FEDERATION VERSUS FREEDOM 305
Section 128 is addressed to the States. It runs as follows :
“128. ( 1 ) The executive authority of every Federated State shall be so exercised as not to impede or prejudice the exercise of the executive authority of the Federation so far as it is exercisable in the State by virtue of the law of the Federal Legislature which applies therein.
( 2 ) If it appears to the Governor-General that the Ruler of any Federated State has in any way failed to fulfil his obligations under the preceding subsection, the Governor-General, acting in his discretion, may after considering any representations made to him by the Ruler, issue such directions to the Ruler as he thinks fit :
Provided that if any question arises under this section as to whether the executive authority of the Federation is exercisable in a State with respect to which it is so exercisable, the question may, at the instance either of the Federation or the Ruler, be referred to the Federal Court for determination by that Court in the exercise of its original jurisdiction under this Act.’
All these sections would have been very useful if there was any possibility of conflict in the exercise of their executive authority by these agencies. But these will be quite unnecessary because there would be as a matter of fact no conflict of executive authority which can arise only when such executive authority is followed by administrative act. When administration is divorced from Executive Authority there is no possibility of conflict and the admonitions contained in such sections are quite unnecessary.
Now it is possible that in the Federal Constitution the Federal Government may be altogether denuded of its powers of administration and may be made just as a frame without any spring of action in it. The constitution provides that the Governor-General of the Federal Legislature may provide that the administration of a certain law passed by it instead of being carried on by the Federal Executive might be entrusted to Units i.e. to the Provincial Governments and the Indian States. This is clear from the terms of section
124 :
“124. ( 1 ) Notwithstanding anything in this Act, the Governor-General may, with the consent of the Government of a Province or the Ruler of a Federated State, entrust either conditionally to the Government or Ruler or to their respective Officers, functions in relation to any matter to which the executive authority of the Federation extends.
( 2 ) An Act of the Federal Legislature may, notwithstanding that it relates to a matter with respect to which a Provincial Legislature has no power to make laws, confer powers and impose duties upon a Province or officers and authorities thereof.
( 3 ) An Act of the Federal Legislature which extends to a Federated State may confer powers and impose duties upon the State or officers and authorities thereof to be designated for the purpose by the Ruler.