The Chief Commissioner, Union ... vs Sushil Flour, Dal And Oil Mills on 18 August, 1982
Herein a power is conferred on the Union of India of the respective1 States to entrust their functions either conditionally or unconditionally to the respective Government or to its officers. The precise language carefully employed herein is that of conferment and entrustment. It would appear that this terminology is designedly used- by the Constitution in sharp contradistinction to the well-known concept of delegating a power by the principal to an agent. Therefore when the Central Government "or the State Government under these provisions entrusts its functions then such a person is primarily the medium through which such power is exercised. This was highlighted by the Division Bench in Nikunja Behari Singh v. Duryodhan Pradhan AIR 1959 Orissa 58 in the context of the entrustment by the Union of the construction of the Hirakud Dam to the State of Orissa. It was concluded as follows :