Girija Shankar Sarangi & Biswa Shanti Tripathy, KIIT School of Law, KIIT deemed to be University
Wherefrom does the term ‘delegated legislation’ come from? Any provision contained in a bare act does not, in most cases, furnish all the details as to the special circumstances, exceptions to different classes of people, etc. especially in the execution process of provision. The execution part is handed over to a competent authority concerned, capable of interpreting the respective provisions and working on the execution. A simple illustration of the same would help. The Union Legislature gives a “skeleton” of a particular provision and leaves it to the Union Executive to add in the “flesh and muscles”. This is the concept of delegated legislation. As all of us would know, the body cannot function by relying upon the skeletal system alone. Similarly, India as a federation would not be able to function without the aspect of delegated law-making or the concept of delegated legislation.
