Binding departmental circulars: authorities cannot repudiate their own directions by claiming inconsistency with rules.

A circular issued by the competent State authority binds departmental officers, and a public authority must act consistently with the standards and directions it has itself laid down. The department cannot disown its own circular merely by arguing that it is inconsistent with statutory rules, where the relied-upon rule only empowered inspection at check-posts or elsewhere and did not negate the circular's binding force. The operative principle is that departmental authorities remain bound by their own duly issued circulars unless lawfully overridden.

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Issues: Whether a circular issued by the State Government binds the departmental authorities and can be disowned by them on the ground that it is inconsistent with the rules.

Analysis: The circulars issued by the State Government were treated as binding on the departmental authorities. The rule relied upon by the Revenue empowered inspection at check-posts or elsewhere, but that did not justify the department in denying the binding force of its own circular. A public authority is required to act consistently with the standards and directions it has itself laid down.

Conclusion: The circular is binding on the departmental authority, and the department cannot contend that it is not binding on it.

Ratio Decidendi: A circular issued by the competent authority binds the department that issued it, and the department cannot repudiate it merely by asserting inconsistency with statutory rules.

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