Maneka Gandhi v Union of India

Facts

The petitioner's passport was impounded by the Government under Section 10(3)(c) of the Passports Act 1967 'in the interests of the general public', without giving her any prior notice or hearing and without communicating reasons. She challenged the order as violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21.

Issues

• Whether 'procedure established by law' under Article 21 must be fair, just and reasonable and must include the right to be heard.
• Whether the audi alteram partem rule could be excluded on grounds of administrative convenience or urgency, and whether a post-decisional hearing could satisfy natural justice.

Arguments

Maneka Gandhi argued the impounding violated natural justice and that Article 21 procedure must be fair and reasonable. The Union argued the statute permitted impounding in the public interest and that pre-decisional hearing would frustrate the object; the Attorney General offered a post-decisional hearing.

Held

The Court held that procedure under Article 21 must be fair, just and reasonable and not arbitrary, and that the audi alteram partem rule is an integral part of such procedure. It held that excluding hearing merely for administrative convenience was impermissible. While the impounding without a pre-decisional hearing was bad, the Court accepted the Attorney General's assurance that a full post-decisional hearing would be afforded and held the infirmity thereby removed. It stressed that fairness to the individual and administrative efficiency are not discrete values.

Ratio decidendi

Natural justice is implicit in Article 21; where pre-decisional hearing is required it cannot be dispensed with for mere convenience, though in exceptional cases a real post-decisional hearing may remedy the absence of a prior hearing.

Significance

Watershed that constitutionalised natural justice by reading audi alteram partem into Articles 14 and 21 and inter-linking those guarantees; it developed the post-decisional hearing doctrine and remains the bedrock of procedural due process in Indian administrative law.

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