There is no point in having a doctrine of administrative Essay

There is no point in having a doctrine of administrative unreasonableness. Discuss - Essay Example It might be further added that an administrative decision would be deemed as unreasonable if it is so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could have ever reached it.1 This sounds very pompous but in effect is nothing but a tautology that would make a lawyer feel proud of their linguistic expertise without clarifying one little bit the issue at hand. To begin with one must differentiate between unreasonableness and other grounds for review of an administrative decision. The other grounds for a review of an administrative decision are ‘irrelevant considerations’ and ‘improper purposes’. These two grounds are mainly concerned with administrative process and evaluate whether the administrative authority made specific mistakes in the course of the administrative process by considering irrelevant issues or by directing its attention to an improper purpose. But the review conducted on grounds of ‘unreasonableness’ does not examine the administrat ive process; it is more concerned with the end result. This means the court need not enquire whether any specific ‘mistake’ has occurred, instead it would deliberate on the reasonableness of the administrative decision. ... However, this doctrine is so intrinsically vague as it leaves the final decision of unreasonableness to the sensibilities of the judges without any support of undeniable evidence that courts are usually very cautious in employing this ground of review and will only in rarest of rare occasions strike down an administrative decision as unreasonable. Therefore, though the doctrine of unreasonableness is a very potent weapon in the hands of judiciary to correct the wrongs done by the administrative arm of the government, its rare use perhaps blunts a good deal of its potentiality. The issue should be examined from another perspective to get a better idea about its effectiveness in a civil society. Let us assume that a decision will never be unreasonable unless some mistake has occurred in the administrative process. If that be so, unreasonableness is not a defect by itself but a symptom of another defect. Such an apprehension may lead the court to issue an order of nisi (as it is done in Israel) or grant leave for a judicial review (as it is done in England). Subsequently, as the review progresses, it may be unearthed that the decision is flawed with irrelevant considerations or improper purposes. If that be the case, the administrative decision can be overturned on those grounds and not on grounds of unreasonableness. It might also be that the review would lead to the conclusion that the administrative decision is based on relevant considerations and proper purposes and therefore cannot be flawed on these grounds but it might come to light that the authority had given unnecessary importance and undue weight to an otherwise relevant consideration. It could, for instance, be that the authority has converted a marginally relevant