Wednesbury Principle

By Vijay Kumar

Up to 1947 the law in England was that the courts could interfere only with judicial or quasi-judicial decisions and not with administrative decisions. This legal position changed after the famous decision of Lord Greene in Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd. v. Wednesbury Corpn in which it was said:

A person entrusted with discretion must, so to speak, direct himself properly in law. He must call his attention to matters which he is bound to consider. He must exclude from his consideration matters which are irrelevant to what he has to consider. If he does not obey those rules he may truly be said to be acting unreasonably. Similarly, there may be something so absurd that no sensible person could ever dream that it lay within the powers of the authority.

The above observation incorporates what is frequently called as the Wednesbury principle.

The courts often intervene to quash as illegal the exercise of administrative discretion on the ground that it suffers from "Wednesbury unreasonableness".

Every Babu should have the observations of Lord Greene pasted on his bathroom mirror and read it every day before he starts for office. This may make him reasonably fair.