Meaning and definition of Delegated Legislation

Delegated legislation means legislation made by bodies other than legislature. Delegated legislation means a legislation which is passed by a body to which the power of legislation is delegated by the statute. The parliament delegates the power making rules, regulation, orders etc to certain bodies and authorities. Such powers are exercised by these authorities within the limits and in accordance with the limits and in accordance with the principles laid down by parliament. In other word, when the function of legislation is entrusted to organs other than parliament by word, when the function of legislation is entrusted to organ other than the legislation. Delegated legislation is generally known as rules, regulations, bye-laws or notification etc.

‘Delegated legislation’ in Nepal is generally expressed as statutory rules and orders, but expressions like, ‘regulation’, notification, bye-laws, schemes, direction etc are also employed in the same context. The practice in England, India, France has been the same. The term statute law covers both acts of parliament and delegated legislation. It is also called subordinate legislation.

According to R.Dayal, “Delegated legislation means legislation which is passed by a body to which the power of legislation is delegated by the statute.”

According to Salmond, “Delegated legislation as that which proceeds from any authority other than the sovereign power and is therefore dependent for its continuous existence and validity on some superior or supreme authority.”

According to jain and jain, The term delegated legislation is used in two sense.

1. The exercise by a subordinate agency of the legislative power delegated to it by legislature, or
2. The subsidiary rules themselves which are made by the subordinate agency pursuance of the power as mentioned in no (a).

So, from above definition we can say that delegated legislation is a subordinate legislation by the authority other than the legislature and it gets legal validity and recognition on the basis of the law promulgated by the supreme authority.