Separation of Power

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PRINCIPLE OF SEPARATION OF POWERS AND CONCENTRATION OF AUTHORITY Tej Bahadur Singh Deputy Director (Administration) I.J.T.R., U.P., Lucknow The doctrine of Separation of Powers deals with the mutual relations among the three organs of the Government namely legislature, executive and judiciary. The origin of this principle goes back to the period of Plato and Aristotle. It was Aristotle who for the first time classified the functions of the Government into three categories viz., deliberative, magisterial and judicial Locks categorized the powers of the Government into three parts namely: continuous executive power, discontinous legislative power and federative power. “Continuous executive power” implies the executive and the judicial power, „discontinous legislative power‟ implies the rule making power, „federative power‟ signifies the power regulating the foreign affairs.1 The French Jurist Montesquieu in his book L. Esprit Des Lois (Spirit of Laws) published in 1748, for the first time enunciated the principle of separation of powers. That‟s why he is known as modern exponent of this theory. Montesquieu‟s doctrine, in essence, signifies the fact that one person or body of persons should not exercise all the three powers of the Government viz. legislative, executive and judiciary. In other words each organ should restrict itself to its own sphere and restrain from transgressing the province of the other. In the view of Montesquieu: “When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or int he same body or Magistrate, there can be no liberty. Again, there is no liberty if the judicial power is not separated from the Legislative and Executive power. Where it joined with the legislative power, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control, for the judge would then be the legislator. Where it joined with the executive power, the judge might behave with violence and oppression....