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CS Executive · Jurisprudence, Interpretation and General Laws · Administrative Laws

A rule-making authority under a statute is told it may grant exemptions 'in public interest'. It adopts a fixed policy of rejecting every exemption request without reading the applications, saying the policy saves time. This is best described as:

This is a failure to exercise discretion through self-fettering. When a statute confers discretion, the authority must consider each application on its merits. A blanket policy of rejecting all requests without reading them shuts out that consideration and is open to judicial challenge.

  1. AProper exercise of discretion because a uniform policy ensures equality
  2. BFailure to exercise discretion, because the authority fettered itself by a rigid rule and did not consider each caseCorrect
  3. CDelegation of legislative power to a court
  4. DValid exercise since the authority has not exceeded its territorial limits

Explanation

An authority given discretion must apply its mind to each case. Adopting an inflexible policy that ignores individual merits is fettering or non-exercise of discretion, which is a ground for judicial control. Option A is wrong because a policy may guide discretion but cannot wholly replace case-by-case consideration.

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