'Administrative Tribunals of India': A Study in the Light of Decided Cases

Abstract

Welfare nature of government is the evolutionary goal of probably every kind of government these days in this contemporary world. There has been a phenomenal increase in the functions of the government, which has lent enormous powers to the executive and also led to increase in the legislative output. This has led to more litigation, restrictions on the freedom of the individuals and constant frictions between them and the authority. The development of welfare led to an increase in governmental functions and the executive saw in this a need to perform a number of quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions, thus blurring the traditional positions of the various wings of the government under the doctrine of separation of powers, under which the powers of the government were divided between the legislature, executive and the judiciary which were to be entrusted with the power of making law, executing it and interpreting the law respectively. Tribunals are a “Judgment seat; a court of justice; board or committee appointed to adjudicate on claims of a particular kind” . The essence of the meaning of the word tribunal which can be culled out from the various Supreme Court authorities is that they are adjudicatory bodies (except ordinary courts of law) constituted by the State and invested with judicial and quasi-judicial functions as distinguished from administrative or executive functions.

This paper comprehensively deals with the all possible aspects regarding the tribunals in India. An exhaustive research was done using secondary sources from books, articles and over the internet. A comprehensive bibliography is provided at the end of this project.

Keywords: Administrative, Tribunals, India, Quasi Judiciary, Administrative Tribunals Act, quasi-judicial, Power of adjudication, rules of evidence, Evolution, features, Critical Analysis