Administrative Decisions Must Be Tested On Legality, Not Political Identity Of Person Who Raised Issue: Rajasthan High Court

The Rajasthan High Court has held that the validity of an administrative decision must be tested on the touchstone of the applicable statutory framework and the procedure followed, and not on the political identity of the person who brought the issue to the notice of the authorities. [2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 252]Justice Sanjeet Purohit observed that the mere fact that a representation was made by a local leader of the ruling party does not, by itself, render the resultant administrative decision illegal, arbitrary or vitiated by mala fides. The Court made the observation while dismissing a plea challenging the State Government's notification creating the new revenue village of 'Khichan Vistar' in Phalodi district.It was argued that the new village was not created in adherence to the guidelines prescribed and was created only based on request by local political leader.It was submitted that as per the inquiry reports, the distance criteria was being violated in creation of such a village. On the contrary, the State argued that the distance between the centre points of the two villages was more than the prescribed criteria of 1 km. The mere fact of the two khasras being adjacent to each other was irrelevant. Further, it was contended that the State government was exclusively empowered to notify creation or abolition of divisions, districts, sub-divisions, tehsils, sub-tehsils, and villages. After hearing the contentions, the Court perused the prescribed guidelines as well as inquiry reports on record, and highlighted that from any available way, distance between the centre points of abadi of newly constituted revenue village and the original village was more than 1000 meters. “The only additional observation in the subsequent report is that two khasras of said two villages having the center point of abadi are adjacent to each other…Mere a finding that relevant khasras are adjacent to each other, in absence any detail regarding the distance between their center point is not determinative factor for analyzing validity of creation of new village.”The Court held that no material was placed on record by the petitioners to dispute the factual findings. Further, it was held that the State government derived its absolute power of creation/abolition/alteration of divisions under Section 16 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956 which rendered creation of new revenue villages an administrative decision, in which the Court should not usually interfere. The Court also opined that unless petitioner established mala fide or colourable exercise of power or a violation of statutory provision, Court could not interfere with an administrative decision merely because a political functionary highlighted the issue. “Mere fact that a representation or communication sent by a local member of ruling party, does not, by itself, render the decision taken there upon illegal or arbitrary unless it is established that the decision itself is bad in the eye of law or contrary to settled perameters. The validity of an administrative decision must be examined on the basis of statutory framework and the procedure followed and not solely on the identity of the person who brought the issue to the notice of authorities.”Reference was made to the Supreme Court case of Pubi Lombi v The State of Arunachal Pradesh and Ors. to hold that an administrative decision could not be invalidated merely because the proposal originated from an elected representative, in absence of any plea of mala fides or violation of statutory provisions. In this background, the petition was dismissed. Title: Satyanarayan Singh Rajpurohit v State of Rajasthan & Ors. Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 252Click Here To Read/Download Order

Administrative Decisions Must Be Tested On Legality, Not Political Identity Of Person Who Raised Issue: Rajasthan High Court

Nupur Agrawal

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Nupur Agrawal

Administrative Decisions Must Be Tested On Legality, Not Political Identity Of Person Who Raised Issue: Rajasthan High Court

Nupur Agrawal

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Nupur Agrawal

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