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Upholding the validity of this notification and repelling an argument similar to the one now advanced before us, the Court observed:

"Two points are raised on behalf of the appellants against that conclusion. The first is that the power under section 3 of the Cantonments (Extension of Rent Control Laws) Act, 1957 having been exercised once, that is to say, by the notification dated November 21, 1969, the power of extension stood exhausted and could not be availed of again, and therefore the Notification dated January 24, 1974 was with-our statutory sanction and invalid We are referred to PG NO 572 Lachmi Narain v. Union of India, [1976] 2 SCR 785. That was a case where this Court held that a notification under Section 2 Part C States (Laws) Act, 1950 having been issued in 1951 by the Central Government extending the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 to the State of Delhi, the power given by section 2 exhausted itself on the extension of the enactment and could not be exercised again to enable the issue of a fresh notification modifying the terms in which the Bengal Act was extended. The case is clearly distinguishable. The power under which the notification dated January 24, 1974 has been issued is a separate and distinct power from that under which the notification dated November 21, 1969 was made. The power now exercised passed into the Cantonments (Extension of Rent Control Laws) Act, 1957 when it was amended in 1972. In its nature and quality it is not identifiable with the power vested under the unamended Act. A power conferred by statute is distinguished by the character and content of its essential components. If one or more material components characterising the power cannot be identified with the material components of another, they are two different and distinct powers.
"Bose J. contented himself at page 1121 by saying that the delegation cannot extend to the "altering in essential particulars of laws which are already in force in the area in question." But he added at page 1124--
"My answers are, however, subject to this qualification. The power to 'restrict and modify' does not import the power to make essential changes. It is confined to alterations of a minor character such as are necessary to make an Act intended for one are applicable to another and to bring it into harmony with laws already in being in the State, or to delete portions which are meant solely for another area. To alter the essential character of an Act or to change it in material particulars is to legislate, and that, namely the power to legislate, all authorities are agreed, cannot be delegated by a Legislature include a change of policy."

In our opinion, the majority view was that an executive authority can be authorised to modify either existing or future laws but not in any essential feature. Exactly what constitutes an essential feature cannot be enunciated in general terms, and there was some divergence of view about this in the former case, but this much is clear from the opinions set out above: it cannot include a change of policy"

In other words, the delegation of a power to extend even future laws of another State will not be bad so long as they are laws which are already in force in the said area and so long as, in the process and under the guise of alteration and modification, an alteration of the essential character PG NO 583 of the law or a change of it in essential particulars is not permitted. This interpretation of the Delhi Laws Act case (supra) was placed before the Bench which decided Shama Rao but, without dissenting from this approach, the learned Judges did not choose to apply it perhaps as they felt that the Pondicherry legislature, in the case before them, had completely abdicated its functions to the Madras Legislature. There was also, it should be remembered, a substantial difference between the Madras Act to which the Pondicherry legislature had applied its mind and the Madras Act which actually became applicable by a deferment of the date of commencement. Such a vast change, within a short time, could not at all have been in the contemplation of the Pondicherry legislature and this is perhaps what heavily weighed with the Judges. This decision has been distinguished in the Gwalior Rayon's case,[1974] 2 SCR 879 by Khanna J. and Mathew J. who delivered separate but concurring judgments. Khanna J.observed: