Unlike duty, all legal power is necessarily, more or less discretionary. However, emphasis is laid upon the nature of discretion and lawful the standards which are followed by the courts to ensure proper and lawful exercise of discretion in compliance with the presumed intentions of the legislature. It is essential that discretionary power should only be retained by those to whom it has been conferred and they should maintain it without improper restrictions. This principle is strictly applicable, even where it causes administrative inconveniences excluding those cases where discretionary power was intended to be delegable by the legislature. It is the sovereign principle that discretionary powers must be exercised reasonably in good faith and on proper grounds. Public authorities are at liberty to employ agents in the execution of its powers, for instance, surveyors in lad transaction, solicitors in litigation and contractors in road building. However, decisions of policy should be taken by the authorities themselves and observe the statutory requirements scrupulously.
