Law: Excess or Abuse of Discretion in

Law has reached its finest moments when it has freed man from the unlimited discretion of some ruler....Where discretion is absolute man has always suffered.

-Justice Douglas

“Discretion”, as proclaimed by Coke, is a science or understanding to discern between falsity and truth, between right and wrong, between shadows and substance, between equity and colourable glosses and pretences, and not to do according to their will and private affections.

The administrative authorities have acquired vast discretionary powers and generally, exercise of those powers is left to the subjectivity satisfaction of the administration without laying down the statutory guidelines or imposing conditions. The administrative administers law enacted by the legislations and thus, performs executive functions; it also enacts legislation when the legislative powers are delegated to it by the legislature and it also interprets law through administrative tribunals. Thus, practically there is concentration of all powers in the hands of the administration- legislative, executive and judicial.

Need for Administrative Discretion

The need for discretion arises because of the necessity to individualize the exercise of power by the administration, i.e., the administration has to apply vague or indefinite statutory provision from case to case. There are at least four good reasons for conferring discretion on administrative authorities:

 The present day problems which the administration is called upon to deal with are of complex and varying nature and it is difficult to comprehend them all within the scope of general rules.

 Most of the problems a...

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...h authority must be satisfied about existence of the grounds mentions in the statute. The courts are entitles to examine whether those grounds existed when the action was taken. A person aggrieved by such action can question the legality of satisfaction by showing that it was based on irrelevant grounds. Thus, the existence of circumstances is open to judicial review.

Leaving out Relevant Considerations

An administrative authority cannot take into account irrelevant or extraneous considerations. Similarly, if the authority fails to take into account relevant considerations, then also, the exercise of power would be bad. In Sachidanand Pandey v. State of West Bengal, the Supreme Court said “the proposition that a decision must be arrived at after taking into account all relevant considerations, eschewing all irrelevant considerations cannot for a moment be doubted.”