Fairness - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition fairness

Definition :

Fairness, is a fundamental principle of good administration. It is a rule to ensure the vast power in the modern State is not abused but properly exercised. The State power is used for proper and not for improper purposes. The authority is not misguided by extraneous or irrelevant considerations. Fairness is also a principle to ensure that statutory authority arrives at a just decision either in promoting the interest or affecting the rights of persons, M.S Mally Bharat Engg. Co. Ltd. v. State of Bihar, (1990) 2 SCC 48 (55).

Implies that even an administrative authority must act in good faith; and without bias, apply its mind to all relevant considerations and must not be swayed by irrelevant consideration, must not be act arbitrarily or capriciously and must not come to a conclusion which is perverse or is such that no reasonable body of persons properly informed could arrive at, Pyrites, Phosphates & Chemicals Ltd. v. Bihar Electricity Board, AIR 1996 Pat 1.