Published on: 17 July 2023 at 12:25 IST
Court: Supreme Court
Citation: Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd. V. Union of India (2023)
Honourable Supreme Court of India has held that the principles of natural justice infuse reasonableness into the procedure. However, it is held that the violation of every conception of natural justice will not necessarily render the procedure unreasonable and violative of Articles 21 and Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
The Apex Court has held that the test that must be followed to determine if non-compliance of natural justice has led to an unreasonable procedure is whether the procedure that was followed (or the procedure that was not followed) violates the core of the primary tenets of natural justice-the right to a fair hearing and the right against bias.
54. Once the applicant proves that the procedure that was followed was not reasonable with reference to the core of the principles of natural justice, the burden shifts on the State to prove that the limitation of the right is justified and reasonable.
The State usually claims that the limitation of the right is justified because following a fair procedure would, inter alia, be prejudicial to public interest. What standard of review should the courts employ to test the reasonableness of the limitation? Rights are not absolute in a constitutional democracy. The jurisprudence that has emanated from this Court is that rights can be limited but such a limitation must be justified on the ground of reasonableness.
Though, only Article 19 of the Constitution expressly prescribes that the limitation must be reasonable, after the judgments of this Court in RC Cooper (supra) and Maneka Gandhi (supra) it is conclusive that the thread of reasonableness runs through the entire chapter on fundamental rights guiding the exercise of procedural and substantive limitations. That leaves us to answer the question of the standard used to assess the ‘reasonableness’ of the limitation.
The text of the Constitution does not prescribe a standard of review. Much ink has flowed from this Court in laying down the varying standards to test reasonability : rationality, Wednesbury unreasonableness, proportionality, and strict scrutiny.
Drafted By Abhijit Mishra