Understanding the Principles of Natural Justice

Justice is the tenet to initiate national order. The Principle of Natural Justice protects people against the arbitrary exercise of power to ensure fair play. The term ‘Natural Justice’ guarantees fair mindedness, integrity, uprightness, reasonableness, neutrality and equality in the proceedings. The motto ‘Every time justice is done to the citizen, the United States Government wins!’ sums up the concept of natural justice. The justice system is dynamic in nature and has therefore advanced with civilization to help the individuals to deal with the ills of the society. Principles of natural justice bestows them with adequate opportunity to defend themselves in a fair and reasonable manner. It is an intrinsic part of Administrative law, and helps the citizens to protect themselves against organised power. The standard which these principles provide is that there should be the right to fair hearing and absence of biasness to the individuals in the decision-making process. The importance of these principles can be measured from the fact that with the passage of time they over ride all other laws. As Lord Evershed, Master of the Rolls in Vionet v Barrett remarked, that “Natural Justice is the natural sense of what is right and wrong.” Generally, it may be said that these principles apply to the exercise of a decision-making power by a public body where this may have detrimental consequences for the person or persons affected. In a famous English decision in Abbott vs. Sullivan , it is stated that “the Principles of Natural Justice are easy to proclaim, but their precise extent is far less easy to define”. There is no single definition of Natural Justice and it is only possible to enumerate with some certainty the main principles. In the first segment of this paper, there will be a discussion about the origin and application of the Principles of Natural Justice and the later segments will deal with evolution and importance of Principles of Natural Justice in India. This analytical study describes the significance of Natural justice in Indian Judiciary and administrative law relating to tribunals and other fast track courts.