in not fixing the rate itself and in adopting the rate applicable to the sale or purchase of goods inside the appropriate State has not laid down any legislative policy and has abdicated, its legislative function. In this connection we are of the view that a clear legislative policy can be found in the provisions of section 8(2)(b) of the Act. The policy of the law in this respect is that in case the rate of local sales tax be less than 10 per cent., in such an event the dealer, if the case does not fall within section 8(1) of the Act, should pay Central sales tax at the rate of 10 per cent. If, however, the rate of local sales tax for the goods concerned be more than ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... te State, whichever is higher. As could be seen from the report of the Taxation Enquiry Committee, the main reason for this provision was to prevent as far as possible the evasion of sales tax. Parliament was anxious that interstate trade should be canalised through registered dealers over whom the appropriate Government has a great deal of control. It is not very easy for them to evade tax. A measure which is intended to check the evasion of tax is undoubtedly a valid measure. Further, inter-State trade carried on through dealers coming within section 8(2) must be in the very nature of things very little. It is in public interest to see that in the guise of freedom of trade, they do not evade the payment of tax. If the sales tax they have to pay is as high or even higher than inter-State sales tax then they will be constrained to register themselves and pay the tax legitimately due. The impact of this provision on inter-State trade is bound to be negligible, but at the same time it is an effective safeguard against evasion of tax. " The adoption of the rate of local sales tax for the purpose of the Central sales tax as applicable in a particular State does not show that Parliame ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... amended up to April 1, 1966, which was brought into force in Pondicherry. A petition was thereupon filed challenging the validity of the Pondicherry Act. During the pendency of that petition, the Pondicherry Legislature passed Amendment Act 13 of 1966, whereby section 1(2) of the principal Act was amended to read that the latter Act would come into force on April 1, 1966, and that all proceedings and action taken under that Act would be deemed valid as if the principal Act as amended had been in force at all material times. It was held by a majority by this court that the Act of 1965 was void and still-born and could not be revived by the Amendment Act of 1966. According to the court, the Pondicherry Legislature not only adopted the Madras Act as it stood at the date when it passed the principal Act, but in effect it also enacted that if the Madras Legislature were to amend its Act prior to the notification of its extension to Pondicherry, it would be the amended Act that would apply. The Legislature, it was held, at that stage could not anticipate that the Madras Act would not be amended nor could it predicate what amendments would be carried out, whether they would be of a sweepi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l Act relating to the levy of licence fee on cinema houses, Sarkar J. (as he then was), speaking for the majority, after referring to the earlier case of Pandit Banarasi Das Bhanot v. State of Madhya Pradesh observed : " This therefore is clear authority that the fixing of rates may be left to a non-legislative body. No doubt when the power to fix rates of taxes is left to another body, the legislature must provide guidance for such fixation. The question then is, was such guidance provided in the Act? We first wish to observe that the validity of the guidance cannot be tested by a rigid uniform rule; that must depend on the object of the Act giving power to fix the rate. In Municipal Corporation of Delhi v. Birla Cottons Spinning and Weaving Mills, this court dealt with the provisions of sections 113 and 150 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act in the context of levy of certain taxes, including tax on consumption or sale of electricity. One of the questions which arose for determination in that case was whether section 150 of the above-mentioned Act transgressed the limits of permissible delegation. According to that section, the Municipal Corporation may at a meeting pass a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ), speaking for himself and Ramaswami J. observed: "Once it is established that the legislature itself has willed that a particular thing be done and has merely left the execution of it to a chosen, instrumentality (provided that it has not parted, with its control) there can be nor question of excessive delegation. If the delegate acts contrary to the wishes of the legislature, the legislature can undo what the delegate has done." It was further observed: "To insist that the legislature should provide for every matter connected with municipal taxation would make municipalities more tax-collecting departments of Government and not self-governing bodies which they are intended to be. Government might as well collect the taxes and make them available to the municipalities. That is not a correct reading of the history of municipal corporations and other self-governing institutions in our country." Sikri J. (as he then was) observed: " I can see no sign of abdication of its functions by Parliament in this Act. On the contrary Parliament has constituted the corporation and prescribed its duties and powers in great detail. But assuming I am bound by authorities of this court ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a given time thinks it propper to delegate the function entrusted to it. A body of experts in a particular branch of undoubted integrity or special competence may probably be in a better position to exercise the power of legislation in that branch, but the Constitution has chosen to invest the elected representatives of the people to exercise the power of legislation, and not to such bodies of experts. Any attempt on the part of the experts to usurp, or of the representatives of the people to abdicate the functions vested in the legislative branch is inconsistent with the constitutional scheme. Power to make subordinate or ancillary legislation may undoubtedly be conferred upon a delegate, but the legislature must in conferring that power disclose the policy, principles or standards which are to govern the delegate in the exercise of that power so as to set out a guidance. Any delegation which transgresses this limit infringes the constitutional scheme. " After referring to the provisions of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, Shah and Vaidialingam JJ. held that the delegation could not be upheld merely because of the special status, character, competence or capacity of the dele ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e in the matter of legislative policy the views of individual officers or other authorities, however competent they may be, for that of the popular will as expressed by the representatives of the people. As observed on page 224 of Vol. I in Cooley's Constituional Limilations, 8th Ed.: "One of the settled maxims in constitutional law is that the power conferred upon the legislature to make laws cannot be delegated by that department to any other body or authority. Where the sovereign power of the State has located the authority, there it must remain; and by the constitutional agency alone the laws must be made until the Constitution itself is changed. The power to whose judgment, wisdom, and patriotism this high prerogative has been entrusted cannot relieve itself of the responsibility by choosing other agencies upon which the power shall be devolved, nor can it substitute the judgment, wisdom and patriotism of any other body for those to which alone the people have seen fit to confide this sovereign trust." According to John Locke when p arliamentary representatives have been chosen and the authority to make laws has been delegated to them, they have no right to redelegate it. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of Wanchoo C. J. and Shah J. in the case of Municipal Corporation of Delhi v. Birla Mills, and they summed up the conclusions or principles which had been established by those cases. Those conclusions or principles have already been reproduced above. The matter came up for the first time before this court in In re Delhi Laws Act, 1912. Although each one of the learned judges who heard that case wrote a separate judgment, the view which emerged from the different judgments was that it could not be said that an unlimited right of delegation was inherent in the legislative power itself. This was not warranted by the provisions of the Constitution, which vested the power of legislation either in Parliament or State Legislatures. The legitimacy of delegation depended upon its being vested as an ancillary measure which the legislature considered to be necessary for the purpose of exercising its legislative powers effectively and completely. The legislature must retain in its own hands the essential legislative function. Exactly what constituted " essential legislative function " was difficult to define in general terms, but this much was clear that the essential legislative function m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... State Government by section 6(2) of the Central Provinces and Berar Sales Tax Act, 1947, to amend the schedule relating to exemptions was in consonance with the accepted legislative practice relating to the topic and was not unconstitutional. In Vasanlal Maganbhai Sanjanwala v. State of Bombay, the validity of section 6(2) of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act (67 of 1948) was assailed. The said provision authorised the Provincial Government by notification to fix a lower rate of the maximum rent payable by the tenants of lands situate in any particular area or to fix such rate on any other suitable basis as it thought fit. Gajendragadkar J. (as he then was), speaking for the majority, observed that although the power of delegation was a constituent element of legislative power, the legislature cannot delegate its essential legislative function in any case and before it can delegate any subsidiary or ancillary powers to a delegate of its choice, it must lay down the legislative policy and principle so as to afford the delegate proper guidance in implementing the same. The views expressed by this court in Corporation of Calcutta v. Liberty Cinema B. Shama Rao v. Union ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l law-making power may not be delegated, a discretionary authority may be granted to executive and administrative authorities: (1) to determine in specific cases when and how the powers legislatively conferred are to be exercised ; and (2) to establish administrative rules and regulations, binding both upon their subordinates and upon the public, fixing in detail the manner in which the requirements of the statutes are to be met, and the rights therein created to be enjoyed." The matter has also been dealt with in Corpus Juris Secundum, vol. 73, page 324. It is stated there that the law-making power may not be granted to an administrative body to be exercised under the guise of administrative discretion. Accordingly, in delegating powers to an administrative body with respect to the administration of statutes, the legislature must ordinarily prescribe a policy, standard or rule for their guidance and must not vest them with an arbitrary and uncontrolled discretion with regard thereto, and a statute or ordinance which is deficient in this respect is invalid. In other words, in order to avoid the pure delegation of legislative power by the creation of an administrative agency, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Committee held that the power of the Queensland Legislature to legislate for the peace, welfare and good Government of the State was full and plenary within certain limits. It was further held that the Queensland Legislature was entitled to use any agent or any subordinate agency or any machinery that they considered appropriate for carrying out the object and the purposes that they had in mind and which they designated. The legislature, it was observed, was entitled to use the Commissioner for Transport as their instrument to fix and recover the licence and permit fees, provided they preserved their own capacity intact and retained perfect control over him. In this context, the Judicial Committee observed : "In their Lordships' view the Queensland Legislature were fully warranted in legislating in the terms of the Transport Acts now being considered. They preserved their own capacity intact and they retained perfect control over the Commissioner for Transport inasmuch as they could at any time repeal the legislation and withdraw such authority and discretion as they had vested in him. It cannot be asserted that there was a levying of money by pretence or prerogative without gran ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ciated by Mukherjea J. in the Delhi Laws Act case. Said the learned judge : " It cannot be said that an unlimited right of delegation is inherent in the legislative power itself. This is not warranted by the provisions of the Constitution and the legitimacy of delegation depends entirely upon its being used as an ancillary measure which the legislature considers to be necessary for the purpose of exercising its legislative powers effectively and completely. The legislature must retain in its own hands the essential legislative functions which consist in declaring the legislative policy and laying down the standard which is to be enacted into a rule of law, and what can be delegated is the task of subordinate legislation which by its very nature is ancillary to the statute which delegates the power to make make it. Provided the legislative policy is enunciated with sufficient clearness or a standard laid down the courts cannot and should not interfere with the discretion that undoubtedly rests with the legislature itself in determining the extent of delegation necessary in a particular case. " As a result of the above, we hold that section 8(2)(b) of the Central Sales Tax Act do ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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