NATURAL JUSTICE,ADMINISTRATIVE DECISIONS AND CASE LAW

NATURAL JUSTICE,ADMINISTRATIVE DECISIONS AND CASE LAW

NATURAL JUSTICE, ADMINISTRATIVE DECISIONS AND CASE LAW

In Mohinder Singh Gill and Another Vs. The Chief Election Commissioner, New Delhiand others [(1978) 1 SCC 405], this Court observed: "Indeed, natural justice is a pervasive facet of secular law where a spiritual touch enlivens legislation, administration and adjudication, to make fairness a creed of life. It has many colours and shades, many forms and shapes and, save where valid law excludes it, applies when people are affected by acts of authority. It is the hone of healthy government, recognised from earliest times and not a mystic testament of judge-made law. Indeed, from the legendary days of Adam and of Kautilya's Arthasastra the rule of law has had this stamp of natural justice which makes it social justice. We need not go into these deeps for the present except to indicate that the roots of natural justice and its foliage are noble and not new-fangled. Today its application must be sustained by current legislation, case-law or other extant principle, not the hoary chords of legend and history. Our jurisprudence has sanctioned its prevalence even like the Anglo-American system."

In Cholan Roadways Ltd. Vs. G. Thirugnanasambandam [(2005) 3 SCC 241], this Court observed: "It is now well settled that a quasi-judicial authority must pose unto itself a correct question so as to arrive at a correct finding of fact. A wrong question posed leads to a wrong answer.

In Commissioner of Police, Bombay vs. Gordhandas Bhanji [AIR 1952 SC 16], it is stated : "We are clear that public orders, publicly made, in exercise of a statutory authority cannot be construed in the light of explanations subsequently given by the officer making the order of what he meant, or of what was in his mind; or what he intended to do. Public orders made by public authorities are meant to have public effect and are intended to affect the actings and conduct of those to whom they are addressed and must be construed objectively with reference to the language used in the order itself."