Administrative Law, Regulations and Reforms

Governments delegate execution of plans, programs and policies to a vast network of agencies aiding it at different levels. These agencies can be anything, division of a government, boards, commissions, special administrative bodies to look into specific issues, departments or divisions.

These agencies have varied interests and work profiles; they can be public health departments, commission to work for economically downtrodden minorities, primary education, public welfare, electricity boards etc. It is important to understand these agencies are formed within the framework of constitution and governed by the law of the land.

The Administrative Law governs the creation, working and dissolution of such agencies. It is important to know that most of these agencies have their own set of processes and operational systems which is generally not codified, but becomes important for an individual or an organization to follow them for any assistance required from them.

The decisions and processes of any agency can be reviewed by a court of Justice. Court may set aside an administrative decision if it is unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious, in case of legitimate expectation and proportionality.

It is important to note here that as the number of agencies doing varied works became larger in the 20th century so did the administrative law. It went on becoming more complex in nature and larger in number.

In other words, the activities of administrative agencies have become cumbersome, expensive, and redundant and often represent enormous waste of time and effort with little result to show. It is further burdened by conflicting decisions by court and inability of common man to get any work done through them.

In theory the system of checks and balances work out quite well, where the executives execute the plans and the law formed by parliament or the congress and judiciary decides issues arising that out of execution. But, it is not that simple if viewed practically and in the long run.

Further push to reforms was given by two important things happening in the later part of the 20th Century:

1. Globalization and,
2. Advances in Technology

Globalization tipped the scales to make administrative bodies more deregularized and transparent in their working. It went on further to pave way, little at first and present but more so later, for a globally accepted administrative law and bodies. As more and more effort was towards economic well being, removal of bottlenecks from governance was found imperative. Introspection in Administrative law was required and thus redundant and wasteful practices were done away with.

Technology on the other hand made the processes more streamlined within the workings of such bodies. It also made such agencies more approachable and accessible to people in general. This in turn has made personnel accountable and efficient.

It is important to change with time. As new things are discovered and new inventions made, so archaic rules and processes needs to be removed. Processes needs to be galvanized and made more pro people, then only there would be better management of resources and better planning for a healthy society.

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