Administrative Law

Gammon India Ltd. v. Union of India

AIR 1974 SC 960

Facts

Gammon India challenged the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 and rules made under it.
The Act required contractors to take licences and comply with welfare duties for contract labour.
The contractors argued that some provisions and rules were unreasonable and amounted to excessive delegation.

Delegated legislation is valid if the parent Act lays down the policy, purpose and guidelines.
The legislature cannot delegate its essential legislative function.
But it can leave details, implementation and administrative machinery to the executive.

The Court looked at the Act as a whole.
It said the Act had a clear legislative policy:
to prevent exploitation of contract labour;
to abolish contract labour where possible and practicable;
where abolition is not possible, to regulate working conditions;
to ensure wages, welfare facilities and basic amenities.
Therefore, the executive was not given a blank cheque.
The Act itself identified the problem — exploitation of contract labour — and laid down the direction in which power had to be used.
The rules only filled in practical details such as licensing, wages, rest rooms, and working conditions.
The Court also rejected the argument that applying the Act to pending construction work was unreasonable.
It said the subject matter of the Act was contract labour, not private construction contracts.
So, merely because contractors had ongoing contracts did not make the law retrospective or unreasonable.
On Section 34, which allowed removal of difficulties, the Court said this was not excessive delegation.
The power was only to give effect to the Act and solve implementation difficulties.
It did not allow the executive to alter the Act or exercise legislative authority independently.

The Supreme Court upheld the validity of the Act and rules.
It held that Section 34 did not amount to excessive delegation.
The petitions were dismissed.
This case is important because it shows that courts uphold delegation where the Act contains clear policy and the executive only works out details.
Use this case for: delegation is valid when the legislature lays down policy and the delegate only implements/fills details.