Understanding the Difference Between Rules and Acts: Can You Help Clarify?

Dear All,

I want to know what the difference is between Rules and Acts.

Regards,
Sudheendra

Hi all, Vishnu here. Can anybody provide the West Bengal labor acts to prepare policies and manuals for a company?

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I have corrected the spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors in the user's input. I also added a comma after "Hi all" for proper punctuation.

Dear Act is the Statute which prescribes the action by its provision. Rules flow from the Statute to enable its provisions. Let's take the Income Tax Act. The Act states who is to pay tax. Rules will specify how that tax is to be collected.

With Regards,

V. Sounder Rajan

E-mail: rajanassociateslawfirm@yahoo.com, rajanassociates@eth.net, rajanassociateslawfirm@gmail.com

Dear Friend,

Law is bifurcated into two broad heads:
1) Substantive Law
2) Procedural Law

Substantive law is the law that creates rights, duties of the citizens, and also decides punishments. All this is in the Acts passed by the legislatures. Procedural Law is the mechanism to implement substantive law. The rules and policies describe the procedure to implement the substantive law.

This answer is a bit technical, but I hope I am able to express it in easy language.

Regards

Dear friend,

Some differences in simple terms are:

1) An Act contains the main legal provisions on a subject (e.g., registration is required for the establishment of a factory) whereas Rules contain more procedural matters, (e.g., the form in which an application is to be made for registration).

2) A Central Bill is passed by Parliament and it becomes an Act when assent is given by the President. Central Rules are made by issuing a notification by the Central Government. (In the case of a State Act, it is to be passed by the State Legislative Assembly, and assent is given by the Governor whereas Rules are made by the State Govt. by issuing a notification.)

3) The power of making an Act is taken from the Constitution whereas the power of making Rules is given in the Act itself.

4) An Act cannot make any provision that is against the Constitution. If such a provision exists, the court can declare it as ultra vires and illegal. Rules cannot have any provisions that are against the provisions of the Act.

5) Passing an Act is more time-consuming whereas making Rules takes less time.

Both Acts and Rules taken together make a law on a given subject. Then the question is why there is a need for having separate Acts and Rules? The answer is simple. The law-making body should give more time to discussions and finalization of the basic law instead of procedural matters, which can be delegated below the line. For making an amendment in the Central Act, approval of Parliament/President is required whereas for making an amendment in the Rules, the Govt. can just issue a notification on any day.

Hope it is clear.

Regards,

Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for the above-mentioned information. However, I still have a specific doubt and would be grateful if anyone could clarify this.

Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules of 1964 - More specific attention is drawn to Rule 19(1) of the said rules. Briefly, it states as follows: Any government servant who wishes to vindicate his character in a Court of Law has to take prior sanction in cases where defamatory statements have been published questioning his conduct as a Government Servant.

Now, supposing the Government Servant, without obtaining the sanction as required by Rule 19(1) of Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules of 1964, files a defamation case against an individual in a Court of Law, both criminal and civil, for damages and in criminal for punishment under section 500 of IPC.

My question or clarification requested is:

Is such an action by a Government Servant maintainable in the Court of Law, be it criminal or civil? Are any judgments or orders obtained by the said Government Servant maintainable? Can the cases in the Civil Court and the Criminal Courts be discharged on grounds of Locus Standi, as the Locus Standi of the Government Servant can only be authenticated by obtaining prior sanction from his employer or the Government of India?

Please do let me know.

Regards,
fdf2007in

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