Public Policy - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition public-policy

Definition :

Public policy, connotes some matter which concerns public good and the public interest. Expression does not admit of precise definition. Concept of 'public policy' is considered to be vague, susceptible to narrow or wider meaning depending upon the content in which it is used, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. v. Saw Pipes Ltd., AIR 2003 SC 2629.

Public policy, connotes some matter which concerns the public good and the public interest, Central Inland Water Transport Corporation Ltd. v. Broja Nath Ganguly, AIR 1986 SC 1571; Shri Parsar v. Municipal Board, (1997) 1 WLC 443.

Public policy, demands that where fraud might have been contemplated but was not perpetrated, the defendants should not be allowed to perpetrate a new fraud. If the illegality of the transaction is trivial or venial and the plaintiff is not required to rest his case upon that illegality, then public policy demands that the defendant should not be allowed to take advantage of the position, Kedar Nath Motani v. Prahlad Rai, AIR 1960 SC 213.

It has been described as an unruly horse. It is a vague and perhaps an unsatisfactory term. Rules of public policy do not belong to a fixed or customary law; they are capable on proper occasions of expansion and modification, Circumstances may change and make a commercial practice expedient which was formerly mischievous to commerce, Mafizuddin Khan Choudhry v. Habibundin Sheikh, AIR 1951 Cal 336.

It is a body of law like the common law, which has grown up gradully with the growth of the nation, necessarily acquires some fixed principles, and if it is to maintain these principles, it must be able on the ground of public policy or some other like ground to suppress practices which, under every new disguises, seek to weaken or negative them, History of English Law, Vol. 111, p. 55.

Public policy, is a principle of judicial legislation or interpretation founded current needs of the community, Murlidhar v. State, AIR 1974 SC 1924.

Public policy, is always an unsafe and treacherous ground for legal decision, Richardson v. Mellish, (1824) 2 Bing 229: 130 ER 294; SB Fraser & Co. v. Bombay Ice Manufacturing Co., (1905) ILR 29 Bom 107.

Public policy, is however, illusive, varying and uncertain. It has also been described as 'untrustworthy guide', 'unruly horse' etc., P. Rathinam v. Union of India, AIR 1994 SC 1844: AIR 1994 SCW 1764: (1964) 3 SCC 394: (1994) SCC (Cr) 740: (1994) 2 SCJ 545.

Public policy, is not the policy of a particular government. It concerns the public goods and the public interest, Janson v. Driefontein Consolidated Gold Mines Ltd., (1902) AC 484.

Public policy, means a contract can be said to be illegal if it is opposed to public policy. If cannot be said that public policy is involved in a contract which expressly prohibits assignment or subletting because it is made with government authorities, S Meikole Udayar v. S.P. Periasami Konar, AIR 1967 Mad 449: (1967) 1 Mad LJ 371: (1966) 79 Mad LW 694.

The expression 'public policy' has an entirely different meaning from 'policy of the law' and one much more extensive. The conception of public policy is not only now quite distinct from that of the policy of law but has but has in fact always been so except in some exceptional instances of confusion which have has no substantial effect on the general course of authority, Murlidhar Aggarwal v. State of Uttar Pradesh, AIR 1974 SC 1924: (1974) 2 SCC 472: (1975) 1 SCR 575.

The principles under which the freedom of contract or private dealings is restricted by law for the good of the community. See, e.g., the titles CHAM-PERTY; RESTRAINT OF MARRIAGE; RESTRAINT OF TRADE; MORTMAIN.

Thus it is against public policy to allow an action to be brought on a promise to marry made by a man who at the time of making it was known to be married, Wilson v. Cranley, (1908) 1 KB 729.

Public policy, however, said an eminent judge, 'is a very unruly horse, and when once you get astride it you never know where it will carry you', Richardson v. Mellish, (1824) 2 Bing P 202. The term in fact does not admit of any precise definition and is not easily explained; see Davies v. Davies, (1887) 36 Ch D p. 364; Besant v. Wood, (1879) 12 Ch DP 620, per Jessel, M.R.; Egerton v. Earl Brownlow, (1853) 4 HLC 1, where a condition subsequent in a will was held to be void on the ground of public policy.

The concept of public policy is, illusive, varying and uncertain. It has also been described as 'untrustworthy guide', 'unruly house', P. Rathinam v. Union of India, AIR 1994 SC 1844 (1864); see also Gherulal Parakh v. Mahadeodas, AIR 1959 SC 781.

The rules of public policy do not belong to a fixed or customary law, they are capable on proper occasions of on the expansion and modification, Mafizudin Khan Choudhary v. Habibudin, AIR 1957 Cal 336.