What is Administrative Law? Differentiate it from Constitutional Law.

According to Dicey, Administrative Law is that portion of a country’s legal system which

determines the legal status and liabilities of all State officials, which defines the rights and

liberties of all private individuals in their dealing with public officials and which specifies those

procedures by which rights and duties are enforced.

According to Sir Ivor Jennings, Administrative Law is the law relating to the administration. It

determines the organisations, powers and duties of administrative authorities.

According to Wade and Phillips, Administrative Law is that branch of public law which is

concerned with the composition, power, duties, rights and liabilities of the various organs of

the Government which are engaged in Administration.

To the early English writers on Administrative Law, there was no difference between

administrative law and constitutional law. Therefore, Keith observed: “It is logically impossible

to distinguish administrative from constitutional law and all attempts to do so are artificial.”

However, according to Holland, the constitutional law describes the various organs of the

government at rest, while administrative law describes them in motion. Therefore, according to

this view, the structure of the legislature and the executive comes within the purview of

Constitutional Law but their functioning comes within the sphere of administrative law.

Maitland, however, does not agree with this classification for, in that case, powers and

prerogatives of the Crown would be relegated to the arena of administrative law.

It may be pointed out that constitutional law deals with the rights and administrative law lays

emphasis on public needs. However, a dividing line between constitutional law and

administrative law is a matter of convenience because every student of administrative law has

to study some constitutional law.

In countries which have written constitutions, the difference between constitutional law and

administrative law is not as blurred as it is in England. In such countries the source of

constitutional law is the Constitution while the source of Administrative Law may be statutes,

statutory instruments, precedents and customs.

Whatever may be the arguments and counter-arguments, the fact remains that today

administrative law is recognized as a separate, independent branch of the legal discipline

though at times the disciplines, of constitutional law and administrative law may overlap.

The current position seems to be that if one draw two circles of administrative law and

constitutional law, at a certain place they may overlap and this area may be termed as the

‘watershed’ in administrative law.

In India, in the watershed one can include the whole control mechanism provided in the

Constitution for the control of administrative authorities, i.e. Articles 32, 136, 226, 227, 300 and

311. It may also include the study of those administrative agencies which are provided for by

the Constitution itself, i.e. Inter-State Council, Article 263; Finance Commission, Article 280;

Inter-State Water Dispute Authority, Article 262; Public Service Commissions, Article 315; and

Election Commission, Article 324. It may further include the study of constitutional limitations

on delegation of powers to the administrative authorities and also those provisions of the

Constitution which place fetters on Administrative action, i.e. Fundamental Rights.