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PART VII. Administrative Law

Importance
of Writs.

Statutory
Machinery
for
Challenge.

hearing, thus depriving the owners of any opportunity of dealing
with it.
Thus these orders, despite parliamentary formulae to prevent
administrative acts being questioned in the courts, are still important.
They provide means of questioning the legality, but not the dis-
cretion, of judicial or quasi-judicial decisions (in the broadest sense)
of public bodies, including government departments, as well as of the
ordinary courts (other than the High Court, Assize Courts and the
Central Criminal Court) and of administrative courts.
It was formerly a frequent practice to provide by statute for the
challenge by certiorari of orders which owing to the absence of a
judicial element could not be challenged by certiorari at common
law. Thus the Local Government Act, 1888, and the Municipal
Corporations Act, 1882, provided for the challenge by certiorari
of orders for payment out of county and borough funds respectively.
To-day it is more frequent and indeed usual to take away the right
of proceeding by certiorari and substitute a, simpler statutory pro-
cedure which can sometimes only be exercised for a limited time after
the making of an order. Thus the Local Government Act, 1933,
ss. 184 and 187, provides (in lieu of the procedure by certiorari just
mentioned) that any person aggrieved by an order for payment out
of county or borough funds may apply to the High Court, which
may give such directions as it thinks fit, and the order of the court is
final. The Housing Act, 1936, s. 15, provides for an appeal to the
county court within twenty-one days of the making of a demolition
or closing order in respect of particular premises. A further appeal
lies to the Court of Appeal on a point of law. A different procedure
applies in regard to clearance orders affecting whole areas and com-
pulsory purchase orders: Housing Act, 1936, 2nd Schedule. A
period of six weeks is allowed during which an order which has been
confirmed by the Minister of Housing and Local Government may
be challenged in the High Court. Challenge is restricted to two
grounds only: (a) that the order is not within the powers of the Act,*
(Z>) that the requirements of the Act have not been complied with and
that, as a result, the objector has been substantially prejudiced.
These orders may not be questioned by certiorari, at all events unless
there is an excess of jurisdiction,1 and, except as provided in the Act,
may not otherwise be questioned in any legal proceedings whatsoever.
In a case which turned upon a similar provision contained in the
Public Works Facilities Act, 1930, it was stated by Branson, J., that,
even when an order was not within the powers of the Act, it was
necessary for the applicant to show that he had been prejudiced:
In re City of Manchester (Ringway Airport) Compulsory Purchase
Order (1935), 153 L.T. 219. This case was, however, doubted by
1 E.g. if the Minister had used his powers for a totally extraneous purpose,