Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

These propositions are founded on the wide definition of prerogative which has been criticized earlier. The making of treaties, for example, has no effect on the law of this country, so that there is no exercise of power which can concern the courts. It might be called prerogative without power, while the employment of civil servants might be called power without prerogative. A case where there may be neither prerogative nor power is the grant and refusal of passports, which has been claimed to be wholly within the prerogative and discretion of the Crown. A passport is merely an administrative device, the grant or cancellation of which probably involves no direct legal consequences, since there appears to be no justification for supposing that, in law as opposed to administrative practice, a Citizen's right to leave or enter the country is dependent upon the possession of a passport. The arbitrary power claimed by the Crown has now been made subject to judicial review along with various other non-legal powers discussed later. Other countries were ahead of Britain in protecting this necessary civil right.