Valid delegation in tenancy rent fixation upheld where statute supplied policy guidance and supported repeated exercise of the power.

Section 6(2) of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948 was upheld as a valid delegation because the Act fixed the maximum rent, expressed a clear policy of agrarian reform and tenant protection, and supplied guidance through the surrounding provisions and section 12(3). The Government's power to notify a lower maximum rent was treated as a subsidiary power within that policy framework, not as uncontrolled legislative power. The Article 31 challenge therefore failed, and the notification was sustained. The further objection that the power was exhausted by the first notification also failed, because section 14 of the Bombay General Clauses Act allowed the power to be exercised from time to time as required.

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Issues: Whether section 6(2) of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948, empowering the Provincial Government to fix a lower rate of maximum rent by notification, suffered from excessive delegation and whether the impugned notification issued under that provision was invalid.

Analysis: The statutory scheme fixed the maximum rent in section 6(1) and, read with the preamble and the tenant-protective provisions of sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13, disclosed a legislative policy of agrarian reform and protection against unreasonable rent. Section 12(3) supplied factors for determining reasonable rent, and those factors furnished relevant guidance for the Government when acting under section 6(2). The power to fix a lower maximum rent was therefore treated as a subsidiary power within a defined policy framework, not as an uncontrolled power to alter the legislative scheme. The challenge based on Article 31 failed because the notification was an exercise of a validly conferred power and did not amount to fresh legislation. The contention that the power had been exhausted by the first notification also failed, as section 14 of the Bombay General Clauses Act, 1904, permitted the power to be exercised from time to time as occasion required.

Conclusion: Section 6(2) was held to be intra vires, the notification was upheld, and the appellants were not entitled to relief.

Ratio Decidendi: A delegation is valid if the legislature lays down the policy and supplies sufficient guidance for the exercise of the delegated power; a subsidiary power to fix rates area-wise within that policy is not excessive delegation.

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