Delegated power to modify statutes is limited to non-essential changes; policy-altering municipal taxation notification was ultra vires.

Delegated power to extend and modify statutory provisions is valid only for non-essential adjustments that preserve the original law's policy and structure. Applying the Delhi Laws Act principles, the Court held that expressions such as "restriction" and "modification" in the Patna Administration Act permitted only minor or local changes, not alterations to the essential character of the municipal law. It further held that the notification extending a modified tax provision to Patna Village was ultra vires because it imposed municipal taxation without the statutory safeguards in the Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act, thereby changing legislative policy. The challenge succeeded because the notification exceeded the lawful limits of delegation.

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Issues: (i) Whether the power under section 3(1)(f) of the Patna Administration Act, 1915, to extend sections of the Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act, 1922, with restrictions and modifications was intra vires when confined to non-essential changes; (ii) whether the notification dated 23 April 1951, extending a modified tax provision to Patna Village, was ultra vires for effecting a radical change in legislative policy.

Issue (i): Whether the power under section 3(1)(f) of the Patna Administration Act, 1915, to extend sections of the Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act, 1922, with restrictions and modifications was intra vires when confined to non-essential changes.

Analysis: The Court applied the principles stated in the Delhi Laws Act decision and held that delegation may extend to selecting and adapting existing provisions, provided the delegate does not alter the essential character of the law or change its policy. The expressions "restriction" and "modification" were read in a limited sense, permitting only minor or local adjustments and not essential legislative alterations.

Conclusion: Section 3(1)(f) was held to be intra vires, provided the power to restrict and modify is exercised only within the narrow limits stated by the Court.

Issue (ii): Whether the notification dated 23 April 1951, extending a modified tax provision to Patna Village, was ultra vires for effecting a radical change in legislative policy.

Analysis: The Court held that the notification brought residents under municipal taxation without the statutory safeguards embodied in sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act, 1922. That safeguard was treated as an essential feature of the legislative policy, and its bypassing amounted to a change in policy which a delegated authority could not make.

Conclusion: The notification dated 23 April 1951 was held to be ultra vires.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded because the delegating provision was valid only within restricted limits, but the impugned notification exceeded those limits by changing the policy of the municipal law.

Ratio Decidendi: A delegate empowered to extend and modify statutory provisions may make only non-essential adjustments that preserve the law's policy and structure; any modification that changes legislative policy or essential features is ultra vires.

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