Advantages of Delegated Legislation
Before proceeding towards advantage of delegated legislation let’s have a brief look on “what is delegated legislation?” Delegated legislation (sometimes referred as secondary legislation or subordinate legislation or subsidiary legislation) is a process by which the executive authority is given powers by primary legislation to make laws in order to implement and administer the requirements of that primary legislation. The process of delegated legislation enables the Government to make a law without having to wait for a new Act of Parliament to be passed. Further, delegated legislation empowers the authority to modify or alter sanctions under a given statute or make technical changes relating to law.
There are numerous advantages of Delegated Legislation especially in a Democratic County like India where diversity is the core essence. Some of the main advantages are listed below:
• Parliament workload gets reduced: Parliament is involved in numerous activities other than law making. The time period is also very short. So it becomes very difficult for the Parliament to pass each and every law that too in detail. Laying down details and certain not much important legislation requires lots and lots of time. If parliament gets involved in each and every thing then a very small part of the legislation will only be passed in a very long period. That is something which is not acceptable. One more thing is that Parliamentary process is very expensive and should be properly utilized.
• Technicality and experts: Day by day we are getting developed with the advent of modern technology. At the same time things are too becoming complicated at large. Legislators generally have a brief idea of each and everything but they can’t become masters in each field.
There are various areas where legislators find difficulty in understanding those things and if they are not well aware of the thing they cannot legislate properly or if legislated may contain loopholes in it. Therefore it is trend that parliament legislate the broad topics at a go and leave rest of the minor things in the hands of the expert of the said field.
• Flexibility: The details part are generally legislated by the executives where the law is not that much importance. So even if the law laid down by the executives contains loopholes or certain amendment is required to be made with the changing scenario that can be easily done. This ensures the great flexibility in terms of legislation.
• Experimentation: As this type of legislation does not require much time. It is basically a very quick process in comparison to the parliamentary one. Just suppose in order to counter certain situation a particular law is made but that law proves ineffective so that law can easily be curbed down and new more effective law can be laid. In this way it acts as a mode of experimentation for the legislators.
• Decentralized Decision Making: As India is a diverse country. There are different local conditions. So the thing is that the local councils are better aware of their problems and they better know the solution too. It is generally preferred that the local councils are provided with the power so that they can do law making which suits their local needs. As Parliament may not be well aware of the local problems.
• Emergency Situations: As stated earlier during abnormal situations parliament is not in the position to enact new rules through normal parliamentary process. So it is better that the executive are given power to legislate in a sudden. As this can be done in a very short period so it’s better to legislate at the earliest and tackle down the situation
Criticisms of Delegated Legislation
As there are some points which are very great in nature similarly there are various criticisms too. As coin has got two face similar situations is with this too. Some of the criticisms are as follow:
• The most important problem is of overlapping of the powers assigned. It is said that it is an unnecessary encroachment in the domain of legislature.
• It is also widely supported that Legislative control over law making has declined with the advent of Delegated legislation in law making.
• The basic core of democracy is said to be declined as the rules are said to be made by non elected people. This basically hurts the feeling of democracy.
• The legislature gives more than required powers to the executive.
• The law made under delegated legislation doesn’t have much discussion while drafting them. So these may not be good for the general public.
• The great political thinker Montesquieu gave the theory of separation of power gets violated in this Delegated Legislation.
• Sometimes the powers of Delegated legislation are misused for political gains. The executives may sometime use their powers for the political gains of the political parties mainly ruling party.
• Delegated legislation is basically not broadcasted in public. So they also lack Public Scrutiny. Overall the thing is that this delegated legislation lacks public exposure.
• If executives are given with the powers to legislate and they already have the power to execute laws. So they may stand with enormous power which is not good for a democratic setup.
conclusion
Delegated legislation helps government to make laws without any wait , and help in smooth working of government , thus delegated legislation play an important role in making legislation.
Author: RISHIKA VERMA,
Amity University Madhya Pradesh