Question

Donoughmore Committee Report on Minister's Powers, 1932, relates to

• A. England
• B. Australia
• C. U.S.A
• D. None of the above

Hint:

Remember the key reports and commissions that have shaped administrative law. The Donoughmore Report (1932) and the Franks Committee Report (1957) are two of the most important ones from the UK that have had a global impact.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

The quickest way to place the Donoughmore Committee is to recall who set it up and why, since that immediately tells us the country it belongs to.

1. England: The committee was created by the British Parliament to investigate the alarm raised over the expanding powers being exercised by ministers through delegated legislation and administrative tribunals in the English system of government. Its 1932 report classified governmental functions into legislative, judicial, and administrative categories and proposed safeguards, all directly shaping English administrative law and later influencing Commonwealth jurisdictions including India.
2. Australia: No such parliamentary committee was constituted in Australia under this name.
3. U.S.A: The United States never used this committee; its administrative law grew through separate domestic legislation.
4. None of the above: Ruled out because the committee's British origin and 1932 report are well documented historical facts.

Because the committee was a British institution examining British ministers' powers, the correct answer is England.

Answer 2

A further way to confirm the answer is to trace the intellectual trigger for the Donoughmore Committee and see which country that trigger belongs to.

1. England: The immediate cause for setting up this committee was Lord Chief Justice Hewart's book "The New Despotism", which criticized the expanding administrative powers being exercised by the executive branch within the English government. Since the controversy, the committee, and its resulting 1932 report all belong to the same British constitutional context, this option is consistent throughout.
2. Australia: Hewart's book and the resulting inquiry were entirely a British affair; nothing ties this episode to Australian governance.
3. U.S.A: The controversy over the new despotism was a specifically British phenomenon tied to the Westminster system, not the American separation-of-powers model.
4. None of the above: Cannot be right, since the committee's British origin is firmly established by its formation, membership, and 1932 report.

Tracing the trigger, the committee, and the report back to a single consistent source confirms the correct answer is England.